Yesterday, I placed the bike on the side stand, and tried to clean off the tar from the initial fall. I noticed the front wheel moved slightly as I began to rub the swingarm. Previous experience told me this was the front assembly "turning". I couldn't get the tar off, so I imediately went back in the garage to put my stuff away. Turned around to see the beast flip the side stand up, then crash into the side of my caravan, then down onto the pavement. Results: 1) One cracked left front turn signal 2) Scraped front top piece, bottom cracked piece, scraped metal funky piece above the gray lower cowling, and seriously scraped right rear panel 3) Grab rail slightly scratched 4) One very pissed of GTS Owner %$#^&%$#@! 5) Slight ding in the Caravan Too but at 170K mile, I'm not crying over that one! OK, so I hope I've learned from Mike Coan & Bob Taylor, the rest of you NewBees learn from me! Don't put this thing on the side stand (my opion ever!) on any slight grade (This second area was almost flat). You're only asking for disappointment. Also, front wheel motion, is not the forks pivoting (Duh!) it's you flirting with disaster. Other than that, yesterday was a great day Ride & Park Safely Shawn Pearsall ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have to had to that : When on side stand : - Don't have the bike facing DOWNhill... - Keep the bike IN GEAR... richardl@bigfoot.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I picked up my 94 from the dealer he told me the only time to put the bike on the side stand was before getting off and putting it on the center stand. He was emphatic about not trusting the side stand and repeated his warning several times. This place had sold at least a dozen GTS's so I just took his word for it and didn't ask details. tyler ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After reading this and responses thus far, a couple of comments. First, the side stand is certainly not to be trusted. Even less than I thought. Thanks for the warning. My only experience of this sort was an older FZR400, which was in my driveway, and started rolling whilst I watched. Can you say sprint? I actually caught it about half way from vertical to expensive. My other point: I've argued since I bought the bike that the GTS is among the world's worst parking lot bikes. Along with Ducatis, this is one miserable bike in slow moves. Part of it is the very limited steering lock. In the case of the GTS, the heavy weight and high center of gravity don't help. So, keep 'em up, it's much better that way. Phil Benson ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is where the tapered steering head roller bearings come in to play the most! Slow or no speed in a parking lot is just where they show there stuff! Bob Taylor,gtsbiker