The hardest thing about riding my brand new Vespa S150 was not taught on my Basic Rider Course – getting the damn thing on its center-stand.

I’ve spent the first few days of modern scooter ownership working on a hernia until I found out that lugging a 250lb metal body dead-weight onto its center stand is, like many things in life, more about technique than brute strength.

Not only could I not get the damn thing to rock back onto it’s stand, but worse, was getting close to dropping the bike onto either myself of the concrete. I was pulling the bike so hard that I was lifting the front wheel a good foot or so off the ground and thoroughly unbalancing both myself and the bike.

Fortunately there are some good folks out there on the web who are ready to provide some sanity to the situation.

Turns out I was making three classic mistakes:

First, I wasn’t centering the bike vertically so that as the stand touched the ground it was distributing the weight evenly across both feet.

Second? I was standing in entirely the wrong location, and trying to do more work pulling with my arms that pushing down on the stand with my foot.

Third. I was trying to bring the stand directly down from the scoot, onto the ground, and into a parking position in one foul swoop.

What should I have been doing?

Thanks to a little research, so you don’t have to, here’s how:

First – stand to the immediate left side of the bike. Place your left hand on the left handlebar grip and grip the brake and your right on top of the seat to steady the bike. At this point you are facing the side of the bike rather than facing toward the handle bars.

Second, and this was my biggest mistake – slowly bring the stand down with your right foot until it makes contact with the ground. Now stop. The task here is not to immediately hop it onto the stand but rather to steady the bike and bring it upright. Once the stand has reached the ground, carefully rock the bike gently toward and away from you while pushing gently on the stand until you feel both feet bite the ground. This means that the bike has secure footing and is standing exactly perpendicular to the ground.

Now, in one swift movement, release the brake with your left hand as you step down on the center-stand foot pedal with your right foot as if stepping up onto a stair. While doing so, keep your left hand on the left grip and your right hand on the seat but only for the purpose of steadying the bike. It’s the step-down that does all the work, and releasing the brake even on a flat surface should give you enough momentum to initiate the roll. My mistake prior to learning this was to waste all my energy heaving with my arms rather than pushing with my foot.

Ker-clunk, and voila. The scoot should snap back a few inches onto its center-stand. If you need a little extra oomph, a slight tug on the grip with your left hand will initiate a slight roll back as you push down on the stand.

Need to see how this plays out? Check out this video on YouTube that shows even a 110lb woman can do this with ease:

Notice the brief pause where she rocks ever so slightly to ensure it’s exactly perpendicular with both stand feet hitting the ground evenly. She does it swiftly but it’s there. And from the reverse angle:

For the purpose of safety I found stepping completely off the ground as this woman does a bit nerve-wracking but she’s obviously doing this to completely leverage her entire body-weight.

Lesson learned. I’m now popping onto that center-stand bad boy with ease.

Scooter newbie … making mistakes so you don’t have to. ‘Till next time.

Related posts:

1. How (not) to use a center-stand If you've recently upgraded from a two-stroke scoot to a...
2. Shake, rattle, and roll – part one With the main day-to-day running issues of the engine and...
3. Scooter Newbie: Backed-over already One week. One week? That's all it took for my...
4. Scooter Newbie: How not to gas up. Last night marked my first scooter adventure on my brand...
5. Scooter Newbie: Vespa ‘S’ vs. ‘LX’ I love my S150, I really do, but a month...