Rich, Urban Biker wrote:
> if you need to park, try to find terrain so that
> the left side of the bike is lower than the right, so that the wind
> would have to work harder to blow the bike over.

I recommend studying the direction of the wind and the camber of the
road where you need to park. It's legal in California to park with the
front wheel touching the curb, or the rear wheel touching the curb. If
you have a heavy motorbike, sometimes you'll really have to work to get
it away from the curb if you've nosed in...

(The cops in Hollywood used to try to stick a credit card in between
the rear tires of motorbikes and the curb, in order to harass the
riders off of Hollywood Blvd. where they would hang out in full view of
the hookers and perverts and runaway street kids...)

But, back to the wind and parking. If I can, I will back in at a 45
degree angle and make sure my rear wheel is touching the curb and put
the side stand down and leave the bike in gear. I prefer to park with
the sidestand on the downwind side of the motorbike. The rear wheel
against the curb locks the motorbike in place, especially if the road
is well cambered toward the gutter...

blazing laser wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 07:53:23 GMT, "Rich, Urban Biker"
> <jaguar943-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>
>
>>and if you need to park, try to find terrain so that
>>the left side of the bike is lower than the right, so that the wind
>>would have to work harder to blow the bike over.
>
>
> Hmmm. You got me confused there. The left side of the bike is
> -always- the lower side. You mean to park with the kickstand upwind?

A bike on a sidestand will lean towards the left. If the ground below
the sidestand is lower than ground under the rear wheel, the bike will
be leaning over further and a wind blowing from left of the bike will
have a harder time blowing it over.

If the wind direction is predictable, you'll want (other things being
equal) to park so that the wind is blowing from the right side of the
bike, pushing it more firmly onto the sidestand.