A Study in Stability - Sidestand versus Centerstand

Well.....

First off, Kurt that is a nice job of illustrating the basic principle of cg. I can't argue with your premise at all. I can speak from experience, as I am sure a lot of us can.
The first road trip I ever made with my 78 100RS, I stopped overnight in Mojave on my way to Long Beach for the 86 Indycar race. When I came out of the hotel in the morning, the bike was laying on it's side. I had heard the wind during the night but didn't think much about it. The bike had the cover (sail) on it. LUCKILY, nothing was hurt too bad, besides my back after getting the thing back upright.
I had a basic distrust of side stands after experiencing a tipover of my KZ650, (loaded to the gills and cg WAAYYY higher than it should have been) after a midnight ride over Monarch Pass in September of 82. I stopped in Gunnison, got off the bike, and my side stand snapped in two, (tipping the bike over of course since I wasn't ready for it).
I have since adopted the policy of considering the MOST LIKELY possibility of winds, ground composition, etc before deciding to use one or the other. MY preferred method is center stand, but I am not opposed to using the side stand if the situation calls for it. There is no right or wrong until you make the wrong choice for the given or suspected conditions. Just sayin

When parking I try to visualize where the bike would land should it fall. It's bad enough that your bike may be damaged, far worse in my mind would be to damage someone else's property. Since I almost always use the side stand in a typical parking lot, augmented with a plastic base plate. I use the considerations below.

I anticipate that if the bike should fall it would be most likely to the left. I favor the right side of the space so that in case of a fall the machine will not go outside of the space to the left side, I also try to leave adequate clearance on the right side to minimize the chance of damage from car doors etc. I set my depth back far enough to avoid the oil drip area and coincidentally being back far enough so that a distracted driver will hopefully see the machine before he starts turning in hopefully minimizing the risk of the bike being rear ended.

It all could be for naught, but it makes me feel a bit better.

Does it matter, when on the side stand which way the handlebars are turned on level ground? I'm sure it is mentioned in the manual that I don't have with me at the time. I grew up in a very hilly city and all I remember was having to turn the front wheel of any vehicle into the curb like a chock block with vehicle in gear or park with parking brake set. If you faced up hill you turned to the left and let vehicle roll back so front wheel rest on curb in gear or park, with parking brake set. If you faced down hill you turned wheel to right and roll into curb in gear or park, with parking brake set having to back up inches to release vehicle from curb when leaving. This worked all the time even with my Norton and only a side stand. One difference was when facing up hill, position the bike so rear wheel roll back against curb. With no curb facing up hill turn wheels to the right so vehicle will roll off of road.

I saw something on Page 11 of the January ON. Picture of bike that was blown over by strong winds...pushed it over "from the opposite side of the stand." The bike was laying on its right side.

Hmmm...I wonder if the bike would have fallen over had it been on its centerstand?

20774 said:

I saw something on Page 11 of the January ON. Picture of bike that was blown over by strong winds...pushed it over "from the opposite side of the stand." The bike was laying on its right side.

Hmmm...I wonder if the bike would have fallen over had it been on its centerstand?

Click to expand...

I saw the same thing, and wondered the exact same thing, but I didn't want to open the can of worms again!

but . . . glad you did!!

If that bike blew over (over high side as it appears) then I bet it would have blown over from the centerstand position as well. Just a guess ...!!?!!

Apparently the owner hadn't considered all the circumstances!!

Perhaps he should also have tethered the bike down as well with about 6 or 8 ropes to some secure locations nearby.

From now on, I am going to assume that there will be a tornado each and every time I park my R100.