How To Pick Up a Motorbike
Created | Updated Apr 4, 2002
A recently acquired motorbike and necessary licence is a wonderfully liberating experience.
What they don't teach you on direct access* courses is how to pick a bike up, should you have the misfortune to drop it.
These bike things are big and heavy, and have little stability when not moving around, especially if you come roaring up to a junction, slam on the brakes, stop dead, then forget to put a foot out, or put a foot down on gravel/oil/other slippery stuff. There comes a point when there is nothing you can do that will keep the bike vertical and between your legs, and the safest thing to do is to let it down.
Two tips here; let it down as slowly as you can so the damage to the bike is minimal, such as slightly scraped clutch levers or scratched indicators; and secondly, don't leave any portions of your anatomy under the bike as it touches down. Foot pegs and gear/brake levers can gouge large holes in feet or legs given 200+ kg weight behind them.
Now then; switch the engine off - cutoff switch or ignition. The chances are the bike was in gear as it went over - this is good. If not try to get 1st engaged. What follows assumes the bike is on its left side - brake levers up in the air. Turn your back on the bike, and grab the *left* handlebar in your *right* hand. Pull up as though you were turning the handlebars to the left, and the motion of the front wheel should start to lift the front of the bike. With your *left* hand, grab the frame just under the seat, or the grab rail, or whatever's convenient. Put the bit of your back just above your bum against the seat, and USE YOUR LEGS to start to move the bike upright. It gets easier the further up you go, but for Heaven's sake don't go too far and push it right over! If the bike's on its right side, reverse the above l/r stuff, *and* get the sidestand down (unless you've got a bike with a spring loaded sidestand in which case tough).
Note: use your legs, not your back. Use your back and you may get the bike upright, but you won't be for quite a while. The reason's exactly the same as why you don't lift heavy crates (of beer, for example) by bending from the waist; you run the risk of slipped disks and ripped muscles (and broken bottles...). So - use your leg muscles to do the work.
If you can get a friendly (and muscular) bystander to help, so much the better.
Apparently an 80 year old American Granny can get a Honda Goldwing upright using this technique.
She must be from Texas...
*Direct Access - this is one of the ways of getting a full bike licence in the UK. Visit the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (http://www.roads.dtlr.gov.uk/roadsafety/moped/index.htm) for full details...
What they don't teach you on direct access* courses is how to pick a bike up, should you have the misfortune to drop it.
These bike things are big and heavy, and have little stability when not moving around, especially if you come roaring up to a junction, slam on the brakes, stop dead, then forget to put a foot out, or put a foot down on gravel/oil/other slippery stuff. There comes a point when there is nothing you can do that will keep the bike vertical and between your legs, and the safest thing to do is to let it down.
Two tips here; let it down as slowly as you can so the damage to the bike is minimal, such as slightly scraped clutch levers or scratched indicators; and secondly, don't leave any portions of your anatomy under the bike as it touches down. Foot pegs and gear/brake levers can gouge large holes in feet or legs given 200+ kg weight behind them.
Now then; switch the engine off - cutoff switch or ignition. The chances are the bike was in gear as it went over - this is good. If not try to get 1st engaged. What follows assumes the bike is on its left side - brake levers up in the air. Turn your back on the bike, and grab the *left* handlebar in your *right* hand. Pull up as though you were turning the handlebars to the left, and the motion of the front wheel should start to lift the front of the bike. With your *left* hand, grab the frame just under the seat, or the grab rail, or whatever's convenient. Put the bit of your back just above your bum against the seat, and USE YOUR LEGS to start to move the bike upright. It gets easier the further up you go, but for Heaven's sake don't go too far and push it right over! If the bike's on its right side, reverse the above l/r stuff, *and* get the sidestand down (unless you've got a bike with a spring loaded sidestand in which case tough).
Note: use your legs, not your back. Use your back and you may get the bike upright, but you won't be for quite a while. The reason's exactly the same as why you don't lift heavy crates (of beer, for example) by bending from the waist; you run the risk of slipped disks and ripped muscles (and broken bottles...). So - use your leg muscles to do the work.
If you can get a friendly (and muscular) bystander to help, so much the better.
Apparently an 80 year old American Granny can get a Honda Goldwing upright using this technique.
She must be from Texas...
*Direct Access - this is one of the ways of getting a full bike licence in the UK. Visit the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (http://www.roads.dtlr.gov.uk/roadsafety/moped/index.htm) for full details...
