Even If You're Short, Here's How To Pick Up Your Big Adventure Motorcycle

I don't know where you live, but in the Chicago area, last weekend was the first weekend that the streets were alive with a whole bunch of bikes rumbling and roaring to life after the winter. On Saturday, the weather was picture-perfect: Sunny, breezy, and bright. Enough to make riders of all kinds of bikes positively giddy with delight.

There's no bad time to get a refresher on good bike-lifting techniques when your baby falls over, but the beginning of the season seems like an especially good time, you know? Especially if you're a smaller rider, and you don't think you can do it. Barring physical issues (such as injuries) that preclude you from lifting things, Caroline (also known as Doodle on a Motorcycle on YouTube) is back out here demonstrating and sharing knowledge and encouragement to get us all hoisting our bikes back onto their side stands.

In this video, she's lifting a nice, big BMW R 1250 GS that's on its side in a parking lot. And then she's coaching a buddy who's never tried to lift this bike before so she can do it. I'll give you a spoiler here: Both of them, with proper techniques, are able to successfully pick this bike back up off the ground; by themselves, and also with assistance (the Buddy Technique).

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As Doodle notes, the bike in question weighs about 523 pounds. It's also a pretty tall machine, but its boxer engine probably offers a bit of help in terms of having to pick it back up, because it sticks out on both sides. This raises it off the ground just a little, but every little bit helps if you're trying to right a fallen bike.

She's a rider on the smaller side, as plenty of us are. As she mentions here, she's just under 5'4" and around 112 pounds. The key here is using leverage and good body positioning to power the bike up with your legs, not your back.

A lot of the body positioning tips that Doodle offers are similar to what a good coach will tell you about deadlifting. With deadlifting, as with motorcycling, where you put your eyes will dictate how your body moves (and where it goes).

In both cases, if you look down, that's when things go wrong. Whether you're lifting weights or your motorcycle, you want to keep your eyes up. Then your back and shoulders will also stay in the correct position to lift those heavy things without hurting your back. Stick your butt out (in the case of the bike, push it back into the saddle as you lift), which will also help to protect your back. Use your legs to muscle the bike back up, and don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it.

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