Skamania, if your sidestand doesn't stay retracted that probably means you didn't attach the springs were they are suppoused to. Post a picture if you can.
As a side note, I always thought that my CB750K1 was very near to vertical with the sidestand, so I bought a latter model spare sidestand (the one with the rubber), cut it shorter, welded, painted and reinstalled. It leant just a little bit more. On the cons, it didn't stop on the muffler stop but against the muffler itself. The short way around would have been to shorten it even more, but I was afraid the chassis lug would not bear with the weight so I just reinstalled the original sidestand. In all my bikes, my routine is to retract the sidestand, put 1st gear and take off, so I've never started with the sidestand retracted. Probably it has to be with the fact that my first bike was a modern Suzuki wich will kill the engine if you put into gear with the sidestand retracted.
Raul
