On the subject of side stands i reckon your always better getting off the bike before you put it down. I still have fond memories from the late seventies of being out on a run, us all pulling into the side of the road and me hearing a scream and a crash from behind me. Looked round and there was the vice-prez of a still active back patch club and his pillion, still astride their bonnie, but all lying on their sides on the pavement. Turned out, he'd pulled over, gone to cooly flick down the side stand and start to get off the bike, not noticing the side stand pass neatly down between the bars of a drainage grid.
And yes, I dam near fell off my bike laughing!