Well, for all of you with older bikes, like me, then you know what I'm talking about. My bike will start with the sidestand down and the clutch disengaged, and will not stop for either reason if you put it in gear.
My bike automatically cuts out if you put it in gear with the sidestand down. There was one day it took me ten re-starts, five minutes and a lot of swearing before I worked out why the bike kept stalling when I put it in gear.
1998 Suzuki GSX750F - all fixed but seriously multi-coloured...
My current bike won't allow it, but on my older bikes I occasionally rode off with the sidestand down. It was never a big deal because as soon as the sidestand touched the ground, it would flip back into the retracted position.
The more dangerous "oops" was taking off with the forks locked. On my old bikes, the fork lock wasn't built into the ignition switch. It was a separate lock on the side of the fork. I once took off with the forks locked in a left hand turn. I was pulling away from the curb and making a left U-turn, so I didn't realize the forks were locked until I tried to straighten the bars at the end of the U-turn (while giving it some gas). I went flying off the high side and the bike promptly flipped on its side in the middle of the street. Fortunately, no one was watching
Did it for the first time today after backing out of a parking spot. I had left it in 1st gear(parking spot was sloped slightly rearward), backed out of the spot and started to slip the clutch to get moving forward. Bike dies. DUH, kickstand is down.
My bike will start and run in any gear with the sidestand down but ONLY if the clutch lever is pulled in. Let it out, and the bike will die if it's in anything but neutral.
I may well have the best story related to this question. About 10 days after I got back from Iraq - I was lined up for the MSF ERC, at 0700hrs. Kelley Hill shuts down all vehicular traffic at 0630hrs. Clearly I had to be off the Hill NLT 0630hrs. This is January, fwiw, so it's pretty nippy out. I realize the bike will be COLD so I head out at 0545 to get it started up and warm before I hit the road.
Gear up, insert key, pull clutch, press starter button - nothing. The FI light is on, and I start to freak the hell out - assuming that my PCIIIUSB install somehow borked itself overnight. What does this mechanic turned infantryman do? Does he think "hey the neutral light isn't on?" Oh no, of course not. I proceed to take my motorcycle apart in the dark. All connections are good WHY WON'T MY MOTORCYCLE START. Needless to say, there were drill sergeants on Sand Hill that were proud of my use of profanity that morning. Then it hit me "the bike is in gear you idiot!" Click the shifter up into N - and the fuel pump primes up.... VROOOM.
In short, I couldn't ride off with my sidestand down if I wanted to - especially not if the bike is in gear.
mine has the auto kill switch, but will occasionally miss being all the way up by about an inch..... clutch, shift into first, die like a camel with a bin laden poster stapled to its backside.
