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How to pick up a dropped bike? How to pick up a dropped bike?
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Travellers' questions that don't fit anywhere else This is an opportunity to ask any question, and post any notice you wish that doesn't fit into one of the other sections.
Photo by Andy Miller, UK, Taking a rest, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Andy Miller, UK,
Taking a rest,
Jokulsarlon, Iceland



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  #1  
Old 24 Oct 2006
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How to pick up a dropped bike?
A couple of days ago my Kawasaki ZR-7S fell over due a bit of stupidity on my part. No harm done and no big deal I said to myself. I easily picked it up a couple of times in the past. Just grabbed the handlebars and yanked. But on this occasion I simply could not get the sucker upright on my own.

I then realized that each previous time the hard bags had been mounted and this resulted in the bike being propped up at a helpful angle. Without the luggage the bike lay very flat on the ground. The engine guards are stubby things which do their job but don't help the geometry of the situation. Add to this the weight of a completely full tank (22 liters) and all of my efforts were in vain. I know and tried the system of getting your rear end up against the seat and using your quads to lift. I've seen the demos of small people lifting Harleys. But it was not workable given the low angle available. I needed another pair of hands.

But what could I have done on my own? I needed some trickster little gadget to raise the bike just the few degrees off the ground necessary to change the physics of the situation. The emphasis is on "little" since there's no luggage in this scenario.

Norm
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Old 24 Oct 2006
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The franglais-riders
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pick up teh bike
Here is how they taught me to do it at the BMW off-road course. (on a F650GS)

Grab the handle bars on the ground side, turn the front wheel so that it is upward to the max possible.
When this is done, face the bike and squat a bit (don't break your back!), pull the handle bar up (the one closest to the ground) so that the back wheel is now resting in the ground as well as the front one. Make sure you are in gear (if possible!). Then, still grabbing the handle bar closest to the ground, and the 2 wheels touching the ground, push the handle bar down and then then up 1 or 2 times. Somehow, the bike will "pop up" high enough so that you can use your hip and leg to continue to pull it up.

It sounds complicated to explain, sorry! But it works, I did managed to pick the bike up on my own.

I did try to squat once as you described, but I had the same problem than you, the bike lay down completely on its side and is too low for that.
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Old 24 Oct 2006
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I find the easiest way is to is to stand with your back to the bike, squat down grab the low handlebar and the seat/frame/luggage, get as close to the bike as you can with a straight back and lift using your thighs. (leave bike in gear). Get your arse against the seat and prop yourself against it to have a breather if you need to.

The tricky bit is getting it upright enough to the balance point and turning round and getting hold of it proper. (or try kicking out the side-stand).

It always looks embarrassing whichever way you do it.
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Old 24 Oct 2006
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What Maria describes is how my cousin was taught in police school, where she did her licences. Supposedly you can pick up any bike like this. Never heard of this rocking up and down though.

Important thing is to keep your back straight or you could seriously injure your spine.
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Old 20 Nov 2006
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Think the 'rocking' thing is to do with getting sand off the wheels, or getting the wheels to sink a bit into the surface. In deep sand I find digging a hole for each wheel to reduce the effore to get the bike up.
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Old 20 Nov 2006
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Tricky
The trick is (as Maria said) to make sure the bike is in gear - saving you the added mission of lurching for the brake lever/pedal, and also to make sure that you put the side stand out, if you can... with the last trick being (after you've picked the beastie up) not to let out an overenthusiastic 'WooHoo!' and promptly stack the bike on its other side!


Thankfully, I have not performed that particular trick (yet! LOL)

Fully extend the handle bars in one direction, as much as you can,(as described in above posts) and use your lower body strength in moving from a squat to an upright position (back straight) rather than your upper body.

There's no real graceful way of doing it (I'm working on it)

There was a really useful demo for the ladies at this year's UK HUBB meet - Grant, didn't you get some photos?
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