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Parking your motorcycle?


Here is a list of tasks you need to think about when you park your motorcycle somewhere.


There is no park brake


Well not entirely true, some heavy motorcycles do have park brakes and even a reverse gear but 99% of motorcycles do not have a park brake.


Always leave your motorcycle in gear when parked.

Doesn’t really matter if its on flat road, up the driveway or even what gear your in but by using 1st gear you will make your life easier. Remember you should pull your clutch lever in before starting the motorcycle engine anyway as a good habit and leaving it in 1st gear means you are ready to go.

Motorcycle is on an incline like a hill or steep driveway.
Leaving it in gear prevents it rolling and falling over once parked as the side stand won’t defeat gravity when parked and in neutral!


Prevent accidental knocks that could push your motorcycle forward.

Another car parking too close nudges the wheel or a friend resting his body weight on the seat, the motorcycle could roll forward with the external movement force applied and may tip over as the side stand cannot stop movement.


Wearing heavy motorcycle gear.

You can’t always get a leg over the motorcycle when wearing thicker trousers or added gear or luggage and if you kick your motorcycle instead of mounting it normally when your motorcycle is not in gear while parked, you may have just moved the motorcycle off the side stand.


Repeating myself - Just leave it parked in gear.

You will save yourself some embarrassment, many silly scratches and marks by keeping your bike upright on two wheels!

Youtube video on turn back parking

Parking on level streets


The most common way to park a motorcycle is called a “turn back”.


Why do a turn back and not parallel park with the curb side? 

Most importantly, it is the exit strategy and a few benefits when parking close to 90 degrees with the rear wheel near the curb side, you can…


a. Exit the park going across the road and turn right or go left, no u-turn needed.

b. Park in spaces only motorcycles can.

c. Park more motorcycles in the same space otherwise wasted on parallel parking.

d. Optimal side stand lean angle, try a parallel park near some curb sides and will feel like quite a long way down to have the motorcycle leaning while parked. 


Leave room for cars to manoeuvre as they will hit your motorcycle if you don’t leave room!


Repeating myself - Just leave it parked in gear.

You will save yourself some embarrassment, many silly scratches and marks by keeping your bike upright on two wheels!

Parking out of the norm


Often we see a empty paved area that screams “Park on me”  

Please refrain parking a motorcycle near… 

  • Pedestrian walking corridors and crossings.
  • Doors and exits (People and vehicles).
  • And other areas like marked stripes next to a marked for disability parking spots - that area is for their car doors to swing open wide as they need that room to enter and exit their vehicles!


We want more non-motorcycle people to allow us motorcyclists free space and comfort to move around to our advantage. If we all start parking “in the way’ it comes back us eventually. 


Additionally, children and animals are pedestrians too so don’t expect good company parking close to pedestrian areas if you have noisy pipes.


End of the day, we motorcycle riders need to be better than Tesla boomer drivers so when we park solo in a spot so that it won’t piss off others we win… Then we will always have more friends than a Tesla fan boy.

Parking in car parks

A few things to watch when parking amongst car breathers.

Don’t park deep in a car park when you are by yourself (one motorcycle).

So when you have to use a car park, don’t position your motorcycle at the deep end of your carpark as other vehicles may not see your motorcycle from the driveway area and literally turn into your carpark spot and hit your motorcycle. 


Most likely they will drive off when there are no witnesses are around to address the event and you will come out one day to a tipped or dented motorcycle!

Park closest to the parking spot entry. 

Your motorcycle will be seen clearly by vehicles passing through the driveway area.


Additionally, try and turn back into the parking spot so it makes your life much simpler to see other vehicles when leaving the parking spot. 


Reversing out by foot power on a motorcycle into a busy driveway is not ideal.


Added bonus…
Park over to one side of the parking spot and a second motorcycle can share the same spot 


Thats 4 wheels just like a car has! 


Some parking spots can fit four motorcycles, now where talking about a bus and truck quantity of wheels in one spot!


If you don’t want to share, just go on and park right in the middle of the parking spot - we all know what you are doing! Sometimes it is not nice being jammed in but thats why first in parks at exit point of the parking spot to be seen and leave easy.


(Bike life, please share parking respectfully)

Motorcycle specific parking


Similar to parking a motorcycle in a carpark, share the space and leave room for others.

Some open parking areas are prone to theft when motorcycles are left alone for long periods of time, especially areas with very low foot traffic. Cameras are not a deterrent for thieves committed to the task.


