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One man's trash may save your treasure
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In the days when I was Chapter Director of the Lone Star Ladies of Texas for the Gulf Coast region, a group of riders (ladies and gents) made a trip from Houston to New Braunfels to go camping on the river. It was early summer, and several of the women decided to take off during the week to set up camp. Husbands, boyfriends, children, friends in motor homes, and the rest of us with no vacation days left would come out for the weekend and the trip home.
Jim and I arrived in New Braunfels a little after lunch on Friday and made our way down the narrow, winding road to the turn-off to the riverbank. The road down to the river was gravel, and once we got to the camp, it ran through a crowded parking lot and then turned into a footpath that led to the campsites.
I was riding a bike that I had learned on, then given up and used as a parts bike, then decided to restore.It was a Honda CB750K, something of a tall order for a rider my size, but it was steady, dependable and like an old cow horse to ride once you were moving.
So I charged down the footpath on my bike, with Jim trailing on his Gold Wing behind me. We probably had no more than a tenth of a mile to go, but it seemed longer as the footpath was uneven and alternately spongy, sandy, and rocky.
At last we found the camp where our group was staying, the rainbow of bikes of all makes and models parked neatly in a line out of the way. We added our two to the array.
We dismounted and greeted the welcome party, everyone started talking, cold drinks were passed around and faces mopped, and the party was about to get underway – when CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
We turned around, in shock. The motorcycles were falling like dominos. A few in the second rank didn’t go down, but most of them did. Then the air was filled with the sound of curses and wails as the riders inspected their equipment and saw dollar signs for repairs blinking red in their minds.
What had happened?
The rear tire on Jim’s Wing had developed a slow leak. As the bike sat cooling off and parked on the sidestand – as it happened, on sandy ground – the tire finally deflated enough for the bike to tip over. The rest was just – physics.
All the damage was cosmetic or trivial, though nothing you have to replace on a motorcycle comes cheap. The problem also had a simple remedy. The reason the bikes fell is because the sidestand on the Wing, which still had all the camping gear loaded on it, began to shift in the sand as the tire went down.
The three-point footprint (front tire, rear tire and sidestand) is the most stable position for a motorcycle to rest in, normally. If the sidestand hadn’t moved, the Wing would have merely sunk at the rear, not tilted. And none of the other bikes would have fallen, either.
After that day, we always have carried a “foot” in the summertime. A “foot”, which you can usually find at a swap meet or dealership or online, is any small, sturdy, flat surface to put under your kickstand when you park.
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The typical one is a small piece of hard, thick plastic shaped like a human foot. Mine has a hole in it that allows you to run a string through it, so that you can tie the other end to your handlebar grip. That way, once you’re on the bike and ready to drive away, you can pull the foot up with the string when you put your kickstand up, and then tuck it away. The string around your grip also insures that you won’t forget it and ride off without it.
But if you do – a piece of trash makes a decent substitute. You can stomp on a soda pop can to make a tough, flat piece of metal to put under your kickstand in summer. The point is, don’t forget to take some precautions about your surface when parking your bike, especially in the summertime.
That guy in the Maserati you parked next to may not be as forgiving as the lady riders were to Jim. Stuff happens, and we didn’t blame him, we all just learned better.
You’ll need a foot of some sort when the sun bakes down and softens the asphalt pavement – your kickstand will sink right in. Or when you’re parked in sand near the beach, when your kickstand may want to slip and slide. Or when a parking lot isn’t paved, nor as solid as you’d like, and your kickstand will sink into muddy, grassy ground.
And if you don’t have a piece of string to remind you to take your improvised foot along when you get ready to drive away, you can easily find another one down the road.
Just don’t spoil your pretty ride by letting the kickstand slide.
For comments, send email to Cash@msgroup.org. Visit Motorcycle Tips and Techniques at www.msgroup.org for more ways to take care of your bike.
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