The bike can tip a lot further than the side stand allows before it starts to tip. I was told to use it to oil my chain:
On side stand
Pull a bit so the back wheel comes off the floor
Rotate the wheel and oil
(takes two people obviously...)
Never even felt like it was going to fall... Always wanted to tip back to safe, and took a lot of effort to get it to tip at all.
Of course always remember to be wary of leaving out of gear and pointing downhill. Learnt that with my GPZ500s. Broke the indicators twice with that
Thank god for fibre glass
Stu