If you are going to park all day every day in public open spaces in the same spot (ie not inside a parking building or off the street), find a physical anchor point where your motorcycle can be chained too.

Motorcycle thieves work as a team and they will literally pickup the motorcycle and place it into a van or utility vehicle - No brake disc lock or handlebar anti-theft system will prevent that outcome but chaining your motorcycle to a non removable anchor point will make them think twice as it not as easy to take.



Parking on soft surfaces

Not ideal, but it happens.

One day you will have to put your side stand down on soft soil or deep shingle.

Where possible, motorcycles generally choose solid ground for putting a side stand on the ground but that is not always possible.


Getting off the motorcycle might be easy but after a while the weight of the motorcycle may press deeper into the ground and could fall over before or when you climb back on your motorcycle.


Main reason being the side stand is typically has a small foot on its end and much of the motorcycle’s weight rests on this single point with the two wheels. (A tripod!)


By simply adding a side-stand puck or wide pad area for the side stand to sit on, the motorcycle will not push into the soft surfaces easily.

Carry a side-stand puck with you and attach a length of string so you can pull it back up once on the motorcycle (can’t get back off the motorcycle to pick up up without putting the side stand down!)

Parking on hills or inclines

Not fun the first time but once you have practiced parking on a hill, no drama - Remember your parking brake = leave it in 1st gear!

Youtube video on turn back parking

Parking uphill.

Typically on a normal level surfaced road, motorcycles would do a turn back manoeuvre with the back wheel near the curb side and the front near 90 degrees onto the road. (depending how wide the road is, should be no wider than a parallel parked car!)


Parking like you are on a level road on an hill or incline could mean your side stand foot once down may be level or higher than your wheels and will not function as expected.


Depending on the steepness of the hill and the curvature of the road towards the curb side, you will tend to park in more of a 30 to 45 degree angle from the curb side with the back wheel and the front wheel towards the road. The steeper a road gets, the closer you will get to parking near parallel with the curb side. LEAVE THE MOTORCYCLE IN 1ST GEAR ONCE PARKED!


When you leave a parking spot facing uphill use the front brake before you engage neutral with the clutch lever, hold the back brake release the front brake and use the clutch friction zone to pull out and then engage the clutch fully and once clear and moving forward release the back brake.


Parking downhill. 

Well this one is more challenging, only because 99% of motorcycles have no reverse gear.


So when you need to park downhill on a road… your front wheel is actually parked near the curb side and your rear wheel is 30 - 45 degree facing the road. Like when parking uphill, the steeper it gets, the closer you are to parallel parking with the curb side.

LEAVE THE MOTORCYCLE IN 1ST GEAR ONCE PARKED!


The trick here is to not park so close to the curb side so you can still roll forward and turn right to exit the parking position (ie a half u-turn) and you really need a good 2 bike lengths of free space in front of you as you will only be going forward, not backwards. 


When downhill, you cannot put the back wheel to the curb side as doing so will put the side stand facing downhill and the combination of side stand angle + the downwards angle of the hill = One motorcycle that will fall over.


It’s not even a thought for most riders to even attempt pushing their own motorcycle backwards up any decent slope! Only good planning on where and how to park will make life easy on two wheels.


Why not just parallel park then?

Glad you asked… if a motorcycle parallel parks next to a deep curb, it can be just as steep as  the hill itself. If we park away from the curb say near the right tyre track of a car tyre away from the curb the motorcycle is then prone to rear and front bumps from other vehicles and if there are no other vehicles around then visually it is just a motorcycle parked in the middle on the lane, just looks silly and will be hit as parallel parked so far away from the curb side!


Mounting the motorcycle from the right side! 

When the motorcycle is leaning a fair bit but still stable to stay upright, sometimes you need to dismount and mount from the right side of the bike so you don’t add more weight to the already leaning motorcycle and side stand.


Just practice that right side motorcycle mounting and dismounting to feel the differences, it makes sense in the worst of hill parking scenarios.

Why is it different climbing on the motorcycle from the right side? 

Foot pegs are higher on the right, the handlebar left grip as we use that side to pull towards the motorcycle from the right side so to keep our body weight over the motorcycle is always facing away and downwards from the right side and we don’t want to upset the balance of the motorcycle by tugging hard on the right handlebar grip - Imagine its raining and dark, got to get a procedure in your head sorted before you add slippery foot pegs and wet surfaces!


Practicing anything helps every rider make better decisions. Did we mention to leave the motorcycle in 1st gear when parked! 

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