The list hosted a discussion in February, 2013 about sidestands for /5s. It was started by a message from "Jerry" asking about his R75/5 which he thought leaned too far when on the stand.
There was consensus that the original equipment sidestand is not good. Several brands of aftermarket stands were mentioned, including Brown, Farley, and Swirin.
Snippets from the conversation:
You can tell if it's bent if it won't tuck under the exhaust pipe and hit it's stop.
later years with the same form as /5 are thicker AND STRONGER
I think you're looking for a Brown's sidestand. There also is a Farley sidestand, similar to the Brown's.
Look at this as a golden opportunity to rid yourself of the stock side stand. Get a Brown. You'll love it.
The Brown works great on my /5 and /6 and Vech at benchmarkworks.com even has one for my /2. The overall riding experience improves more than you can imagine with a good side stand. Who woulda thought?
Duane Ausherman provided an overview of /5 side stands:
The Brown stand and others that follow a similar mounting system are all quite good. The grandfather of them all was what was called the "Hall Bracket" made by a guy in one of the southern states back in the mid 60s. It used a stock Triumph leg mounted on his bracket that replaced the spacers between the frame and engine. People loved them, as back then the only alternative was the super funky one made by Flanders, the west coast importer. It was really awful, but better than the stock one.
I talked with Hall a few times on the phone and he was just a welder with a /2 that decided that he could build something better than stock, and did. People saw it and asked him to make them one. We consumers forced him into the business. He was limited by the Triumph parts supply system, which was poor. He just couldn't get enough of the side stand legs. He didn't want to make up his own.
After he gave up, we had no decent side stands for the next few years. Then I think it was Brown who was the first to jump in and try to fill the gap, but it could have been another. Brown was, and may still be, a BMW motorcycle dealer who had once been the shop foreman for Flanders.
Now, over the years, a few people have jumped into the business and produced something along the lines of the original Hall Bracket.
In my opinion, BMW never had a decent side stand or center stand. Virtually all of the after market stands were better.
Brent Schapansky explained how he had improved his stock sidestand:
I had the frame pin that the sidestand pivots on fall out back in 1986. It was pretty embarrassing to have to lean the Beemer against a wall when stopping for a beverage.
When I began the slow rebuilding process in 1991, I had a local machine shop weld up the stress cracks in the muffler/rear foot peg mounting area and drill the egged sidestand hole out and weld (and I mean REALLY weld, not just tack weld) a hardened steel pin into place. I straightened the factory stand by clamping it in the big vice at work and cranking on it hard, using a snipe on the vice handle.
I didn't like the way the "foot" of the stand cut in to the pavement or dirt when deployed so I found a piece of checker design rubber sheet stock from a stationary engine anti-vibration mount and cut a 2 1/2" diameter round from some 1/4" aluminum sheet stock. I drilled a hole in the sidestand foot and another in the aluminum circle. I countersunk the aluminum on the bottom side and inserted a carriage bolt through it. I cinched the bolt to the aluminum plate with a nut and some Lok-Tite, then ground the domed head of the carriage bolt flat and glued a piece of the grippy rubber to the bottom. I added a second nut to the bolt, leaving about a half inch of the end free, inserted that through the foot of my sidestand, then finished off with a third nut and tightened nuts 2 and 3 against the sidestand foot.
The result is not pretty but works well (like me!). Actually, it don't look too bad and it allows the bike to sit just a tad more upright than before AND like I told the Wife, the rubber will not mar the kitchen floor, LOL (actually, SHE LOL'd :(
I have had good luck so far, last 8 years though will probably ditch the sidestand this summer when I mount the sidecar.
For those no longer happy with their stock sidestands, Snowbum provides additional details and pictures of various aftermarket options include Farley, Brown, Surefoot and Flying Tpot sidestands