New 650XT owner here with a couple of questions.

Welcome just an idea, use a floor jack to rase up the bike seems to work for me. I also raise the front by tying the rear down and raising with a floor jack. Or by the skid plate.

Curious….what is the downside of the center stand for you. The center stand has saved me when away from home with regard to rear wheel removal and chain maintenance.

You will appreciate a center stand even more should something happen on the road.

When I got my V2 it came with a center stand, I thought it would be removed by the end of the first week, many years later it is still there.

It is just too convenient,

I have spools on a few of my other bikes and have lost count of the number of times I have nearly dropped the bike when getting them up.

I have a hydraulic quad bike lift that gets a good workout on my other bikes, much easier to use and less danger to the bike.

Thanks for all the input on center stands. This is my first Vstrom coming from a series of BMWs with centerstands. I guess I knew the advantage of a centerstand, but with no experience with track/paddock stands, I thought I’d get some opinions from others who may use one.
My thinking on the track stand was to try and keep the bikes weight as low as possible. Anyway, after a little research on centerstands, anyone have a good or bad experience with a Happy Trails centerstand on a Vstrom?

I decided to go with an OE stand. Shopped around and was fortunate to find a NOS stand at a good price on EBay.