Motorcycle lifts

Motorcycle/scooter lifts----I suppose I will be called from where I put this.....but really no instructions. But info should be handy!


Warning: Harbor Freight lifts are a bit narrow for safely ride on---- for both feet to go safely down. Really expensive if bike tips off. Only way my SilverWing goes on safely....from left side, with you on feet....and somebody on other side to catch scooter if it tips too far to right. Admit it or not old farts have reduced power!!

From NTV700V forum, I remember somebody built wooden boxes for feet to touch. Good idea for narrow lift.

I use straps from handlebars to U bolts on platform. Quick Ties work well on bars----all this to steady bike in addition to front wheel clamp- also check height of garage top to make sure you are not jacking windshield into roof. I built wood extension to prevent, on front stop, to more safely prevent front wheel from running off front edge.

Last I lived in Germany, German lift I had was wide enough to ride up on. In addition in the down position, I parked my MZ or XBR500S Honda----this saved floor space. I felt my BMW RT was too heavy/top heavy to go on easily.

I to have a lift from Harbor Freight and would second the concern
about safety. I also built two boxes to help. Installing a winch with a remote control helped a lot. It sure is nice to work on the scooter when it is off the ground. Howard

p.s. It works grate for working on the snowblower and lawn mower.

I also have a harbor freight motorcycle lift
I think it's the best thing  since sliced bread lol
When I put the Swing on I walk it on then put it on the kickstand
I have my straps ready put it up on the center stand then strap it down

A friend of mine uses an old hospital bed with a pump lift. Works great.

Retired wrote:

I also have a harbor freight motorcycle lift
I think it's the best thing  since sliced bread lol
When I put the Swing on I walk it on then put it on the kickstand
I have my straps ready put it up on the center stand then strap it down

Ditto, it's lifted everything from the S'wing to G'wings HD's and a Cub Cadet mower and one side of my Club Car golf cart.

I have put my Gold Wing on my Harbor Freight lift more times that I have put the SWing on it. After putting a large bike on it, the SWing seems like a breeze. I do have some pallets that I fashioned for both sides of the lift, and is absolutely necessary when running up the ramp with the GWing.

I fabricated a couple of side boards that attach to my HF lift. They attach with two hooks on each side and extend from the beginning of the ramp to about three feet short of the far end. Painted to match the lift with a strip of anti skid tape down the length they give a good solid place to put your feet while loading or offloading a bike. Also provide a place to stand once the bike is on the side stand to shift it to the center stand. Works quite well. Putting my Goldwing 1800 on and off the lift without assistance was easy. Loading Silverwings, Burgman and BMW maxi scooters is very easy. Sure makes routine oil changes and such easier. Pulling a wheel is much easier.

Forgot to mention that the side boards lift off once the bike is aboard. The hooks just prevent them from moving under one's feet.

exavid wrote:

I fabricated a couple of side boards that attach to my HF lift. They attach with two hooks on each side and extend from the beginning of the ramp to about three feet short of the far end. Painted to match the lift with a strip of anti skid tape down the length they give a good solid place to put your feet while loading or offloading a bike. Also provide a place to stand once the bike is on the side stand to shift it to the center stand. Works quite well. Putting my Goldwing 1800 on and off the lift without assistance was easy. Loading Silverwings, Burgman and BMW maxi scooters is very easy. Sure makes routine oil changes and such easier. Pulling a wheel is much easier.

I agree. Since most of us aren't young anymore, the lift sure beats laying on the ground!

LOL it sure beats my 1st > lift < it was VERY sturdy and put my Wing up 24+ inches but was a real bear to to assemble, I only used it once.

dekare wrote:

Since most of us aren't young anymore, the lift sure beats laying on the ground!

Laying on the ground isn't a problem - it's the getting up that's difficult!!

Lying on the floor isn't a great problem, it's the getting up afterwards that causes the trouble!!

bikerboy, in spades brother in spades. I've learned to keep something close by to aid me, the chainfall chain is one of the best. I've learn that a section of 1/2 inch foil faced foam insulation is great, helps the knees when you roll over to get up and keeps the cold from penetrating.

I have a couple of Harbor Freight moving blankets. They are great for laying on the floor as a pad to old knees. Fold them for pads or lay them out if you have to lay on the ground. Inexpensive and handy.

I have a motorcycle lift similar to Exavids and found it very difficult to get the scooter onto the centre stand, I originally made I a small box the same height as the lift to stand on which made it a lot better to get leverage to lift the scoot onto the centre stand. After several near misses with the scoot over balancing me and a broken screen I decided to dig the pit out in the garage floor to the depth of the lift ,(approx 8" deep), lay double sheets of plywood in the bottom and put the lift inside with the top of the lift level with the garage floor. When not in use I cover the lift with another sheet of 8ft by 4ft ply board so I can run onto it with any of my other bikes/scoots and just take the top sheet of the top and drive onto the lift when I need to work on any of them. I find this method easier and also space saving. the only downside is that the foot pump valve to raise and lower the lift is also below floor level but I have got used to it and find this method better and the lift is out of sight when not in use.

