Toystoretom

Living Legend
Joined
Feb 25, 2006
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I ordered this bike lift from the MAC tool guy... it looks like it would be easy to use and more importantly safe to use on the Rocket. It appears to be somewhat open underneath it and that should help with oil changes, but I really wanted something that will get the wheels off of the ground so I can change out tires. I have a high dollar table lift but that is out on loan right now and it is very difficult to get the front wheel off of the ground with that.

I'll have to admit... this was kind of an impulse purchase. As we get closer to Christmas tool sales grind to almost a complete stop for the tool guys that come around the shop and the MAC guy looked pretty down in the dumps..... I thought I'd buy something from him just to cheer him up a little.

I paid $179 for it... its usually $199 but they have it on sale in December. If you like it you will have to flag down a MAC Tool Guy or if your local I'll have my guy hack one up for ya... If your local... you can just borrow mine..

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I dunno...:D I'll tell you when I get it. I basically got it to pull the wheels off of the bike. I have that tire machine at the shop that should be able to knock the rear right off of the rim with no sweat. Sometime next year I'm gonna need a new rear tire... and I know some of you guys must be getting close and this would make a nasty job very easy. We can change out all our tires at a rock bottom price if we order the tires off of the net. I also have two tire balancers... one is a static balancer that Pig9r's dad built for me and if I make an adaptor that should work great... I also have a expensive computer balancer that the rear wheel may hook right up to... and if that works OK I will be able to balace wheels down to a Knat's ass.

So to make a long answer short... I dunno.
 
Tomo:

If it was Snap-On, it would cost 3 times that. I needed a new 12 volt test lamp (my old one cracked) so I got one from the Snap-On tool truck that comes to our shop (MAC comes there too). It's pretty with a red coiled lead and a nice, heavy duty alligator clip but it was 60 bucks. Yeah, I could have gotten a Wally World cheapie but I thought I'd splurge a little, just a little more than I anticipated.

Our technicians I believe are indentured to the tool trucks. I think they have a get it now, pay later plan. Some of the guys in our shop have Snap-On roll around boxes and Mac boxes that cost over 10K.

That's a nice lift and for MAC, a good price. We have a computer balancer in the shop that will handle Super Single tires on 24" Alcoa rims so it should handle a wimpy R3 rim.
 
Where To Place It?

Tomo..... A while back someone metioned using this kind of lift but if I remember right, the R3 engine hanging under the frame made it inaccesible. Something about not wanting to put stress on the bike using the engine and CAT to lift.

You know me........dangerous with tools and sharp objects! Be sure and let us know where you place the lift to safely raise the beast and not damage the undercarriage.....or lack thereof.

Check and see how hard it would be to adapt the lift to fit the two braces with pre-cut holes on each side of the motor that are made for lifting the frame. I'm guessing a little fabrication and welding techniques should do the trick. Flip.....any ideas, corrections or help in any of these matters?
 
PianoMan:

You are in my thought process. Rusty has a nice, "fit in the lug hole" lift that he won't expunge as to where he got it. I believe that the lugs are probably there for assembly line work at the factory but it's interesting that they are the same inside diameter as the lugs which mount the center stand on a T100. The lug holes are also the balance point for the bike give or take a smidgen of weight at either end. Theoretically, you should be able to lift the bike with both wheels off the ground, using the lugs which leads me to believe that at some point Triumph will offer a center stand, but I expect the tariff will be high. The center stand for the T100 is around $150.00 US. The R3 outweighs it by at least 250 pounds so the stand will have to be heavier and of course (more costly). Then there is the problem of clearance and leverage and lever spacing but, I'm sure the engineers at Hinkley or in Taiwan have that all worked out.

The drawback to a "lug hole stand" if you will, is the matter of how you put it on and take it off. I'd like nothing better than to take my really nice Baleigh tube bender and bend up a center stand for the R3 using the center stand for the T100 as a model (remember the lug holes are the same size and the same width spacing (how coincidental)). There is a liability problem with that, especially here in this country. I could do it quite easily and I could loose my farm easily too. Getting back to attachment and removal. The stand that Rusty has requires it to be "bolted" to the lug holes and then the lift has to be "levered" under the bike, lifting the bike off the ground. Looking at the stand, it looks to me that the surface has to be smooth concrete and level in relationship to the bike for the lift to function properly which isn't a problem in as much as you'd not want to lift the bike on an not level surface and have 700+ pounds of bike fall over, maybe on top of you.

Then, there is the question of how much lift is enough? I presume that enough is both wheels off the ground and drain plugs readily accessible and the lift must allow for the placement of a drain pan and not allow oil to drip on the garage floor.

The straddle lifts will lift the wheels off the floor and if you don't watch where you put the rails, crumple the cat box. The straddle lifts will not allow you to drain the oil without a mess or plenty of oil dry.

The ideal scenario would be a portable, high leverage fulcrum type lift that locates on the lug holes automatically and isn't in the way. A lift if you will, that could be left under the bike to store it with the wheels off the ground. Stability and convenience as well as low cost would be a plus.

So, these are the parameters:
1. Reasonable price, price is the main consideration....I'm cheap
2. Easliy attached and removed
3. Large amount of leverage to lift bike by old farts like us with little effort.
4. Easily stored either on the garage wall or under the bike and takes little space either way
5. Access to drain plugs and underpinnings
6. Able to be used properly and with little liability by even a monkey.


Nice wintertime project for me.

Like I said, you are in my thoughts.
 
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So, is it OK to lift a rocket on the bottom of the engine? I have a great lift that I have used on my HD for a long time, but it lifts on the Harley's frame, not the engine. I have been wondering about this topic for a while, because I am planning to use the cold weather to do a detailed cleaning of the R3. If I could use the lift I own on the R3, it would be so much easier to clean the wheels and other hard to reach parts while it is on a lift.
 
I'm aware the Jack Lilley has one but, you'd better have steel hinges on your wallet if you want to buy it. Lilley's stand also suffers from the same fate as all the others including Rusty's. You have to insert bolts or pins each time you position the stand and remove them each time which is a PITA.

The one Lilley sells is $99.99 Pounds Sterling. I don't offhand know the current rate of exchange, but, we should be in the ballpark at $125.00 US plus shipping from the UK so $150.00 delivered or there about. That's "over the top" comparing to a Sears 99 buck hydraulic roll around rail lift that you can use on your ATV or any other bike. The Lilley stand is very specific, just for the R3, nothing else.
 
coyote569 said:
So, is it OK to lift a rocket on the bottom of the engine? I have a great lift that I have used on my HD for a long time, but it lifts on the Harley's frame, not the engine. I have been wondering about this topic for a while, because I am planning to use the cold weather to do a detailed cleaning of the R3. If I could use the lift I own on the R3, it would be so much easier to clean the wheels and other hard to reach parts while it is on a lift.

I'd say from a machinist standpoint that lifting the R3 by the sump cover is acceptable. Even though it's a pressure die cast part, it has very substantial ribbing both parallel and angularly. I would think that as long as you distribute the weight of the bike across the lift arms, in other words, to be absolutely safe, take 2 soft pine 2x4's the width of the sump plate and let the rails of the jack bear on those. The pine will distribute the load more evenly. Don't try to lift it by the cat box and watch out for the starter motor and you should be okay.
 
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