Here's a new guy moment at which you might laugh...

Try placing most of your weight on the center-stand lever. It's disconcerting to do this the first time...you'll feel like you're compromising balance. Once you get most of your weight on that lever, it'll go up no problem.

For the record, I posted this for two reasons: 1)I laughed at myself and wanted to share the laughter with my forum buddies and 2)to prevent someone from playing "musical bike" in their garage with their VFR. I'm glad if it helped even one person. :smile:

 

Kinky! Viagra's a wonderful thing, eh?:biggrin:

 

That is what is great about this forum...we all help each other...

And yeah, I know (intellectually) it is the key (weight on the foot tab) but as others say, it is getting the balance of pressures just right a few times and convincing the body how to get it right...then one has no more troubles. Muscle memory and all that...
(And I have rolled the bike several times doing the chain lube musical chairs thing...especially with the old Kawa that didn't have a center stand)

Thanks again!

 

I miss my center stand, I had to take it off for the left side exhaust install. But I do have the rear stand, although it's not as easy as the center stand.

Thanks for the chuckle.
Robert

 

That right there is the key. "Weight on the center stand". Your hands are almost exclusively for balance. With your right foot on the lever, push the bike upright until both "feet" of the stand touch (again, a little scary at first), then stand on the lever and it goes right up.

A while back I watched a little 140 pound dude show a 300 pound gold wing owner how to put the 'wing on the stand. The big guy just sat there shaking his head. I was laughing ss the small guy walked by me and said, "It's all in the right foot. If you're working hard, you're doing it wrong!" :smile: I'm glad I saw him do it too, because later we got an ST1300 (before the VFR) and it's 700 pounds to pop up on the stand. Of course my buddy with the BMW K1200LT just grins as he presses a switch and the bike puts itself on the stand!

 

After putting a Concours up on the stand daily, the VFR is a peice of cake.
It's not a job for your back. It's all about the foot and the grab rail. On the 4th gen, you have to keep your leg back a bit or the foot peg will get your shin. Forces you to squre up and place your body correctly.
Something no one has mentioned yet. you want to face the side of the bike with your body. Not forward or back. You put the ball of your foot on the lever and now you can feel the balance point as you stand the bike up vertically. Then press down on the lever while pulling up on the passenger rail. the left hand is on the bar to keep it from turning, not to lift or pull.
Very easy to do, I almost never use my sidestand, just the centerstand.

 

That is because his wallet was soooo light after buying the LT that he didn't have enough weight to lever it up. :tongue:

no, it is the chain lube that allows you to rotate like that without scratching. I'm too afraid of having my VFR stuck on it's center stand for four or more hours (like the warning in the commercial) to ever try that stuff. :wink:

 

any advice for a good method to get it up there if you have removed the passenger grab handles?

Mike

 

Have the passenger reduce exercise, eat fast food, and drink more beer. Although not a passenger, I'm proof that the handles will grow back quickly even if they were removed a few years back.

note: Regardless of what the manual says, Grabbing the shaft above the passenger's footpeg is bad form, unless the person who is attempting to get it up has been properly introduced.

 

ZING!!!!

lol

Mike

 

Grab the assembly that the passenger footpeg is attached to. I think that's what the book says on an '06.

 

You shouldn't be touching the passenger handle at all. The correct way to use the center stand is to:

push stand down to the floor with RIGHT foot

grab left hand grip with LEFT hand

feel for the exposed frame rail (this is the only reason this part of the cowling exposes the frame rail) under the rear cowling with LEFT hand (don't grab the plastic or you'll break the cowling)

stand the bike up until you feel the opposite side of the center stand touch the floor

once the bike is upright & level, push down with your RIGHT foot & pull straight up with your RIGHT hand

the bike should pop right up with very little effort

If you are pulling back, rocking the bike, jumping up & down on the center stand or need help, you're not doing right. I can put my bike on the center stand without touching the hand grips. Don't they teach this anymore?

KC-10 FE Out...
lane:

 

Thanks KC-10...that helps.

I know what Stuka is saying, like any skill, before you have it down, it seems very hard (and fear is always the big obstacle), BUT after you have learned it, one wonders why it was ever an issue. Learning some Mountain bike skills, or learning a certain drum pattern is that way for me...hell when I cannot quite get it and them embarassingly simple once the skill is learned. What is cool here is that no one is being put down or being smug about it learning this skill long ago. Well done, mates!

Stuka learned to get it up when he was only 13...hmmm... :wink:

 

If the grab handles are gone( like mine) just lift under the fairing where the passenger foot peg is mounted...otherwise it is the same process and just as easy.