How To Pick Up A Motorcycle, Even A Heavy One
Well, you buffed it. You dropped your bike. It's okay, it happens to the best of us — and also to me, a woman who drops her bikes during such complex maneuvers as "getting cut off by a bicycle" or "turning from a stop." In fact, I dropped my old 500-pound BMW GS with its 10.5 inches of ground clearance enough times to really nail down the technique of picking it back up without grievously injuring my back. Today, you get to heed the wisdom of all my attempts.
I mention my old GS's ground clearance because, contrary to what you might expect, that matters more than the weight of your motorcycle when you go to pick it up. Think about it like a lever — the bike's weight is acting on a distance from the point around which you're trying to roll it. A taller bike is harder to pick up than a lower one, and a tall heavy bike — like an ADV — is just about the worst thing to pick up. So if all 137 pounds of me can lift a 500-pound GS, you can too. Here's how.
Read more: These Are The Dumbest Looking Cars Of All Time, According To You
Crouch down with your back against the seat of your bike. Tilt your handlebars all the way inward — to the left if you're on the left side or to the right if you're on the right — and grab the bars with one hand. With the other, find some purchase on the rear of the bike. Luggage racks are great for this, but bodywork can do the job in a pinch. You'll end up positioned like the picture above, crouched next to your bike.
Keep your back as upright as possible and lift with your legs until you feel the bike's weight shift from its side to its wheels. This will happen when the rear wheel meets ground, since the front will almost always have touched down when you turned the bars. That's just a little tilt, though, compared to the next step: Standing up and stepping backwards to push the bike up using your thigh muscles.
It's easier to lift a bike than to hold one up, so your motion once the bike's weight is resting on its wheels should be a single, fluid one. Don't try to throw the bike up in an instant but don't tire yourself out by making the process last longer than it needs to. Back to the bike, turn the bars, grab hold, lift to the wheels, then one fell swoop to get the bike upright.
If you're lucky enough to have dropped the bike on its right side, opposite the kickstand, dropping that before lifting the bike can help make sure you don't overshoot. If not, don't worry — you'll feel the bike getting lighter as more of its weight settles onto its wheels, and you can start to taper off your effort, so you don't go too far. I've used this method to pick up that old GS immediately after running myself ragged at the climbing gym, and I can confirm that it spares you the worst of the soreness that you'd get from other lifting methods. Getting your back into the scoop of the seat, as close to the bike's center of mass as possible, is like doing deadlifts with a hex bar. It shifts effort from your lower back muscles to your quads.
Proper technique makes all the difference in the world when lifting a bike, and a technique that works on tall, heavy ADVs should work on anything. Just keep your body close to the center of the bike, your back straight, and your movements smooth. You'll be back on your ride before you know it.
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Motor Trend
27-05-2025
- Motor Trend
A-Body Brothers In Arms: The Buick GS 455 vs. Oldsmobile 442 W-30
[Editor's Note: This article first appeared in the Winter 2011 issue of MotorTrend Classic] Imagine the Indianapolis Colts playing the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. Payton versus Eli, Manning-a-Manning. It could have happened, but now it probably won't. It did happen with two other brothers, not in an NFL game, but on streets and dragstrips. Oldsmobile 4-4-2 W-30 versus Buick GS 455 Stage 1, A-body brothers each considered the 'gentleman's musclecar.' Sibling rivals from the era when GM divisions competed more with each other than with Ford, Chrysler, or AMC. John Z. DeLorean started it all with a third brother, the 1964 Pontiac GTO. Olds dropped a 400-cube, four-barrel dual exhaust into the Cutlass to create the 4-4-2 a few months later. When the 1965 Buick GS arrived within a year, it technically violated GM's 400-cubic-inch-displacement limit for A-body cars. Badged as 400, its Wildcat V-8 was a 401-cube 'Nailhead' V-8. GM replaced its 1964-'67 A-bodies with new 1968 models, with new sheetmetal scheduled for every two years. Through '69, the GTO was GM's preeminent musclecar, and the 4-4-2 was its more refined brother, with better handling. The subtle, more relaxed GS wasn't a contender. GM did away with its 400-cube limit for the 1970 model year, and Buick was ready, especially after the 1969 Opel GT launch. 'The increase in showroom floor traffic when the GT went on display early in April was almost unbelievable,' reads the Buick Engineering Production Information Department's outline of the 1970 GSX. 'Some Buick dealers reported 5000 people through their showrooms in one weekend.' Paul Haddock, owner of the 1972 Buick GS 455 Stage 1 on these pages, sent a copy of that report. He also owns a 1970 Stage 1 hardtop and a 1971 GS 455 convertible. The GSX, a 455-cubic-inch Buick A-body with 'mod' graphics typical of the era, would be the Skylark's halo model, which Buick hoped might help close the model's 50,000-unit annual sales gap relative to the Olds Cutlass. When torque came to shove, it wasn't the GSX, with un-Buick-like flat black stripes on deep-yellow paint, that gave the GS street cred. It was the Stage 1 455. 