[josephvman]

So, my new-to-me '93 Supersport has had the head on the sidestand bolt ground off, effectively disabling the "suicide" self-retracting sidestand. Most people do this, I know. In fact, I bought the Nichols bolt for my 900FE to do the very same thing, but the factory bolt wouldn't budge (even with an impact gun) and I didn't want to risk breaking something by doing something stupid to get it off, so suicide-stand stays. I'm actually very used to it and now it doesn't bother me.

I get the '93, and now I'm used to the self-retracting and I'm afraid I'm going to ride off with it down, make a left turn, and watch the bike bounce down the street while I'm on my ass. Tonight I actually pulled out of the garage and went about ten feet with it down before I caught myself. The sidestand warning light is apparently intermittent (along with the neutral light, must like my FE!) I wouldn't be a Ducati if the lights always worked!

Now I'm trying to figure out how remove the bolt with the head that has been ground off. Has anyone else had to do this? I've tried just grabbing it with pliers, but no luck. Suggestions please!

 

[corodorsal]

if you cant budge it with a pipe wrench you'll have to either drill it or weld a nut onto it & use spanner

 

[TassieDave]

The bolt on my 93 had been ground off and looks to have had a screw driver slot cut into it with a hacksaw. I struggled to get it out using what was left of the allen head part.

I ended up taking the bracket off (had to drill the head off one bolt to do that) then sat the bracket at a nice angle on a piece of timber and took to it with a 2 lb gentle persuader (aka - hammer) and an impact driver fitted with the right size screwdriver bit. Came out. I was very nervous about using excess force with the stand and bracket still attached - didn't want to crack cases.

The bracket is held onto the crankcase by two screws and once the head was drilled off I could undo what was left by hand with a pair of pliers.