I found that I can check the oil level pretty easily like this: Kneel on both knees on the ground on the left side of the bike with your left knee below the mid-pipe to where the driver's footpeg is just about touching your thigh. Put your left hand on the seat, your right hand on the right grip and gently pull the bike over toward you; no heaving required! This is a great position of leverage ... the bike sits up straight very easily, no strain on you, and you can feel when the bike is balanced / centered and then just look down and see the oil level window. This method made me feel like there was little / no chance the bike would fall on me. And if it fell away from me it would just land back on the side-stand. Not that it felt like it would do that, either, as I was able to easily let the bike back over onto its side-stand.

* This of course assumes your knees still work

p.s. I tried the take-a-pic-of-the-oil-window-while-sitting-on-the-seat method, but the new oil is so clean I wasn't convinced I was seeing oil and not just empty air space!

I kneel on my right knee, pull the bike up to level with left hand on seat and right hand on grip, rest the exhaust agains my left calf which is raised with foot planted on floor, balance the bike at vertical by the seat and the footpeg, then let go of the foot peg and lean forward to look at the sight glass. I hold the bike vertical and make any adjustments to balance with my hand on the seat and my calf against the exhaust.

Keep the bike in 1st gear and have it rolled forward until it locks. If you had to set it back on the kickstand, you don't want the bike to roll forward or down she goes.

ANother thing you can do to get a good idea of where the level is is just balance the bike for a minute and set it back on the sidestand. Then look at the glass. If you have good light, you cam see where the oil level was by the residual oil stuck to the inside of the glass.

* Last updated by: Rook on 6/5/2014 @ 10:22 AM *

My method is even easier. I put the bike on the centerstand, and then look.

Owner's manual says:

1. No side stand check = Oil is to one side... Reading off
2. No center stand check = Rear tire too high to check... Reading off
3. On both wheels and upright is the check... Correct reading

I've tried checking mine on a rear stand and it was immediately obvious that my rear stand was not level. The oil level was way high (bike tiled to the right). Also, the oil flows to the front as Hub mentioned. I could see that the level of the oil was way off parallel to the lines on the sight glass (it is a little off even with the bike on two wheels). I guess if you do the check on a vertical stand often enough and you know what to expect for your stand and your bike and your floor, it should be reliable.

* Last updated by: Rook on 6/6/2014 @ 8:05 AM *

that's great, an oil change without removing any plastic

mighty quick work.

updated