Stand on the starboard side of the bike.  Grasp the frame down tube in front of the engine and the frame just in front of the rear shock.
Lift the machine to eye level while holding it as near to verticle as possible.  The oil level can be easily read in this position.

Phelonius

Wow, you got a aluminum magnet?
I only have the plain iron magnet, where did you get it?

I got that special magnet from the same place I got the magic muscles to hold that bike out in front of me. I was expecting someone to jump on that. WHY would I need that level? To do what? To see if the bike is straight up & down as I hold it out in front of me? Come onnn..


When I do that I put a magnetic level on the side of the engine, so I can tell when its straight up & down.


seriously? This follows Phelonius's post on holding the bike straight out in front of you.( Generally considered to be impossible), So, I tossed in an impossibility that I claimed to do, when I was doing HIS impossible thing.. Get it?  Maybe this is indicative of a problem. Maybe this is part of why you cant see whats wrong with the govt. Gotta be able to read between the "LInEs".

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 08/17/09 at 10:57:00:

His was more obvious and more difficult to come up with a one liner.
So don't get uptite, I spent a whole 10 seconds trying to figgure out if there's even a verticle surface on the engine.

  I f you lean the motorcycle toward you It don't take as much oil to get between the lines.

If you are willing to cheat a bit and run your oil level up to the very tippy top of the window you may find that the oil will just peep over the lower edge of the window when sitting on the kickstand on a level parking lot.

This gives you an easy functional check that you can do without any gyrations.

I use the "peep over the bottom" check every time I gas up, and if I don't see it then I do the straighten it up straight and bend my back to do the real check.

And no, a little extra oil does not cause the world to stop rotating on its axis -- it does not get high enough to get up into the crank rotation and when running much of your oil is up in circulation and your crankcase level drops significantly anyway.

I have a whole list of things I do.  My specific method for oil check is to use my extension mirror (only takes a sec) while I'm seated.  I get the window in view and then lean the bike until the oil is in the middle.  Then I look at the lean of the bike.  If it's not leaning, the oil is good!  I always have my mirror in my tank bag, so I can always check.  Just don't get it out if girls in skirts are hanging around, they'll get the wrong idea!

Near as I can tell, if I couldn't see the oil in the window via a mirror from the seated position I couldn't see well enough to drive.  

This really saves my knees.  I suppose those with good knees can squat down.

erm.. I just wanna comment on how Diggers' garage has gotta be the most well kept garage in the world...

I hang my head in shame.....

But on the good side I'm doing my bit for the spider population..

As for the original question.. It's a knack and all about balance..

As mentioned I put into 1st to be safe, Hold the front brake and from the right side pull the bike towards me whilst sitting on the floor..

If in doubt have a friend hold the handlebars from the other side..

The last thing you want is to let the bike fall over, worse over you..