Adventure Bike Rider Forum

The idea of being parked tight against the left side and then asked to put bike on centre stand is good..!!! I had that on a ferry and the guy points to a space where he wants the bike and I couldn't get it there for same reason. He didn't grasp his problem for a while, in the end I went to a different location and told him if he wanted the bike where he said he would have to park it.

Funny too they did the same thing with the car, it was filled up with stuff and only me driving so even front passenger seat was filled. Wanted me to park tight on the right..........

But....if you are on the ferry make sure both legs of your stand and especially the 'foot' handle part are well clear of the steel hooks in the floor.......

use my own ratchets, side stand and tied off the engine bars and in gear

Britanny Ferries last year (and I think year before?) Pompey Caen (and Le Havre) had front wheel chocks and couple of tie downs over seat and bike was secured while you watched, very stable. Only problem for some was pulling their big 'ol loaded bikes out of the chock but plenty of helping hands if asked.

sprintster wrote:

RandG wrote:

[email protected] wrote:
Well... my centre stand's got two points of contact, add in a wheel so that's three. I'm not sure it's massively more stable having the triangle running the length of the bike.

Front wheel, rear wheel, side stand is a far bigger contact area that CS/front wheel/rear wheel, that's my logic anyway.

And obviously the ferry crew's logic as well,but what would they know? :whistle:
The side stands that have been broken does anyone know who actually strapped it down?
There will always be some gorilla who over does things (you know,no torque wrench in their arm).
Side stand,bike in gear,another strap on the other side to balance it and the front brake tied on will do me.
The time the ferry crew sorted my bike I'd just put a strap across the seat but they tied it from both pillion peg hangers,so that's what I'll do from now on.I respect these guys who do it every day know better than me.

Well in about 20 years of using ferries with bikes I've only seen more than one strap used on a couple of occasions- and I *think* one of those was on Brittany ferries to Spain. I've tied my bike down dozens of times and it's not shifted so I'd rather trust in my own judgement and experience than someone I know nothing about- especially after having a seat damaged by an over-tightened ratchet strap and having seen the side stand incident.