We ploughed through 150 pages of Pat Hahn’s excellent ‘Maximum Control – Mastering Your Heavyweight Bike’ to unearth this little treasure: ‘Be careful with parking on hot asphalt, which can suck a sidestand down and leave you with a bike to pick up.

'If you know the surface is soft, find a painted line to set your sidestand on; the relatively cool temperature of the surface of the pain will help prevent your sidestand sinking in.’ Splendid.

Do you have any more esoteric riding skills that can improve a tiny but important area of your riding email guy.procter@motorcyclenews.com.