Stay Focused! - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

Hardware · 12-10-2004, 01:09 AM

Last night I decided my bike needed a good wash and wax. After supper I headed down to the garage and worked on it for about three hours.

I washed it, gave it two good coats of polish, Armor Alled the black unpainted plastic bits, cleaned and lubed the chain, cleaned the wheels, removed the grab rail and mounted the hump.

After I was back upstairs, I realized I'd forgotten to check the tire pressure.

So this morning I headed down to the garage ahead of the significant other to quickly check tire pressure. She left the house and apparently was waiting for me out on the street (I'll normally drive up out of the garage and pick her up there).

She came down just as I started looking for the valve top for the rear wheel. I was looking around under the bike and she started to nag (she is NOT a morning person). I thought I'd dropped it but soon discovered I'd put it back on the valve after checking the tire.

I started to get flustered and wanted to get going before she really got mad - so I rushed to put the bike back on it's centre stand. Anyway, I leaned the bike upright off the side stand and pushed it too hard, away from me. It was starting to lean away from me by about 15 - 20 degrees when I realized in my momentary lapse, that I'd forgotten to depress the centre stand pedal with my foot.

I lowered my hips and pulled it back upright, stood on the pedal and parked it safely - NO HARM DONE. In fact, the significant other was standing right there and didn't notice that I'd come close to dropping the bike.

I learned that you shouldn't let little things, like a nagging wife, distract you. I've always known and practiced this when it comes to the riding safely aspect of motorcycling, but now I learned how close I came to big $$$$ damages during something as mundane as parking the bike.