A downside of using the Panther as a solo is that, being a rigid-framed machine she does not have a centre stand, any time you stop it’s a case of working your way to the back and heaving her up onto the rear stand. While this stand does have a “Roll-On” foot it’s still a hassle.

Unfortunately Panther never supplied a side stand for their machines and because they do not have an underframe it is not possible to fit one of the after-market “clamp-on” universal fit side stands.

However, between the wars there was a stand available that could be used and there is now someone manufacturing these once again.

The stand in question is the “EsWay” and a modern version is available as the “Vintelle”from Mick Hall Engineering in Otley.

1928 Advert for Esway stand

I made contact with him to enquire as to its suitability for an M100 Panther and discovered that his first one had actually been fitted to an M100 so I ordered one up, this was late on on Tuesday so the order would be processed on Wednesday. It was delivered on Thursday morning!

Packed stand kit

The stand came better packed than just about anything else I have bought on-line, putting the standard Ebay and Bangood efforts to shame, along with a comprehensive fitting guide, so it was out to the garage and get on with it.

The stand fits across the rear sub frame, as far forwards as is practical, about level with where a centre stand would fit. It comes with various fittings to suit a wide variety of machines so first thing is to sort out the best ones for your purpose, then a re-read of the fitting instructions before lifting the spanners!.

As the Panther has an exhaust on either side I selected the lower mount with the greatest stand off and assembled it loose onto the lower chain stay and attached the stand to it.

Lower bracket mounted on bottom chain stay

There’s a choice of two upper mounts in the kit so next thing was to see which was needed.

I extended the stand to make sure it would clear the nearside exhaust and made my selection to suit, fitting it round the upper chain stay.

All that was left to do was to snug everything up and make sure the stand foot had clearance and that it was clear of the ground when the bike was laid over into a corner, not a good idea to have it fouling!.

Upper bracket goes onto upper chain stay and stand mounts across the brackets.

The only criticism I have is that the mountings supplied for it are slotted pan-head set screws, I would have preferred to see Allen cap screws or even just simple hex head bolts, a minor niggle when all is said and done.