'It's the car that beat the Hemi 'Cuda,' allows Mike Bivins, owner of the 1971 Olds 4-4-2 W-30 sharing these pages with Haddock's Stage 1. Like Manning versus Manning, the Olds versus Buick musclecar rivalry would be short-lived. Car insurance rates were rising steeply by the late '60s, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, established in December 1970, enacted immediate restrictions on leaded premium fuel. Stricter regs were due in 1975. Olds and Buick lowered the compression ratio on their blueprinted 1971 W-30 and Stage 1 engines from 10.5:1 to 8.5:1 and complied with a mandated switch from SAE gross to net horsepower reporting. By 1972, the Hemi 'Cuda that Buick beat in '70 was gone, and the Plymouth pony's top engine was a 260-hp, 340 cubic-inch V-8. A year later, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries staged their first oil embargo. 0:00 / 0:00 'Despite the almost total demise of the high compression/premium fuel engine, the '71 Super Cars have managed to retain their essential vitality,' A.B. Shuman wrote in the October 1970 issue of Motor Trend. In Shuman's story, the Buick GS 455 Stage 1 edged a '71 W-30 prototype with a four-speed stick and '70 sheetmetal, recording a 6.5-second 0-60 run to the Olds' 6.6. It was quicker than the GTO, Chevy Chevelle SS 454, Camaro Z28, and Plymouth Road Runner. Shuman asked Olds for an automatic W-30 to see what effect its combo of torque converter and different valve timing would have. It beat the Buick with a 6.1 second 0-60. Motor Trend's test of the '72 GS Stage 1 was a sidebar to a June 1972 comparison entitled 'Sayonara Supercar.' 'The amazing thing, considering all that's happened just in the area of emissions controls,' Shuman wrote, 'is that a car that runs like the GS Stage 1 could still exist.' It was faster than the manual GTO and W-30 automatic of 1972, beating the latter by 0.8 seconds in 0-60-mph times and by 0.4 second and 5 mph in the quarter. Haddock's 1972 Stage 1 exists only because a 1971 United Auto Workers strike delayed GM's 'Colonnade' A-body replacements by one model year. Ad huckster 'Dr. Oldsmobile's' 4-4-2 was a separate model from 1967 to '71, then became an option package on Cutlasses again in 1972. The '72 face-lifts were minimal, with chrome headlamp surrounds as on Bivins' car on the '71 Olds and Buick, flat black surrounds as on Haddock's car on the '72s, and tweaked grille meshes. Bivins' Olds doesn't have the two vertical pieces that split the taillamps into thirds like the '72 models. Black rubber trim surrounds the taillamps on Haddock's 1972 GS, but not on his '71. The Olds is the epitome of Bill Mitchell's organic 'fuselage' surfacing, with a large, split grille and a sleek fastback with strong, muscular rear shoulders. The Buick is sublime with two small ram air intakes near the center of the hood, where the W-30 has two gigantic golden scoops. Side surfacing is more creased, lending the GS a kind of abstract Coke-bottle shape. Haddock has restuffed his driver's seat, so you sit high in the Buick. Both tachometers are hard to read behind thin-rimmed steering wheels. The Oldsmobile's tach is of the tick-tock variety, and Bivins' car features a Hurst dual-gate shifter, with a separate gate for 'manual' shifting. It's easier to simply set either Turbo-Hydramatic in 'drive' and put your foot to the floor. The steering in both cars has more play than a kindergarten gym. Neither has the kind of lean or wallow most contemporaries would display even on gentle turns. Though it feels slightly quicker, the GS has less squat and tighter, more refined body control. Those huge ram air intakes on the W-30 makes the Oldsmobile feel bigger from behind the wheel. Its engine warmed, the W-30 starts immediately. The Stage 1 needs a quarter-throttle. Haddock put '70 Stage 1 10.5:1 pistons in his '72 because, 'Why wouldn't I?' Both are stronger cars than other '70s musclecars, their power coming on strong at the mid-range, with a NASCAR growl that would do a modern car proud. Don't take my word for it. I ask Mike and Paul to trade keys. 'Are they going to be diplomatic, or truthful?' Mike's wife, Laurie, asks. Mike Bivins: 'That one was right smooth going down the highway, smooth shifting. Seemed like it had a bit hotter cam. Good driving car. I didn't stand on it, because I didn't want to have to buy Paul a new motor. It has more brakes.' Paul Haddock: 'I was surprised at the similarities between the cars. They both kind of feel the same. Set up the same. The hood feels awfully long on that W-30. I like the dual-gate shifter. I think Buick was playing to a more conservative customer. The Olds looks more aggressive.' Diplomatic indeed. 'Well, we're gentlemen, right?' Haddock says. 'The Olds and Buick guys are gentlemen.' 