Had a bit of a scare.

[newman]

Every year here in the UK you have to take your bike or car for a road safety check up to a garage for your MOT certificate.
Without your MOT you cannot get your road tax which you have to pay every year.

Well After my bike inspection was done I want to get by bike and the guy had parked the bike on a downward slope.
Now I've read on here about Busa's being able to roll off their side stand and my blood ran cold.
The first things I thought was I hope the guy put the steering lock on or put it in gear.
I had visions of getting near the bike and it slowly rolling forward and crashing to the ground.

As I walked gingerly over I saw the steering lock wasn't on.
Put my crash helmet on the ground grabbed the front brake, jumped on the bike and put the steering lock on.
Calmed down a bit then.
Turned the ignition on and found it wasn't in neutral.
Put it in first got off and got all my gear on and went on my way.
I'll have to tell them next time not to put it on a downward slope.

It passed the MOT by the way.

 

[cheferman65]

Whew!.... Glad it all worked out for the best. I would hate to have to read about you snuffing out a bloke for dropping the ride.

 

[Dscahill]

Must have been a Kawasaki fan ... Glad it didnt fall over!

-D

 

[RedBusarider]

Unless you are going to go back with a car to get it checked out ASAP -
I would call them and explain what the tech did and how it could have been a major lawsuit or expense against them, if the bike had dropped.
Explain IF they have to park a bike, park it on an uphill slope only, never downhill etc. If they tell you that is not possible
I would be looking for a different place to take my vehicle to get checked (I would hope you would have more than 1 even if you had to ride farther)

What I would hope that would do, is save someone else from having a super bad day.
If you wait or do nothing and a new rider just jumped on his bike things might turn out way different then what happened in your case
because you are an experienced rider and knew it could roll forward.

Thanks for the report.

Boy am I glad that I don't have to have any safety checks done by anyone other then me.
I'm not perfect but almost no one will care about my bike as much as I do.
Besides we pay enough taxes and if they made us get an MOT so we could pay road taxes too - Well then I might have to ride illegally.

 

[Adox]

When I bought my Busa, it wasn't in show-bike condition but very nice nonetheless. I did a lot of research on here before buying and even then, the seller told me all about taking care of it and what to expect. Except the downhill parking. After buying it, my driver in the car took a wrong turn almost immediately (despite having a GPS) and I flashed my headlight to signal pulling over. After parking the bike in someone's driveway (downhill) I walked back to my drivers car and heard the unmistakable sound of plastic crunching on asphalt under a heavy load. Two whole blocks and already a driveway tip-over! As my grandmother used to say: I was so mad, I could spit nails. I guess the silver lining to all of it was the fact that I wasn't so nervous about laying it down after that. Not that I would want to, but I knew that being too nervous makes my skill level drop so now I didn't have that anxiousness.

 

[Dscahill]

Goodness, I thought I was paranoind because when I park my bike, I tend to kick the kickstand foreward to ensure its extended fully. I nearly dropped mine once and now I suppose its a nervous habit.


-D

 

[nosbig]

That is why I did the kickstand mod the day I brought it home. Truly before I even rode it (after test ride of course) took it off trailer and started doing mods.

 

[mattymatt716]

Yep. Kickstand mod.