Nice little jack from Northern Tools

[Crash Cash]

I've got to do that crazy fork oil thing, so I was looking for what I needed to lift up the front end. I found this Torin table jack at Northern tools. It's $90, doesn't take up a ton of storage, and seems pretty stable.

The little pads are about 1/4" too big to fit between the pipe & fairing, but it's not hard to pull the plastic out slightly when you're jacking it up. I put one pad under the oil drain plug, and the other one under that "pointy bit that sticks down" on the other side. It only takes about 6 half-cranks to lift it high enough that the rear wheel stops spinning. It takes a 22mm socket if you don't want to use the little turn-bar that comes with it.

It's rock solid, and I don't feel like I have to worry so much about the bike falling over. I trust it a lot more than the 2x4 on a single-point car jack! There's no play or wobble in any of the joints.

 

[HotRodZilla]

That's a cool jack. Thanks for the link. I'm gonna get myself one for Christmas. I use a floor jack to get the bike up high enough to stablize it, and it scares me; especially with my KLR.

 

[AVGeek]

Cool find!

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200446266_200446266

 

[Afast03nNJ]

It's a sad sight to see one's tools cleaner then the machine their put to work on.

 

[dcarver]

It's a sad sight to see one's tools cleaner then the machine their put to work on.

A dirty bike is a happy bike. Clean oil or clean plastic? Oil please!

 

[Niehart]

Someone has directions for building a wood stand for the top of your jack but I can't find the link now. :angry2:

 

[Crash Cash]

It's a sad sight to see one's tools cleaner then the machine their put to work on.

A dirty bike is a happy bike. Clean oil or clean plastic? Oil please!

Heh! Then I guess I shouldn't post pics of the rest of the bikes, it hasn't rained here in a long time! I do wash & Plexus the windshield, mirrors, instruments, and headlights to keep the bug juice from doing bad things, but that's about it. I do have to admit I'm a bit late on the fork oil change, and I'm pretty anal about the *inside* of my vehicles.

Someone has directions for building a wood stand for the top of your jack but I can't find the link now. :angry2:

Yeah, but that was a plain car jack, with just the little disk on the end for the support. I didn't think that was quite stable enough for my clumsiness. Plus this jack has the little adjustable arms, so no need for the wood stand, and those arms are some pretty heavy duty steel. With me... if it can fall over, it *will* fall over.

There was a bad moment when I didn't think the jack would fit underneath, but once I put it on the centerstand, it was OK.

 

[art miller]

Why not just put a narrow wood shim btwn the support arms and the jack points. That will negate the need to move the fairings. I made the Rube Goldberg 2X4 with floor jack and it works. I will now buy one of these as Rube is not as stable as I would like. I'll apologize for that dirty 07 in the pic. My 07 has never been that dirty even after a 525 mile day, riding in a dust storm from White Sands to Carlsbad NM., last spring.

 

[Crash Cash]

Why not just put a narrow wood shim btwn the support arms and the jack points. That will negate the need to move the fairings. I made the Rube Goldberg 2X4 with floor jack and it works. I will now buy one of these as Rube is not as stable as I would like. I'll apologize for that dirty 07 in the pic. My 07 has never been that dirty even after a 525 mile day, riding in a dust storm from White Sands to Carlsbad NM., last spring.

Because the purpose of the jack is to provide a really stable support I can trust. I think moving the fairings over 1/4" is something my little pinky finger can handle without too much pain, and if not, the 'ol thumb can pitch in...

I think the last time I washed a bike (except for the windshield) was over a decade ago... when were Honda Hurricanes current, again? I think it's even dirtier now, I'll have to post another pic of it! And I haven't even taken it off-road!

 

[wfooshee]

All I've ever done was the board under the header pipes, lifted with a hydraulic scissor jack. The scissor jack lifts straight up, like a piston jack, but has a larger lift point, and doesn't have to travel like an automotive floor jack. Centerstand (itself on a 2x6 for a little extra height,) then jack under the headers. The board is on the pipes, not touching the plastic. I had no issue with it being stable or solid.

My concern: I'm not sure lifting by points on the pan is really a good idea. I got under mine and looked at what you described, and it looks solid, but a little stress crack in that pan would be seriously $$$$$. The pipes are steel tubing, and yes, the load is then carried by the cylinder head, but it's over a much larger area than 2 points on the pan. I'm no engineer, so I can't say "This metal is this thick and is good for this load." Maybe it's fine.

 

[Crash Cash]

Well, I've seen folks crunch their headers, so I'm a little leery of that idea, and all the scissor jacks I have, have tiny little lift points, so the bike would be balanced on something less than 1/2" wide. I would have had to buy a decent scissor jack anyway, and this is seemingly more stable, and doesn't need anything extra, like the boards. It's also got a 6"x18" footprint, so I feel it's stable enough to be used on the work lift.

My jack has V-blocks, and the tips of the Vs are 1-1/2" wide, and 3-1/2" apart, so it's not like it's a point contact. I use the oil drain and the little nib thing as reference points. I took another look and the little pointy thing doesn't actually bottom out in the V. The drain bolt does, I think (it's hard to tell) but then it's got extra metal there anyway. It's also supported on the edges of the pan, and not the center, where it'd be a lot more worrisome.

I can't measure the FJR's pan, but most bike engine bottom-ends I've seen in the past have been pretty beefy cast metal, not like the tinfoil stampings cars use. It's thicker than header-pipes, for instance. I'd be much happier if it was designed so we could use real lifts and didn't have to jury-rig things to take the forks off. I wonder what the dealer shops do...

Originally I bought a Harbor Freight engine lift crane, but then I found that the extensions that keep it from falling over also make it just about impossible to place it where I need it, and also that the big Cee Bailey windshield interferes. So now I have a $200 crane taking up space in the living room that needs to be sold. Oh well.