How do you parallel park your bike?

[MotoGirl]

I work in the fifth floor of a building and overlook one of Tauranga's main streets. You'd be amazed at how many imbiciles can't parallel park their cars and seem to take 100 attempts to do so. Watching these idiots got me thinking about how people park their bikes.

Here's my scenario:

• The street is relatively flat from side to side, but steep enough to make it awkward to back out of the parking space
• It gradually slopes from the bottom to the top
• It's paved and can sometimes be slippery
• When I'm parking there, there is little traffic around and even less pedestrians
• I always come in from the bottom of the street, which puts me on the opposite side of the road to the motorcycle park
• Riding down the street isn't an option because it takes me out of my way.

Personally, I take whatever option is easiest and requires me to manouver the bike the least. This sometimes involves riding on the footpath (red line above) just so I can face straight out of the parking space, ready to go again. Remember this is at 7.30 in the morning and no one's on the footpath!

Which option would you do?
Red - ride on the footpath and turn left into the park, facing out again
Pink - ride up the wrong side of the road and back into the park
Blue - cut across the road into the park, and turn within the park to face out again
Other - explain.

[Squiggles]

Pink, cant do it any other way on symonds st outside uni if you're on that side of the road

[MVnut]

Ride down the wrong side of the road, stomp the rear brake to spin the bike around and flick out the sidestand just before ya stop so you can just 'op off luv........... (sure I remember some guy on an H2 doing that back in the old days, just can't remember his name)............. just kidding, take the footpath.

[Waylander]

I don't parallel park my bike because that's illegal. Plus makes it easier to fall over. Putting one of the tyres against the curb helps to keep it from rolling off the stand.

[McDuck]

Yea i angle it in the parralel park. I dont get how cagers can not park, i mean it is not that hard!!!!

[Trudes]

I park the car so much better than I park the bike, in fact, I probably need more room to park the bike than the car, man I suck!! I'd probably take option pink.

[klingon]

Green - leave the bike at home and walk to work

Actually I do what others have already mentioned - I angle-park my bike pointing up the camber. Makes it easy to back in and power out, and if the camber is steep you can rest your back wheel against the curb.

If I'm starting on the wrong side of the road I do a U-turn into the space then back into position.

I saw someone once going down a steep gravel drive to the gate at the bottom. He then discovered the gate was locked. He had a tall, heavy bike and couldn't put it on its stand because of the deep gravel. Watched him trying to back it uphill on the gravel for quite some time before he managed it. (And no, I didn't offer to help! Imagine his embarrassment if he had to get a girl to help him park his bike!)

[Mountlocal1]

Pink during busier times and red when its quieter... Turning my bike around in a park is like 400kg man in a phone box tryn to pick up the 10c he dropped...

[sunhuntin]

last time i backed into a park, was in stratford, i think. i backed in, and had to leave the bike in first, as there was a hell of a drop between the gutter and the footpath... the back half of the bike would have been in china! LOL. it was on such an angle, that when i put the stand down and took my weight off the bike, without dismounting, it slid backwards.

[MaxCannon]

I've had a couple of instances on steep streets where I've had to give up parking and find somewhere flatter for fear of the bike toppling over.

Don't know how guys on big heavy bikes manage it.