1971 Oldsmobile 442 W-30 Ask The Man Who Own One Mike Bivins owns Tri-Tech Incorporated, a handrail and metal fabrication manufacturer in Austell, Georgia ( He bought his W-30 in 2002, five years after he offered to purchase it from a fellow Oldsmobile Club of America member and has since sold his first collectible, a 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme sport coupe. Why I Like IT: 'Its sportiness. I like that it's a big-block car and a ram air car.' Why It's Collectible: 'Only 920 were made, and probably half are gone. It shows what GM could do 40 years ago and how advanced they were, and when performance and sportiness were critical.' Restoring/Maintaining: 'Drive it pretty regularly, especially with ethanol fuels. I use an additive to try to help with that. Change the oil regularly, and an Oldsmobile engine will last.' Beware: Clones. Local Olds Club chapters can help tell if you've got an authentic W-30. Its carburetors have unique jets. Bivins has even found 'W-30' stamped on the end of his car's camshaft. 'Buy one that's all but done. You're going to save money in the long run.' GM A-bodies are known for leaky front and rear windows. Expect To Pay: (W-30 coupe) Concours-ready: $39,950, Solid driver: $21,000, Tired runner: $11,550 Join The Club: Oldsmobile Club of America ( Our Take Then: 'The car made top marks in standing start acceleration, though it couldn't match the four-speeds in the passing range.' —A.B. Shuman, MotorTrend, October 1970 Now: The 4-4-2 W-30 is a stylish Belle Epoch musclecar, a quick and refined step up from the Pontiac GTO. 1972 Buick GS 455 Ask The Man Who Own One Paul Haddock owns Fairclough & Company, a men's fine clothing store in Charlotte, North Carolina ( His father drove LeSabre and Wildcat company cars in the '60s and '70s. Haddock bought the '72 Stage 1, one of his three GS models, about 15 years ago. He drove it unrestored 'just for fun,' then restored the car about eight years ago. Haddock repaired bodywork from front and rear window leaks, replaced the radiator support and battery box, rebuilt the engine and transmission, and replaced a front fender that had a rusted-out support. He traded a Chevy Suburban for the paint job. Why I Like It: 'I love a Buick because it's a sleeper. People just don't really get it most of the time, and it's got all the horsepower and torque you need.' Why It's Collectible: 'It was the underrated musclecar of the era. People are just beginning to understand in the last 10 or so years what they really are and were. Buick fans always knew.' Restoring/Maintaining: 'Driving the car is the best thing you can do to maintain it. General use keeps the battery up and gas running through it; so use is your friend. I mix racing gas in, from time to time—gets the octane up.' Beware: 'If you want a true, investment-grade Stage 1, get the documentation that it's a numbers-matching car. Make sure you have the correct engine, the correct transmission for the car. Guys drive a Stage 1 hard and blow a motor and throw another Buick motor in. Contact the GS club of America to check VIN codes. GM A-bodies catch stuff in the lower fender wells; the battery trays rust and corrode. All those can be fixed if it's not a totally right car.' Expect To Pay: (Stage 1 coupe) Concours-ready: $44,450, Solid driver: $23,400, Tired runner: $12,850 Join The Clubs: Buick Club of America ( Buick GS Club of America ( Our Take Then: 'In the final analysis, Buick builds a pretty good car, because, on top of everything else, it is quiet, smooth, and rattle free.'—A.B. Shuman, MotorTrend, June 1972 Now: It's a clean, trim, upper-middle premium intermediate with more power than more common contemporaries.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Yahoo
Tuned Lexus GS Driven By A Paraplegic, Hides A 2JZ Surprise
Read the full story on Backfire News We admit to not being familiar with the fabricator and drifter Chairslayer, aka Rob Parsons, but running across his Lexus GS300 build we were instantly drawn in. After all, we don't see too many people doing tasteful modifications on the GS – the Lexus sedans are either kept bone stock or modified in ways we don't really Chairslayer's car as shown off on YouTube channel HertLife is pretty sweet. And the fact it was built for a paraplegic driver intrigued us even more. We absolutely believe the car hobby is something anyone who wants to enjoy should. Even more interesting, the build isn't some ultra pretty show car, even though it does have some eye candy with the chrome wheels. Parsons says he has daily driven the Lexus for some time, including in the harsh Utah winters, so it's seen plenty of action. Still, he wanted to have fun with the luxury sedan, so he did. When he acquired the GS, it apparently was a full VIP build, which he admits isn't really his thing. Still, he liked the way it looked and so he decided to start making it his own. Obviously, the car is bagged so it can ride low or go higher to deal with potholes and driveway skirts. What most wouldn't expect is the twin-turbo 2JZ engine lurking under the hood. We don't know if it qualifies are a sleeper, per se, but we also don't think most people would expect the Lexus to be packing that much heat. The interior is nice with quilted leather upholstery, contrast stitching, solid wood trim, and other niceties. While it's not a racecar, the GS is a great way to enjoy some power, have some fun, yet also sit in the lap of luxury. Chairslayer says he's launching his own YouTube channel, which could be great, so look it up if you want to know more about what he does. Images via HertLife/YouTube
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Yahoo
Goldman Sachs raises its recession odds as Trump sounds more hawkish on tariffs
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