wBW
Quick Review:
The Parking Puck Side Stand Plate
by "Mad Dog" Earle for webBikeWorld.com
More: wBW
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| Owner Comments (Below)
Summary: Interesting non-slip device helps prevent motorcycle
tip-overs.
What do you call these things? In the old days, we'd use a flattened
soda can to place under the motorcycle's side stand.
Who knows how
today's cans would work -- the aluminum they use is so thin you can read the
latest edition of Cycle News through them. Both sides. Of the
can, that is.
I guess the Parking Puck can be called a "Side Stand Surface
Area Enhancement Device" or maybe a "Side Stand Foot"?
The idea is to carry one around and slide it under the side
stand when parking on the grass, soft dirt or hot asphalt. I've seen
more bikes tip over on sun-baked Florida asphalt than anywhere else.
The Parking Puck increases the surface area under the
normally tiny side stand plate and hopefully prevents the side stand from
sinking in, resulting in a tip-over. It weighs 10 grams, or 3.25 oz.
and it's made from an official NHL hockey puck, made in Canada.
I'm not sure that it matters whether it's an official NHL
hockey puck or not; I have seen some motorcyclists use pucks as side stand
plates, but a regulation puck is 1" thick and that usually will put the bike
too upright for safe parking. The motorcycle needs some weight on the
side stand or you may risk tipping over the other way. It's happened.
To me.
The Parking Puck has a large cutout, bringing the business
surface down to 1/2" above sea level. This gives plenty of room for
most side stands with normal sized feet. It can be slightly tricky to
maneuver the Parking Puck in to position with your toe as you're holding the
bike, but the alternative is watching the bike sink into the ground (slowly,
you hope) whilst you search around for a piece of wood, soda can (or two) or
milk carton.
A hockey puck is 2-15/16" in diameter (2.9375"), so that
gives, uh -- let's see: the surface area of a circle is pi times the square
of the radius, if I recall (actually, I didn't recall this but had to look
it up!). So 3.14159265 * [(2.9375/2)squared] = 6.77"?
Whew! So the Parking Puck gives maybe 4 or 5 times as
much surface area as the foot on a normal side stand. I'm sure the
engineers out there can probably calculate the pressure per square inch,
depending upon the lean and weight of the bike.
I'm not sure how the Parking Puck is made; I'd like to think
it is machined but I don't see any tooling marks on it (Update: See note in
comments section below). It fits in a
pocket and I suppose you could drill a hole through it for a lanyard and
secure it to the bike if desired. It does get kind of dirty, especially
if things are muddy, and I suppose you could also carry a plastic sandwich
bag to store it in before slipping it into your pocket.
It's easier to place the bike on the Parking Puck than it is
to grab the puck when you're ready to roll. If the ground is soft
enough, you have to lean the bike back, kick the puck nearby and carefully
bend over whilst holding the bike upright to grab the puck.
This is
where a flattened soda can comes in handy because you can simply leave it
where it is for the next guy and ride off (Editor's Note: not really, MD's
just trying to be funny - make sure you reuse, recycle and clean up your
mess!).
The Parking Puck isn't cheap at $8.00 CDN plus $10.00 US
shipping. A discount is offered for quantities, and they can also be
custom ordered with a logo or club name. This may sound expensive, but
believe it or not, Wunderlich, the BMW accessory manufacturer, makes a side
stand plate for something like 50 bucks. Now that's ridiculous!
|
Product Review: Parking Puck |
| Available
From: Parking
Puck |
Suggested Retail Price: $8.00
CDN + $10.00 US S/H |
| Colors:
Black |
Made
in: Canada |
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►Your Comments and
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Comments are ordered from most recent to oldest.
Not all comments will be published (
details). Comments may be edited for
clarity prior to publication.
From "M.D." (9/08): "I really enjoyed your review, and
thought I'd add my $.02 (Cad) worth:
Canadians are allowed to buy actual hockey pucks to use for
sidestand pucks. ;) In fact, the first time I saw a puck used this way, it
was on a BMW R1150GS, and the owner had drilled a few holes in the base
plate of his sidestand and screwed the puck directly and permanently to the
stand. Worked really well for him. BMWs tend to lean really far on
their stock sidestands, often looking like they're ready to topple over if
they are heavily loaded.
We normally use octagonal electrical junction box covers,
with a string attached, as sidestand plates. We place the string on
the clutch lever as a reminder, and an aid to picking it up. These
work nicely, fitting in a tank bag in the map window, since they take up so
little room. In fact we often carry along extras and give them away to
anyone who needs one.
Anyway, keep up the good work - your site is very useful."
From the Parking Puck Manufacturer:: I read the review on
webBikeWorld and would like to clarify a few things about the ParkingPuck.
You have listed the Suggested Retail Price: $8.00 CDN + $10.00 US S/H but in
actual fact, the PayPal services only work with one currency, so orders for
each ParkingPuck is $8.00 CDN but shipping varies depending on the number of
pucks.
For example, shipping for 1-5 pucks is only $8.00 CDN and shipping for 6-10
pucks is $15.00 CDN, and so on. Orders of >50 pucks have free shipping.
When an order is placed online through the website, the amount is billed in
Canadian dollars (a bargain for US buyers). The website information
will be updated shortly to more accurately reflect the costs.
The ParkingPuck is not a machined item. It is manufactured using the same
vulcanizing process as a regular puck which prevents tearing of the rubber
and creates cleaner edges etc.... (The) ParkingPuck is versatile enough to
accommodate different types of kickstands. The normal use of the ParkingPuck
would have the closed edge of the puck facing the other way which would aid
in stopping the kickstand from sliding off of the puck.
From "D.": "If you'd really like to save a few bucks,
you can pick up a few (2 ~ 3) THICK paper beer bottle coasters from your
favorite tavern and glue them together with Elmer's glue overnight. Voila!
There's your homemade "parking puck." They are so inexpensive and
easily made that I keep at least one in each of my riding jackets and one in
the tool kit pouch on my bike. If you regularly hit the local bars,
you probably have unlimited supply of that stuff!"
From "D.W.": "I just read your review of the Parking
Puck and thought I'd clue you in to
Motrax's MudBud (Side Stand Support). I picked mine up at
CycleGear in Fort Worth, Texas for $4. Their site lists it for £1.99.
And CycleGear seems to be their sole US distributor. It works great,
it's nice and small and won't cost you $8CND + $10 USD. I know I like
to save money!"
