Uneffingbelievable!

Went to small carry out shop yesterday to pick up a sandwich. Parked the FJR on what appeared to be a small incline forward. Went in, ordered the sandwich and was in the store about 5 minutes. Walked out toward my bike and as I was reaching for the rear bag to put my sandwich in, the bike fell over. Two seconds sooner and I would have been able to prevent it from falling. Broke off the left mirror and slightly scuffed the case cover and left muffler. Looks like the slider took most of the brunt. Hopefully the front cowl wasn't displaced.

Lesson learned. Always park with bike in gear. I've been riding for fifty years and never dropped one while parked.

YooperDick said:

Went to small carry out shop yesterday to pick up a sandwich. Parked the FJR on what appeared to be a small incline forward. Went in, ordered the sandwich and was in the store about 5 minutes. Walked out toward my bike and as I was reaching for the rear bag to put my sandwich in, the bike fell over. Two seconds sooner and I would have been able to prevent it from falling. Broke off the left mirror and slightly scuffed the case cover and left muffler. Looks like the slider took most of the brunt. Hopefully the front cowl wasn't displaced.
Lesson learned. Always park with bike in gear. I've been riding for fifty years and never dropped one while parked.

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Gunny! I always park my bike in gear on any incline. Learned that one in my drive way that has a slight incline, almost lost it. Also make sure that kick stand is all the way out. SOP for me too.

Bummer, Yooper. I've taken to parking the bike in gear on any surface, regardless of incline. During the summer I also use my kick stand pad pretty much everywhere except the cement-surfaced bike parking lot at work.

Sounds to me like your Feejer was pissed you didn't buy any beer.

That'll learn ya.

I try to always use the center stand, but if not I try to leave it in gear and roll it forward until it stops before putting it on the side stand. My last bike, Bandit, was notorious for falling on the side stand!

same thing happened to me but I somehow caught it and grunted it back upright. The incident only cost me my back and pair of underwear.

Greb said:

same thing happened to me but I somehow caught it and grunted it back upright. The incident only cost me my back and pair of underwear.

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Sounds like a fair trade. We loves our bikes don't we?

The Feejer started to fall over the first week I had it, fortunately I was right there and was able to grab it before it went to far for recovery.

Ever since then - center stand, center stand, always center stand! I'm on auto pilot now when it comes to parking, I don't ever have to remember anymore. And Zero problems since...

Had that happen to mebefore - such a heartwrenching experience to go through! If only my pillion had fallen over instead. . .

The centerstand is there for folks that do not know how to use a sidestand. (Seems like there are quite a few of them out there.)



KM

Knifemaker said:

The centerstand is there for folks that do not know how to use a sidestand. (Seems like there are quite a few of them out there.)

KM

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Ouch. Kicking a man while his bike is down!

Knifemaker said:

The centerstand is there for hernia therapy.

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THERE!

...happens pretty quick doesn't it?

Get the bike fixed up and you'll forget about it in no time. BTW, I've heard that strategically placed reflective decals will cover saddlebag scratches nicely.

--G

Sorry to hear about the tip-over Yopper. Especially right there in front of you, standing hopelessly watching it go. So you got that out of the way and may even have a few battle scars to show for the chicks.

The only time I did something similar was early o'dark thirty with the NorCal group in the motel parking lot in Red Bluff loaded up, (the bike not me) getting ready to head out on Hwy. 36 west, and tried to take off with a cable securly locked through the back wheel. Luckily only minor damage to the bike and more damage to my ego. Yes when our bikes hurt so do we....take care. Painman. <><

My parking drill, pull up to area, leave in first gear, clutch in, and drop sidestand, kills engine, clutch out, lets bike roll a tiny bit to engage gear cog, recheck sidestand, turn off and remove key, dismount. If it is downhill I back in to park.

The scuffs make it more personally yours, Dick.

Kind'a like marking one's territory, so to speak.

Now you'll be able to pick yours out from a police lineup.

But hey, at least you remembered to put your side stand down in the first place. I'm here to tell ya it goes down really fast when you forget to put it down at all.

As to parking on the sidestand vs centerstand. It is actually MORE laterally stable on the sidestand. That's why you tie your bike down on the side stand when making Ferry crossings. The super secret trick is to visually survey the place that you want to park before hand and always point the bike uphill. This may sometimes require backing the bike into a space (other times not). Either way just put the front wheel on the high side of any incline.

JamesW said:

My parking drill, pull up to area, leave in first gear, clutch in, and drop sidestand, kills engine, clutch out, lets bike roll a tiny bit to engage gear cog, recheck sidestand, turn off and remove key, dismount. If it is downhill I back in to park.

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Warning: Doesn't work on the AS/AE. The clutch doesn't engage until a couple of seconds after the key is turned off; the kill switch only stops the motor, the clutch doesn't engage.

So for those of us privileged to have the AS/AE, just come to rest in 1st gear, turn off the ignition, put the side-stand down but don't lean the bike over yet, wait for the click (or for sufficient time), roll the bike forward to take up the slack, re-check side-stand, lean the bike over.

It becomes totally automatic. It also means you are less likely to walk away from the bike leaving the ignition (including headlights) still on.

Make sure that the front stay did not bend under the cowling. It often does when the mirror is broken. If the mirror rotated than broke you may be OK. If the mirror snapped off, you most likely bent the mounting pad. The stay can be bent back if you are careful. The other thing to check is the fairing under the mirror. The bag can be repainted the fairing repaired. The stay if replacing it is about $400. If you were closer I would help you take it apart and fix. Good luck and ask questions if you are unsure. As you can tell I dropped mine once or twice.

I have been riding for around 40 years, and also never had a bike fall off the sidestand while on an incline. Seems that the FJR has a habit of doing that from the comments on the forum. This is the first bike that I have gotten into the habit of ALWAYS leaving it in first when using the side stand. Why haven't bike mfgs designed a sidestand like some Harleys have? When you put weight on the stand, it locks it in place so that it cannot fold up on itself. That way, if the bike got bumped from behind while parked, it would have the chance to roll ahead and slide on the sidestand, minimizing the damage, instead of falling over. Maybe some of our more talented forum members could come up with an idea