One of the most vexing things about riding a big bike is getting it out of the driveway. It was tough when I lived in Plano, since the driveways there have an incline down to the alley, and there’s a gully between the alley and driveway. Which means you need to turn backwards while going downhill, and position yourself to exit the alley while you are in the driveway. You don’t want to wind up with the back wheel in the alley, your front in the driveway, and an extra foot of airspace between your feet and the ground.
I have the same issue in this house. I need to pivot in the driveway so I don’t get caught with awkward footing at the end of the driveway. Note that I don’t have a ton of maneuvering room next to the truck.
To make matters far worse, they ‘fixed’ the cracks in the driveway like morons. Look here:
This is after I swept. Normally, there’s busted up concrete pebbles under my feet. This is uh…sub-optimal, especially with a heavy bike. Add to that when I have the bags on it, it’s even tougher backing around the truck.
So the task here is to figure out how to get that big bastard backed into the garage. I thought that maybe I could pop the curb on the side street, ride across the front lawn, and turn right at the top of the driveway. That leaves a small incline and a 1″ bump to get it backed in. Not to mention the hard right turn exiting from grass to the driveway whilst avoiding the truck.
So before I try that, I wondered if I could muscle that thing so it faces out while still in the garage.
Turns out, I could.
The trick is leaving the kickstand down.
It was fairly easy to pivot it backwards in front of the weight bench, then left to out the door while making sure the kickstand doesn’t fold back. The tough part is moving it backwards into position. You have to get some momentum, even a little, to get it up that 1″ onto the garage floor.
So a huge success.
This’ll make me more likely to ride the bike, since it’s a pain in the ass to back out. This way, I can move it out, pause for a second to hit the garage remote, and blast off.
I’ve been thinking of getting a beater bike. You know, a garage queen that someone’s wife wants gone. It would be cheaper than a second car and easier to deal with for short trips. I’m on the fence, TBH. It’ll take road time away from this one, which is a really nice ride. Once moving, it’s light and easy as any bike, really.
Inspected By Pat 