I came to a stop today on a rather steep down slope. It was at a 'T' intersection, and I wanted to make a left turn. The street I wanted to turn onto also was going downhill. I was holding the bike at the stop with the brakes. When traffic cleared, I released the brakes, and started out in a normal fashion, releasing the clutch and rolling on some throttle. The problem was that due to the downward slope, the bike had started rolling out on its own before the throttle came up. The front wheel started folding up on me. Luckily, I got some throttle into the mix before the bike fell over, and she straighten up nicely under power, and all was OK. Next time I'll know to have a little throttle up, and the clutch slipping, before releasing the brakes. It was a scary moment.

 

Glad you made out ok.

 

you will get better at things like this as time goes on. relax and plan your moves and don't let it get under your skin and scare you.

 

Be sure to use the rear brake only at the stop while waiting your turn to move. This habit will always keep you upright while turning and accelerating because your power is at work upon release. One exception: stopped uphill and moving further uphill, use the front brake while stopped, bring the power up and release the clutch and brake simultaneously. Good save though.

 

I don't understand how a front wheel folds up but you should use rear brake only to hold a bike stopped on a downgrade.

 

It's exactly the same as when the front wheel folds on you when doing really slow maneuvers without enough power to the rear wheel. If you don't know what that is, find out before it happens. In essence, I was caught in an unintentional "slow maneuver." The bike rolled forward under the power of gravity before I had sufficient throttle up to handle it.

 

So the front wheel was turned before you had a chance to get on the throttle and the bike was free rolling? Just trying to get a clear pic here. Thanks for the headsup

 

"Folding up" is a new term for me. I am familiar to what happened to you (OP), but I don't know about calling it "folding up."

Nope, just googled "folding front wheel motorcycle." Got Kendon folding moto trailers.

Just imagine if you were 2-up and instead of downhill, it was uphill...

Time to practice limited space maneuvers on an incline...2-up.

 

Yeah, didn't mention it, but I was 2-up when this happened. That probably accentuated the problem. And yes, time to practice on an incline, I couldn't agree more!

As to "folding up," check out this video at frame 158. You can clearly see how the front wheel has folded up all the way toward the inside of the turn: That happened because the rider failed to keep enough power to the rear wheel.

 

Ok, now I see what you're talking about. If you look closely at the 1:58 frame, you'll notice his rear tire leaving the pavement. His front wheel was fine and dandy. He "levered" the rear wheel up by high centering the right foot board hard enough to "lift" the rear tire. Then he forgot to lower (raise?) the kickstand before righting the motor, causing it to fall onto the other side.
But no, no "folding" occurred.

Lastly,, since you were "2-up" the weight is up higher, causing a easier chance of a tip over when moving slowly on an incline. I've found this also as I have a steep driveway that I do u-turns on to back into the garage. I'm used to doing it solo, so I'm trained for that. Once, I did it with my GF on the back, and it was "different." No, I didn't crash as I expected it to be different but I was surprised at how different it was!