Tom sent me this info about his old motorcycle lift. I really like the ideas here. I thought I would share his ideas in case anyone is interested.I'll have to figure out something now that I'm getting my garage in order. I'll have to weigh the issues just like Tom did.
I looked into lifts when I was racing and was actually going to get one of those platform lifts but didn't mainly because it was too large for my garage, the cost was too high and it would be hard to store when not in use. I was looking for a lift that:
- Had a small foot print.
- I could store when I wasn't using or one that I could store my bike on
- Would elevate the bike to about eye level when I was seated
- Would allow me to take off both tires.
Here is what I did:
Purchased a Craftsman motorcycle jack for about $90-$100
This thing was great. I could take off both tires and actually my rear sub-frame too. Once the bike got unbalanced I just used some tie-downs on the pegs to hold it in place. It had casters too so I could wheel the bike close up to a wall to store, which allowed me to get a car in the garage too. This also meant that I could stop a tear-down and store the bike if required until I had time to finish. The bike came apart after every ride so it came in handy.
Anyways, the only problem was the lift didn't go high enough. I made a wooded box to prop the bike up. The box was removable and had some 2x4's on the bottom which rested in between the lift members locking it side to side and front to back. I painted the top of the box with tool grip dip paint in an attempt to protect the wood against fluids but this was a bad idea as the bike scraped it off after 1 use.
The box idea may not work for road bikes due to their lower ground clearance so you might have to tweak the design. ;)
thanks for the blog. Helps me to drift back to motorcycle from time to time......
-Tom
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