Checkign engien oil on Abba stand.

[benny]

When i had my bike on my Abba stand recently i checked the engine oil level, it appeared to be really low, could this be caused by the abba stand tipping the motorcycle forward or is it just because the bike was cold?
Hayne's manual says to check the level when its warm but ive also heard to check when cold (atleast i thought thats what this person meant)

[bikemonkey]

Always check when the bike is level, and always check in the same circumstances.

I.e always a cold engine, or always a warm one.

So yeah whack it off the abba and sit on it and do it

[magg]

Or check it the way the Honda Service manual says to do it and then do it on your stand and establish a full level for sitting on the stand. Just make sure you use the same stand for future measurements.

[benny]

The dip stick seemed to have no oil on it at all when on the stand. Ill check it after my ride tomorrow (less than 10 minutes) but the oil shouldn't be that low, I have got some of the correct stuff already though for topping up if needs be

[johnnie5]

Huh ?
you think there isnt enough oil but instead of checking it properly you are going to ride it anyway ??

easy way to check

get the bike on a level ground surface

remove the dipstick and wipe it

grab hold of the handlebar and pull the bike upright from the sidestand

drop the dipstick back in the hole , and then remove

put bike back on the side

you can easily see the oil level

[CMSMJ1]

^^ this.

low oil = big end failure

[missis sumner]

If you check the oil with the bike on the Abba stand you will seriously underestimate the amount of oil in there. Can't remember off the top of my head, but I think I managed to overfill mine by half a litre or so, doing it on the Abba stand. Although I took the excess oil out as soon as I realised what I'd done, I now seem to be prone to oil leaks...

Do it properly, as Jonnie5 says.

[benny]

I knew the oil wasn't low as it was fine last week, I knew I wouldn't have time to check it this morning, checked it when I got back, it wasn't below the lower limit but was about 5mm off it so I just topped it up.
I did as you said before reading this, or sit on the bike pull it upright, dipstick wipe etc.
Thanks for the responses, to be honest don't know why I posted this topic as I knew I was going to check it today anyway!
Really checking the coolant levels and rear brake amount will be the problem, or are these configured to the side stand?