Stability on bike lift

masonmart · Post by **masonmart** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:11 am

The CB77 is a lovely bike and easy to work on but I'm having problems balancing the bike on a lift while I work on it when the wheels are off. There is a large weight bias to the front and jacking up under the engine just seems to lift the centre stand. I'm going to look at strapping down the rear of the bike to the bike lift but has anybody any good tips? I've had a drop already and I don't want to do it again.
MM

jensen · Post by **jensen** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:03 am

Hi,

I always strap any bike down on the rear side when working on it.
It's just a safety precaution, a falling bike, when it's lifted has a huge amount of potential energy which will be translated into kinetic energy when falling. Hitting the floor, it will be translated into momentum which ruin parts of the bike because the floor pushes it back.

Jensen

Gunner_CAF · Post by **Gunner_CAF** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:43 pm

We found it works better on a lift with the pipes off.

Gunner

Goodysnap · Post by **Goodysnap** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 6:36 pm

I hung mine from the ceiling w/ ratchet straps at all 4 corners of the frame. Might not work so great for occasionally wrenching because of the time involved to get it up off the ground. But for restoring I must say it worked rather well and left the bottom completely exposed. It's not perfectly rigid but I never worried about it falling or tipping over. That and I was too cheap to invest in a lift yet.

masonmart · Post by **masonmart** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 5:16 pm

Thanks for the advice. Problem was that I'd had the wheels and forks out and was building up from the engine resting on the lift. It just needs better thought from me that's all. Since posting I've made really good progress and have made sure that the bike was strapped to something. I looked at buying a crane (cherry picker?) but I have a UK size garage and it wouldn't fit. Beautiful bikes btw.