Finally a stand!

I bought 2 of these

I've sat them side by side in my Winter shed for the two bikes. They come with security bars too which was a bonus.

 

Yes there's three different positions for different wheel sizes, quality seems to be pretty good too.

 

Bottom one for our bike Sam........ snug as a bug

 

I removed my center stand from my beloved Thruxton as I thought the weight saving & the looks would be worth the effort.....A year on & I think it wasnt the best decision that Ive ever made, but today Ive ordered a front wheel chock from fleabay....I have a flat bed scissors jack already so hopefully that`ll put aside my fears about jacking her up to do chain maintenance

 

Paddock stands are simple enough but for a bit more versatility take a look at www.on-bike.com Look at "products"
There is a speed triple and a bonneville on one of these red lifts which looks interesting.
Has anyone tried one?
Cheers
T

 

I looked through all of the various threads/topics here hoping to find a solution/recommendation to a problem I just ran into, trying to lift my Speed Twin with an hydraulic scissor lift, but only found this thread. The lift's pads won't fit across both frame rails without running into the sump pan. And I didn't want to put 400# on my sump pan. So I rigged three blocks of wood 1.50" thick around the pan so that all the weight rested just on the blocks & pads.

Then I realized that I don't want to spend 15 mins each time I want to lift the bike dick'n around with blocks of wood. I also decided that I didn't want to spend upwards of $300 on a rear and forklift stand because I already had the hydraulic lift for my other bike.

So I developed a solution that may be useful to other Speed Twin owners and thought I'd share it. I made a template of the underneath of the bike (in the vicinity where the stand pads would rest) using a Styrofoam sheet, pressing it against the frame rails and sump so that it made an impression of that area. I then transferred that pattern to a block of rock maple 1.5" thick x 11" wide x 14" long. Then I routed out an impression 3/4" deep of the area of the sump (and kick stand travel) using a CNC machine; drilled and epoxied four 5/8 x 2.5" bolts which match the holes in the lift pads which secure the block to the pads. Then I roll the lift under the bike, aligning it so the sump fits into the impression, and it's a breeze, and very stable (even without straps; although I will always use straps). It now takes less than 2 mins to lift the bike.

I'd be very interested to hear how other ST owners resolved this issue. And if anyone else hasn't found a better solution and wants to use this template to make their own block, I'll try to figure out how to scan and upload the template image, to scale, for others to use. I have no idea yet how to do that, but if there's an interest, I'll figure it out.