Learning the hard way

[Gert]

As a rule (plus a good habit), when parking your bike on the side stand, it should always be in first gear. In first gear, the bike cannot move forward and the side stand prevent the bike from rolling to the rear. This is a precaution for when someone clips the bike from the rear for whatever reason, in a parking bay. It just takes a soft clip to move the bike forward and the forward movement will cause the side stand to collapse. In my opinion, leaving the bike out of gear while parked is looking for trouble.

[VstromJay]

I always left my bikes in first when parked - where I used to live meant they got parked on the road over night so would frequently be clipped and occasionally found on their side in the morning.

[bosnjo]

The rule I've learned few years ago (the hard way) is, never turn the bike off with the key. I stop in gear, right foot down, left foot opens the sidestand, engine shuts off. Just then I turn off the ignition. That way I have never again left the bike parked in neutral.

[Barbel Mick]

I tend do that if I'm parked on a slope, but not all the time.
I have wondered that if, when done that way, it puts extra current through the switch contacts and makes it ark, causing it to fail quicker.   

[Gert]

If one looks at the circuit / ring diagram for the power feed to the starter motor, in the manual, all the safety switches involved (ignition / clutch switch / cut-out switch / kick stand), none of these appear to have any form of spark quench protection. From this, I would be inclined to deduce that any form of serious arcing would be just bad luck. Agreed, some points are more heavy duty in construction than others, but arcing can take place at any point if switched slow enough. Bottom line, the ignition is designed to take the brunt of the arcing, so it stands to reason to use it... but then one could argue about the clutch switch.

[biker_adz]

Damn, worst thing about this is that punishment does not fit the crime!