BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

Guys, my driveway is flat and hard but today, whilst closing the garage doors, the bike just toppled over. I was shocked. Apart from a couple of scratches to the left handle bar and top box, all is well.
However, I am certainly nervous about using the side-stand again. Did I just fail to (somehow) extend it “all the way” or is the design a bit “dodgy”.
Any suggestions? I do NOT want this to happen again !

John - You are not alone. I lost mine when it was loaded up because the angle of the pavement was just half a degree too steep. The bike simply pivoted on the stand and rotated over that centre-point. It crashed down gently, and all I have is a few case scratches and some light marking on the plastic head guards. The mirror came loose instead of breaking, so all is good.

Be careful. If you note the R1200GS went from a similar straight side stand in late 2005 to one with a big bend in it. Exactly the same problem. The early ones kept falling over.

My bike has not fallen off the side stand - yet. Design looks pretty normal but the performance may vary depending how much preload is dialled in to the rear suspension.
I get mine on the main stand ASAP and only use the sidestand as insurance when getting off the bike.

Did I just fail to (somehow) extend it “all the way”

I did that one time, and I had just put on my new side cases to show off to some riding buddies. I ended up scuffing the left case.

I believe I just did not quite kick it all the say forward. We were standing around talking, and the stand started to fold up, and the bike slowly fell onto its side. We tried to save it at the last second, but it was too late.

So in my case, it was operator error.

Just a suggestion, I always park mine on the side stand, I always make sure the bike is in gear and if on a slight hill the direction of unintended roll would be backwards so as not to allow the stand to fold back up. Being in first gear should keep it from rolling but I always let it roll till the engine compression stops it and then set the side stand down.

I never leave it on the center stand unless I am working on it and need to keep the bike somewhat level (changing the oil etc)

I had mine go over one day while at work. On the side stand with a cover on the bike. It was a windy day (in a parking lot) and supposedly the wind pushed it up and over to the right hand side. $1300 in damage.
I think someone backed into it but could not prove it.

Good luck!

Wayne

Sorry to hear that John. I am not aware of any particular design problems but I have come close to doing what you did. I do think it is an issue of kicking the stand full forward. There but for the grace of God.

At least you did not have a Suzuki GSX750 on its side stand, fire it up in gear and watch it shooting across the car park.

I dropped mine on Saturday morning while paddeling it out of the garage, lost my footing on some grit and before I know it I am standing on the drive and the bike is on it's side. At least if it happens again, I know that I can pick it up. No real damage was done, a scraped bar end and top box. First time I have parted company with a bike at close to zero miles per hour and the engine not running.

I just picked it up checked it over, fitted the panniers and headed of on a 200 mile trip to Harrogate.

Hank

You say you were closing the garage - you hadn't left it in Neutral had you?

tom

Yes, I wheeled the bike out of the garage; put it ion the side stand; started the engine; turned around and -- down she went.

I have a theory ! When putting the bike on the side stand, the front wheel should not be turned to the left as this will tend to ease the bike forwards (and hence off the side stand). If the front wheel is turn slightly to the right, the bike is more upright and counter balances any force which could cause it to topple over.

Thoughts ?

I have a side stand "foot enlarger" from Wunderlich that doubles the size of the footprint. Touch wood, no issues yet - well worthwhile. I think Nippy Normans are now (one of) their UK distributors after SPC went bust.

See: http://www.wunderlich.de//html/cat/eng/eng.html & download the 1150R section as a PDF. Part number is 8500024 on page 25 - go steady though, it's cheaper to acquire a crack habit than get into Wunderlich ...



I also try to leave mine in gear with the bars set to counter any slight slope one way or the other. Sorry to hear of the drop & hope it all polishes out for you.