Bike falls over due to flat tire?

[Sabre2870]

I have only been riding for three years. I ride an average of 12,000 miles a year. My bike is a BMW 2002 K1200 RS. A couple of weeks ago my bike fell over while parked in my garage. I tried to stand it up and noticed that it would not stay on the side stand and that I had a flat tire. With some help from my wife we got it up on the center stand. Fortunantely when it fell it fell into the garage door and did not fall all the way over and only did a little damage to the Givi bag that I have on the back. I talked to three different people at my dealer; a salesman who said that he has seen it happen numerous times, the service manger who sad that he had never seen it happen, and the owner who said that BMW could not make the side stand any shorter which does seem to be true. I then contacted BMW directly and they said they are not aware of a design issue. The point of this thread is to see how many people this has happened to and to hear your story and what kind of bike?

[06six00]

Ahh man that sucks! At least your bike is alright. I haven't ever heard of that happening but now that I think about it I am sure its possible.

[kevin_stevens]

Yes, it's happened (or could well have happened) to me on several bikes. When your tire goes flat, you've effectively lowered the bike by a couple of inches, and that obviously reduces the lean angle on the sidestand. That's why they make adjustable/shortened sidestands for the more popular lowered bikes.

Hard to really call it a design problem. BTW some bikes even have this problem when heavily loaded/packed.

KeS

[dragonryder]

Been there! Like Kevin said the flat causes the bike to drop, makes the center stand angle too steep and over it will go. I broke a mirror and scratched up my lowers on my GSXR1000 once with a flat.
I am glad that the over did not hurt you bike worse.
I have gotten into the habit (for many years) of checking my tire air pressure every day before I ride so I can hopefully detect a leak early before it goes flat.
Don't know if it helps but at least I know my pressures are good. I know the bike handles really bad when the air pressures are low too.
Anita

[bush]

Originally Posted by kevin_stevens

BTW some bikes even have this problem when heavily loaded/packed.

I do notice this sometimes when my bike is fully loaded and I'm parked on a slight incline.