DIY motorcycle lift table -> Not the typical project found here

[iamhiding]

oh to have the tools and the space that's an awesome bit of work 1018cc 

[1018cc]

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. I make do with what I've got. Believe it or not there are still tools that I'd like but I just design / build projects around what I can do at the moment. A panbrake, plasma cutter and a horizontal metal cutting bandsaw wouldn't go astray as well as a larger compressor (mine is a bit small for my die grinder / 3/8" drive air ratchet).

Endopotential - my bike isn't anything special. It is pretty much stock (larger windscreen and a rack on the back for carrying stuff). Gets me to and from work but I haven't customised it at all. Just tuned it and kept the maintenance up. Almost has 52,000kms (2008 model).

Spent another day in the shed today (have dinner tonight so I finished up early).

Had some metal left over (used to hold my 2 post lift posts together for shipping) so I decided to use that as it was plenty beefy enough to make a ramp out of. This is the frame all done and I didn't seem to take a photo of it complete with the sheet metal on top 


Once the ramp was done I decided to do a trial (and you can see the ramp just slightly in this shot):



Slid it into place between the posts:


Got it up in the air!:


I did make a bit of a change after this point as the frame sagged a couple millimetres more than I guess it would so I had to put some 2mm washers under the wheels to get some clearance to swing the arms from the posts around. This did the trick and now everything is fine (yes, 2mm made all the difference between having to slightly lift the frame to swing the arms under to having clearance).

Oil drainer fits under there well and goes down plenty far enough:


I'm quite happy with the amount of space from underneath. Better than anything after market I could find:


The bike doesn't even hit the limit switch (this is as high as my lift will go - 1.9m to the bottom of the arms):


The centre bit is strong enough to support the bike on the centre stand for chain maintenance / swaps:


Packs away nicely and doesn't take up too much space:



Even bought some new ratchet straps to go with it (these should complement my soft loop tie downs I bought off of eBay for wrapping around the forks / frame). These have a roll up section so if you don't know what to do with the excess strap - there isn't ever any left over:


I hope you all enjoy this update. I still plan to do a bit of mucking around with it but as you can see it is mostly done. Now just have to decide what to do about a finish.

[ShowBizWolf]

Bravo!!!! That is a really nice job well done

[1018cc]

Thanks ShowBizWolf. I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out so far. Usually as I go along I keep thinking of something I should've done differently to make it better than I never realised before I started. With this project - I haven't thought of anything I should've done differently.

I have been thinking about a colour. I'm leaning towards a powdercoat blue colour to match (or get close to it) the colour of the posts on my lift. My thinking is I'd try and make it look like it was an optional accessory for the lift. This will probably take me a while to finish off as I have to drop it off and wait for someone to powdercoat it etc.

[1018cc]

I thought long and hard about powder coating but I just didn't want the delay. By the time I took it into town and drove around and got quotes etc it would take a couple of weeks. I decided just to go to my local hardware store and buy some painting supplies. I went through 3 cans of primer and 2 and a bit cans of blue hammer tone (all up it was still a fair amount - I would've bought around $100 worth of paint). Hopefully it lasts ok as I did wipe it down before i sprayed the primer around to get rid of the oil off of the various surfaces.

Anyway, various pictures to follow that show some of the process I went through today:
This is the underside of the ramp:


Underside of the centre section:


Underside of the main frame:



Priming the top:


Assembled:




I think I'm going to leave the wheel chock red as I like the contrast (even now it is starting to be a bit too blue - maybe I should've made the ramp a different colour?). The red goes similarly with my tool box (its a bit more orange though), oil drainer and tool cart so its not like it is the only red thing in the shed.

That's probably where I'll leave it now and just use it. The colour is off from the posts but I thought that would be the case. The hardware store only had the one colour blue in a hammer tone finish (I like hammer tone for workshop tools) and I decided to change it up a bit from the charcoal hammer tone I usually paint my bits and bobs with.

That'll be pretty much it for this thread unless I start making changes to it after some use (we'll see as I did think pretty long and hard about it before making it so changes probably won't happen straight away). Thanks for reading along everyone and I hope it may give someone some ideas in the future for their own project.

[ShowBizWolf]

That looks very very nice indeed. I like the blue and I also am a fan of the contrast you mentioned in regards to the red wheel chock.

[1018cc]

So I've finally used the table for real today. I've been chasing a low charging issue lately (turns out it isn't the R/R or the stator in the end.....sigh - both of them weren't 100% on the multimeter according to the service manual). I also checked the valve clearances today and need to buy one new shim.

Anyway - I must say it is very nice not to have dirty arms/ sides / back and my back isn't sore