On Saturday I brought my XS back home from the CVMG Rally in Paris, Ont., loaded on a single axle, landscape trailer, with a mesh ramp. I noticed when loading it, there was a slight bit of interference between the top of the trailer ramp and something under the bike. I didn’t pay too much attention to it while loading. As I unloaded it, halfway down the ramp, the bike stopped and I noticed the side stand was sticking out. Tried to push it back up but no go. What happened was the side stand spring decided to unhook itself from the bike frame and hook itself into the mesh in the ramp. Now I had a big problem - couldn’t go forward or backward as the spring would conveniently latch itself into the mesh no matter what I tried.
So here I am, holding the bike up, can’t go forward or back, side stand was useless. I tried to reach down to unhook the spring and leaning over that far, the bike nearly fell on me a few times. Nobody was at home to help Now what do I do? I mustered up the strength to push the bike up the ramp a bit and the spring was no longer under tension. I carefully reached down and pulled it out of the mesh opening. Trouble is there was nothing to hold it up so each time I let it go, it fell in the hole again. Eventually I was able to lift the spring and detach it from the stand with my left hand, while my right hand held the front brake on. Great I thought, until I started rolling back down the ramp and the side stand started digging in. Inch by inch I got it off of the trailer, but what actually took me several minutes, felt like an hour. Could have made a good comedy video of this.
Sharing this with the group so it won’t happen to you. Oh and the thought of putting a spin on filter underneath the engine... this ordeal taught me it’s not a good plan.
So here I am, holding the bike up, can’t go forward or back, side stand was useless. I tried to reach down to unhook the spring and leaning over that far, the bike nearly fell on me a few times. Nobody was at home to help Now what do I do? I mustered up the strength to push the bike up the ramp a bit and the spring was no longer under tension. I carefully reached down and pulled it out of the mesh opening. Trouble is there was nothing to hold it up so each time I let it go, it fell in the hole again. Eventually I was able to lift the spring and detach it from the stand with my left hand, while my right hand held the front brake on. Great I thought, until I started rolling back down the ramp and the side stand started digging in. Inch by inch I got it off of the trailer, but what actually took me several minutes, felt like an hour. Could have made a good comedy video of this.
Sharing this with the group so it won’t happen to you. Oh and the thought of putting a spin on filter underneath the engine... this ordeal taught me it’s not a good plan.