How to pickup a motorcycle
 

On another forum a new rider was describing his N00b Drop. Guys banged on him a bit because he had to get 3 guys to help him pick it up. Admittedly 3 guys is overkill for a s1000rr being pretty damn light. But advice of "hitting the gym" and "practice deadlifts" had me cringing.

Whenever you try to muscle a motorcycle, it's gonna beat you and win. Maybe not immediately, but eventually the motorcycle always wins and usually wins big. And I'm too damn old to be putting that strain on my back :p



Note both people are using their legs to push the bike upright. Not using them to lift the bike, potentially putting strain on the back

I was backing my 900 up around the side of my garage and into my car port way too fast. My foot missed a step and it started falling left. I caught most of it, and it came to a stop on my crankcase. I just lifted it right back up while facing the bike, using my legs. It wasn't light, but it didn't seem that hard to do? Maybe it's a different story if it falls completely on it's side. But it was %85 of the way there.

It was a definite "oh S*** moment" and I didn't know if I was going to be able to stand it back up by myself since I had never done that before. My friend was in front of my garage, and I went and told him I dropped my bike. He ran over thinking we had to get it back up haha

Now if I was a smaller guy or female, that would probably be a different story.

Working for Verizon. I get hammered about proper lifting techniques at least once a month. It's the 2nd most common workplace incident, just behind backing errors in vehicles. Done properly, lifting with your legs STILL put some weight on your back. The further the load is from your body, the load begins to multiply. And hugging a 400+ lb bike to your chest isn't the most feasible prospect.

Further it's been proven that it's not just 1 lift that causes damage. If a person has been lifting items wrong for years, it's that 1 lift that becomes the straw breaking the camel's (aka YOU) back. And it doesn't have to be a heavy load either.

Do yourself a favor and use these techniques instead of trying to dead lift the bike. You probably already embarrassed yourself dropping the bike. Imagine what'll do to your ego to be laying alongside it crying "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" like a younger version Life Alert commercial. :icon_omg:

This makes me think of all the times I have seen racers on TV trying to pick their bikes up out of the gravel after a crash. It always makes me laugh because they inevitably face the bike, bend over and try to pick it up. The number of times they give it a go, realise it's too heavy/awkward and then look around for the marshals for some help. I'm not sure I've ever seen someone lift it up the proper way as in the video's above.

I've picked up my bike various times and while I try to use my legs I've never done it the way they show in the video. I think adrenalin and sheer embarrassment have always helped me be able to haul it up quickly, albeit with terrible form ;)

haha same here. though i have seen them teaching how to pick up harleys using smaller women as the demonstrators at the progressive motorcycle show. Pretty impressive that it works so often.

Just remember to watch the tassels when picking up a Harley! :D

They did a great demo on this in my BRC years back. Unfortunately, I've had to do it about 2-3 times....