So I can't believe I'm gonna make a video showing you how to take your motorcycle off the sidestand. That's the world we live in today. Many of you have seen the video from Max McAllister over traction talking about the stress that gets put on this steering spindle every time you take your bike off the sidestand or if you drop the bike and you have to pick it up off the ground and it basically involves this motion of like you're lifting on the left side of the handlebar and pushing down on the right and you causing back and forth you get this flex motion and it puts that spindle under some potential strain. No disagreement there I agree that over time that could weaken that spindle and even possibly cause it to catastrophically fail. What I want to talk about today is how I take my motorcycle off the centerstand because after I watch Max's video I realized when I take my bike off the sidestand I never use the handlebars. I never lift up on the left side and push down on the right side so for those of you that may be doing that let me show you how I get my bike off the sidestand and maybe this will help you do the same thing so as to not put any stress or strain on that spindle so here we go. Now basically like most of you I do grab the handlebar to put my leg over just to balance myself but I'm not putting any strain on the handlebar. When I sit on the bike if I sit down on the seat generally my weight going down on the seat is enough to get the bike off the sidestand like this. Now I am pushing a little bit with my left thigh okay or my inner thigh so let's do that again. I don't even have to touch the handlebars I can just sit down on the bike push with my left thigh and the bike will come straight up and down so I don't have to do any flexing of that spindle to get the bike off the sidestand and remember I'm 180 pound weakling. Some of you guys might be 240 pounds you've got that additional weight and more strength than I've got. If I do use the handlebars at all what I will do is I will pull like you're making a left turn. I'm not flexing I'm not pulling up on the handlebar in fact I'm almost like I'm making a left turn. Of course the handlebars are locked and I might just barely pull in just to live on pulling in. I'm not flexing up I'm pulling in to help get the bike off the sidestand. Let me show you that again sit down just pull in a little bit and that will give you all the energy you need to help you get that bike off the sidestand. There's never a need to lift up on the handlebars and put that spindle in any kind of a flex or stress position which could cause damage down the road. Now there hasn't been any reported case yet of that spindle failing under these types of circumstances but it could happen. Okay so I'm going to get on the bike and I'm not you'll notice I'm not putting any pressure at all on that on that. I'm basically just using this to steady myself but you don't have to. I can just use my inner thigh and bring the bike straight up and down. I can do that all day long. You're not great and I should point out I'm on a little bit of an incline here because of my driveway my driveway slopes that direction. So I'm actually needing more energy to get the motorcycle off the sidestand than I normally would but again sit down the bike use your left inner thigh. If you sit down hard the bike will want to come up anyway because that additional weight coming down on the seat. No need to put stress and strain lifting up on this handlebar. If anything pull in on the handlebar like you're making a left turn you just pull in slightly very little pressure. It doesn't take much at all. Steering wheel is completely turned to the left. My front wheel is completely turned to the left. I just kind of use this to balance the bike. I sit down. I push in with my left thigh the bike comes straight up and down. Now I can turn the wheel. Turning the wheel left and right even with the bike not in motion does not put that spindle in any flex strain. It's meant to go left and right. It's a pivot. So now the next scenario that Max talks about in his video is what if you drop the motorcycle on the ground and you're trying to lift the bike up off the ground. Well I would suggest to you if you're trying to lift the motorcycle up using the handlebars you're probably doing it the wrong way because if you're just trying to use arm strength to lift a 900 pound motorcycle off the ground you're never going to get this bike up off the ground anyway. Now if you had two or three people and they're all grabbing the handlebars trying to do it yeah you could do that. The proper way to get the motorcycle and I apologize for all the noise they're building a swimming pool next door so it's kind of noisy out here. I apologize for that but the proper way to get the bike up off the ground and I'm not going to put my bike on the ground just to demonstrate this. There's plenty of videos on YouTube showing you how to raise a goldling up that's dropped over but the proper way is you get down, crouch down, put your butt in the seat and you're going to be grabbing the passenger grab well rail with one hand and the handlebar with the other hand but you're not using the handlebar to lift the motorcycle. In fact if anything you're kind of just pulling it in like a left turn again you're not lifting up on it. That's not going to get you anywhere anyway. You're just using this to give you leverage so that you can use your legs, your fine muscles or the strongest muscles in your body. So you're going to use your leg strength to get that motorcycle back up onto the full chrome so those tires will write the motorcycle straight up and down. Once you've got the motorcycle up you can put the kick stand down but again you're not lifting up on the handlebar and putting that spindle in any kind of stress. The other situation what if the motorcycle tips over or you have an accident or whatever and the handlebars impact the ground. Well if you simply drop your bike like in the garage the bike should rest on the tip over bars and the handlebars should never touch the ground but if you suffer a really dramatic fall or tip over the bike can go past the tip over bars so it's no longer resting on the tip over bars and the tires it's actually resting on the handlebars or the mirror and the tip over bars. In that case yes that spindle has probably suffered some trauma that could and I emphasize could cause an issue down the road or could instantly cause an issue if it instantly breaks you're going to know it when you try to steer the bike you won't have any control. Personally if I knew my bike fell over and the and the handlebars had impacted the ground I would not feel comfortable riding that motorcycle without getting that spindle replaced. Now when it comes time to replace the spindle you have a decision to make or you're going to replace it with the aluminum spindle from Honda or you're going to order the stainless steel spindle that max is coming out with. Again me personally I would go with stainless steel I think it's a better material it's going to be stronger and I trust Max's engineering on that just like the little safety pin that he's come out with. Everybody with a 2018 to 2020 gold wing should buy that little stainless steel safety pin and go ahead and put it in your existing spindle just as insurance it's the cheapest insurance you can buy. I'm a big believer in that some people have texted me and put messages on Facebook's have changed my position that I was against all this I was never against this I think it's a great idea. The only thing I was questioning is why are people lifting up on the handlebar to get their bike off the side stand in the first place is completely unnecessary and the same is true of getting the bike up off the ground you shouldn't be lifting the motorcycle with the handlebars. I was getting emails from people that were saying they weren't going to buy a Honda gold wing because of what they saw in Max's video and I consider that to be a little bit irrational and to be kind of a panic situation. I don't think there's any reason to panic over this and like I say in 75 to 80% of the cases or more if your bike falls over like in the garage or in a parking lot it's never going to strike the handlebars it's going to come into the tip over bars and the tires are going to be on the ground. If it does strike the handlebars go ahead and replace the spindle and if you have to do that do it with Max's stainless steel spindle that's just kind of my view. So anyway I hope you enjoyed the video if you like it please give it a thumbs up don't forget to click the subscribe button click that little bell icon if you want YouTube to notify you when I come out with new videos so thanks again for watching me today on cruise man's garage. If you enjoyed this video please take a second to give it a thumbs up and don't forget to click the subscribe button and that little bell icon so YouTube will notify you of new videos when they become available.