You bring up quite an involved question.
The center stand first appeared in 1967. Look in the 1967
Spare
Parts
Catalog over in the Literature section. It shows a number of parts needed for a complete assembly. There are a number of center stands currently on eBay, but some of them do
not include all the parts. Some are V-Twin reproductions.
- 1967 Spare Parts Catalog, page 52
- Capture.JPG (23.75 KiB) Viewed 38160 times
The 1967 SPC has what may be errors in the parts listing.
- 1967 Spare Parts Catalog, page 53
- Capture1.JPG (24.99 KiB) Viewed 38160 times
The part numbers all have the -57 suffix. I don't think they were available before 1967, so the -57 suffix is an error, it should be -67, as the suffix usually indicates the first year of production. Possible it was designed in 57 but not sold, or maybe was use on racing models. Hard to tell with old Harleys. But this number was carried forward into later Spare Parts Catalogs, at least until 1976, maybe later.
The "Used On" column shows that it fits 1957 and later. Is this true - will it really fit all years of Sportster? And more importantly to you, will it also fit all the K and KHs? I don't know the answers to these questions. Anybody got a center stand on their K or KH?
The distance from the bottom of the frame to the road is a big concern. The early K and KH had 19" tires, while later ones had 18" tires. Early Sportsters had 18" tires, but later ones had 19" front tires and 18" rear. Later Sportsters had "High Ground Clearance" options. The K/KH had many changes in steering geometry, fork tube length, and frame height. If the bottom of the frame is too high, the stand might not touch the ground, or be unstable. Too low would just mean a little extra oomph to raise the bike.
You don't see these on bikes very often. I'm not sure why. Center-stand owners - let us know how they work!
Dave