Since it was in the 40's today here in Michigan I said, screw it!....time to put the blacked out powder coated grill on and try out all the lift stuff I made. I had a new tire to replace the original Metz so I decide it was a good opportunity to swap it out. The bike lifted real easy with the Craftsman aluminum lift I bought and my lifting plate work like it was suppose to. The only problem is....only the front end came off the ground. With that said, I only lifted the bike far enough to easily remove the front tire. I think if I had removed my still loaded bags to reduce the bike weight in the rear the whole bike might have came up at once. I might have to do some tweaking at a later date, but it looks good for now. I'm glad several forum members mentioned tieing the front forks in place.
Once the tire was off the bike I put my (not quite finished yet) adjustable support under the front roll bars. The bike was pretty stable without using any tie down straps Up to that point, but once I put my little adjustable supports in place it became rock solid. I think I could have jumped on the thing and it wouldn't have moved. I may not need tie downs with the support under the crash bars.
I'm just waiting on the tire to be changed out and if I get it back tomorrow I can start putting things back together. I was going to replace the front brakes with some EBC double sintered, but the current pads still look good in spite of being a front brake guy. Maybe mid summer. Here are a couple of pictures.