How to remove the kickstand from the Yamaha R3

This post will cover how to remove the kick stand from the Yamaha R3 for race use and bypass the kickstand safety switch.  The kickstand bracket includes the lower fairing mount.  My race bodywork quick-release mounting kit includes a lightweight replacement bracket for the lower fairing as well as spacer washers for the motor mount bolt, which is too long once you remove the thick steel kickstand bracket.

Another little perk is that the kickstand and OEM bracket are heavy, removing it drops almost 3 lbs off the bike.

Hopefully I don’t need to say this, but put the bike on a rear stand before removing the kickstand.  Do not try to remove the kickstand while the bike is resting on the kickstand.  🙂

First, disconnect the kickstand switch.  The connector is located in the clear rubber bundle behind the coolant overflow reservoir above the shifter on the left side of the bike.  You will need to remove the left side fairings, which hopefully you already have removed to install race bodywork, and also remove the front sprocket cover and coolant overflow reservoir.  You can leave the reservoir hoses attached and just leave the reservoir dangling out of the way.

Unbolt the two kickstand mounting bolts and remove the long silver motor mount bolt.

The kickstand is now free to be removed from the bike, just pull the cable free and cut any zip ties holding it in place.  However, the bike will not run until you bypass the kickstand safety switch because the bike thinks the kickstand is down permanently.

To bypass the safety switch, you must close the switch circuit.  You can do these any number of ways, but I like to leave the bike side of the wiring in tact, so I chose to cut the connector off of the wire coming off of the kickstand switch.  Leave about 2″ of wire on the connector.  Strip these two wires back, and crimp or solder them together.

Then plug this connector back into the bike to close the circuit and bypass the switch.  Then close up the clear rubber bundle and zip tie it back together.

Zip tie the wires back together near the front sprocket so everything is tidy and nothing is going to rub on the chain or sprocket, then reinstall the coolant overflow reservoir and front sprocket cover.

Add the two spacer washers from the hardware mounting kit to the long silver motor mount bolt, one washer on each side of the motor, and reinstall the motor mount bolt.  Torque this bolt to 49 ft lbs (68 Nm).

Attach the lightweight aluminum lower fairing bracket using the OEM kickstand bracket bolts.  Then you can attach the lower fairing to the new aluminum bracket.

That’s it, all done!