If like me you are vertically challenged you may find that this world we live in is made for bigger people. Everything is harder for us, from reaching the highest shelves in the supermarket to turning around a motorcycle. If you have a brain however, most of these problems can be solved. In the supermarket, I use pity to get what I want. I put on a pathetic expression and ask a tall person to reach for me. No one minds helping.

In the case of turning a motorcycle around, you don’t need brute force, you need logic and balance. I don’t know whether by design or by chance but the Ducati Monster is almost perfectly balanced around it’s side stand. Simply pull the bike onto the stand, lift the wheels off the ground and swivel the whole bike around on the stand.

It’s easy with practice and never fails to amaze and amuse fellow bikers, most of whom have not discovered this excellent way to turn a bike around and are still inching back and forth on tip toes. There are some who say that this will damage the stand and it may depend on the type of bike but I have had no problems yet. The one issue is with the ground. Don’t do this on your mates new tarmac driveway for example as it will mash it up!