Quote:
Originally Posted by akima
kkim's brick technique helped me out today  It was my first time using a rear stand by myself. I've owned the stand for a while and had put off using it because of how sketchy it felt as soon as I started to put force on the handle to lift the bike up. It makes a huge difference if you just get the bike standing almost vertical before you start. You can get both of the little spindle holders in place and there is almost no side to side motion of the bike as you lever it up. |
It does get easier with experience. What you'll find is that once you've got both spools in the cradles and with just a little force on the stand handle, the bike is very stable. As long as you don't let go of the stand handle, it's not going anywhere and you're free to get into a position where you can push down hard and lift the bike.
Before I had my Ninjette all my bikes had center stands so I never needed a paddock stand. Finally got one with the 250 and it was nerve-wracking... and I dropped the bike more than once. I used the block-under-the-kickstand trick for quite a while.
But now that I'm track riding, I lift bikes all the time... multiple times per day... and it's become second nature to do it with one hand on the tail and the other on the stand. Learned more or less from necessity, because I was always misplacing the darned block.
Sequence is:
- Stand next to the tail of the bike facing it, paddock stand in right hand.
- Position the left hook of the paddock stand on the left spool.
- Support bike with your left hip, left hand on the tail, and start to lift as you maneuver the right arm of the stand into place. The stand will want to rotate as the bike is lifted, so account for this. Fiddle around until you've got everything lined up. This is something you'll get the hang of. Left hip is supporting the bike, Left hand is still on the tail to pull it back if it starts to get away from you. Right hand maneuvers the stand as necessary to engage both hooks. You're facing more or less to the rear at this point.
- Once both hooks are definitely on the spools, put a little weight on the stand handle. You can now remove your left hand and stop supporting the bike with your hip.
- Shove down on the paddock stand handle hard. Done.
Coming down off the paddock stand, just make sure the handlebars are turned to the left and the kickstand is down. The bike will naturally fall to the left and land on the kickstand.