Thank you to everyone contributing :forumforumupyeahsmiley: Anyone with any experience of lifts at the cheaper end of the market? My Ducs are worthy a grand's worth of hydraulics but unfortunately, I am unworthy of my Ducatis so it's shoestring all the way for me : o )
Loz Often with many things like this the basics are there but the cheaper options just need a little fettling to get them up to scratch. Simple stuff like running a tap down threaded holes for adjustment or clamp screws, replacing bolts with High Tensile equivalents, oiling/greasing pivots, a bit of extra paint, all the way to welding in the odd reinforcing tab etc. I tend to work in this way as I feel happier I know the equipment I'm using and trust it more. Nasher
I bought a cheap one and it was too narrow and too short and the hydraulics leaked after a year or two. It was usable but given the choice again I would pay more and get a better one.
If you go to machine mart, sometimes they have them out to have a look at. Take the can, a tape measure and your widest stand and offer it up
It took 4 people to lift mine in the back of a van at Machine Mart. They weigh a bloody tonne. (cue a smart arse quoting the exact weight)
Maybe not the type of stand your looking at, but I might invest in one of these; http://www.abbastands.co.uk/cart.asp
Sometimes machine mart have vat free sales days/weekends. Saved myself some pretty pennies before on these days
I opted to go for a better quality used one that actually did cost 2/3 times more than the CCC (Cheap Chinese Crap). But I have a very high quality/heavy duty (600kg) Italian made professional electro -hydraulic bench built to last. And large (2.3m x .80m) enough for the Abba or both paddock stands. Look for motorcycle dealers/workshops closing down/re-locating as sometimes they will be changing/ -updating equipment.
Until you go to bed and get up the next day and find your bikes hung itself from your garage roof beams as the ramp has leaked down over night, not that it would but it could. The ceiling hitch is a great idea and is improved security and peace of mind while working on the bike but don't leave it. My mates ramp has leaked down overnight once, he changed the seals and it's not happened since (Machine Mart-well used). But it can and does happen. That reminds me of a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads in the 90's and we moored up in Yarmouth with the high tide, so I left loads of slack in the mooring lines, the neighbours didn't. When we came back from the pub we had to climb 4 foot down the iron ladders to get to our boat. The neighbours didn't, the boat was high and dry almost entirely out of the water suspended by it cleats and so when we woke and set off to our next port of call (Potter Eyam) the neighbours were still waiting for the tide to come in so they could cut the boat loose. Whoops! Great holiday though, I won't do it again, I was a lot younger then. A lot of the newer bike ramps have a solid stop so you can lower the hydraulics to a solid mechanical juncture so leak down would have no effect, but you do have to jack the bike up a little prior to fully lowering it back to the ground to enable the solid mechanical stop to be removed. I like the look of the Draper one 650kg and quite wide (about £650 delivered UK)