Pud.

vmaximus wrote:

I have a motorcycle lift similar to Exavids and found it very difficult to get the scooter onto the centre stand, I originally made I a small box the same height as the lift to stand on which made it a lot better to get leverage to lift the scoot onto the centre stand. After several near misses with the scoot over balancing me and a broken screen  I decided to dig the pit out in the garage floor to the depth of the lift ,(approx 8" deep), lay double sheets of plywood in the bottom and put the lift inside with the top of the lift level with the garage floor. When not in use I cover the lift with another sheet of 8ft by 4ft ply board so I can run onto it with any of my other bikes/scoots and just take the top sheet of the top and drive onto the lift when I need to work on any of them. I find this method easier and also space saving. the only downside is that the foot pump valve to raise and lower the lift is also below floor level but I have got used to it and find this method better and the lift is out of sight when not in use.

Pud.

Pud,
Are'nt you loosing 8 inches of lift if you set it in the 8 inch pit?

Easyrider, you are quite right I do loose some height but even before the lift gets to its maximum height my screen touches the garage roof so there is still plenty of room to work around the bike. Not only that but I have the added bonus of having more floor space in a limited sized garage when it's not in use. Generally when I am working on one of the scoot/bikes I sit on a large upturned plastic bucket and adjust the height of the lift to suit. When I had the lift on the floor I found that the maximum lift was too high anyway.


Pud.

I had considered recessing the floor under the lift as you did but decided I could leave it on the floor since my Jeep TJ and now my old Jeep Liberty can straddle the lift. I wouldn't want to leave my vehicles outside when I have a garage. The weather here is moderate but the summer sun does a number on paint clearcoat.
Once you have a lift then your place can become a motorcycle/scooter oil change center. I used my lift on my scooter and Goldwing. I also have three friends who bring their bikes over for oil changes and light maintenance.
Without the lift it takes two of us to change oil. One to do the job and the other to help the first guy to get up off the floor. We're all suffering from a fatal disease... A.G.E.

A.G.E is one of the reasons I bought the lift in the first place coupled with wonky knees, aching back plus the trouble getting back up into some form of upright position after you've dropped that screw or small nut/bolt onto the floor for the umpteenth time. Seriously though they do make things easier and once you have bought one you wonder how you ever managed without one. Mine is quite narrow so I do intend to widen it some time in the future. With only having a small garage I was forever moving it or turning on its side to try to make space. It was only during a conversation with some one who happened to have done this in his own garage that I decided to look into doing this myself and I think that it has paid dividends for me, when not in use it is covered with the ply board and I can park either my other scooter or motorbike on top and still have some room to get around. its not that its in use every day.


Pud.

I agree totally. The purchase of my lift was money well spent. Once I got into my geezerhood it's been a big help making small jobs small again.

A.G.E is what makes me be sure to take all the tools I need with me on the 1st trip down.

These lifts do seem a good idea, but the average British house garage allows for one European sized car. Given that it's normal practice for the average British household to keep the car(s) parked outside, and to use the garage space for a chest freezer, work bench, general stuff on storage shelves, the family's push bikes, garden tools, and assorted junk etc, there isn't a lot of space for one of these lifts/hydraulic workbenches once you park a Silver Wing in there as well.

Plus if you're not really into tinkering and fettling, getting down on the floor to do the occasional few basic service jobs isn't really a hardship.

I now have a new Roccbox gas/wood fired pizza oven and assorted pizza paraphernalia taking up space in a wheeled storage box in my garage. I'll use it more than I would a motorcycle lift, and everyone likes pizza.

As Mrs M is away for a week, she says I can "Fart and eat as much fish as you like while I'm away!  

It's an anchovies covered pizza for lunch today, and another one to snack on cold later.

I would agree Meldrew, I have often thought one of these lifts would be a good idea , but, as you say my garage is quite full with my workbench, cabinets,  and various tools not to mention housing my Silver wing and Burgman400. When doing maintainance on one bike I have to move the other out of the garage . I have never had a pizza am I missing something?

You've never had a pizza! There's good and bad, supermarkets like M&S do good chilled ones which are preferable to the ones you order on the phone and home delivered from a High Street pizza chain, usually by a youth riding a moped on L plates whose spots resemble the topped pizza you've ordered.

If you spot an Italian restaurant or pizzeria with a wood fired oven at the back, that'd better a better place to lose your pizza virginity, you may need loosen off that money belt a notch or two afterwards!  

I've just finished cleaning up after the two 12" pizzas I made at lunch time. A pizza cooks outside in the Roccbox in about 90 seconds, in our pre-heated kitchen oven it's usually 5-9 minutes. The tins of Anchois Entiers I brought back from Montpellier, France recently are not the flat salty fillets I expected them to be, but small silver sardines...drat!



But they made a very fine lunch pizza, washed down with an ice cold German wheat beer. I have another pizza now cold in the fridge to snack on this evening.

Too much Meldrew. I am not like you, my delicate English tummy will not tolerate all this foreign stuff you mention. Only stuff I have tried is Beef ghoolash, when on Holiday I like that. I just about manage Yorkshire tea!!. I have never been a Drinker, Beer or Wine, jobs I had needed a licence so, just never bothered.