Sunday, June 11, 2006

The motorcycle work stand

Since public opinion seems to have shifted to Harleys being cool, the bike workstand has become pretty mainstream. There are plenty of hydrualic, electric, pneumatic, and manual stands available to raise your bike up to a comfortable working level. Quite a while ago, I ran across a cool homebrew stand in The Old Bike Journal. A few years ago I found what I believe to be the same stand with a little bit better drawing and a much better description. The difference here is the former was done by a guy into vintage dirt bikes and the latter by a Ducati enthusiast with more than a passing interest in engineering. I planned most of the layout of the garagemobile around this stand. Perhaps that was a bit much but my Dad built one and his has been holding his Bultaco Metralla up since he built it about 8 years ago. Yeah he restores at the speed of a glacier, but I digress. The plans call for two sheets of 3/4 plywood and half of one sheet will be left over. Knowing this, I made my workbench to accomodate the leftover plywood and also designed in enough room under the bench for the stand to fit. The garagemobile is fairly small and space is limited. In the event that (gasp!) I would have to put a car in it the stand can be tucked away. Apparently, the plans originally came from the Norton Owner's Club newsletter. I took the plans that I found over at the Eurospares site and pretty'd them up, made a few changes, and put together a nice 24 x 36 blueprint of it. I then promptly lost the plans that I put together. No worries, using the plans from the Eurospares site and the Old Bike Journal plans I built one without my fancy-pants blueprint. The idea here is the top pivots to be the ramp the bike rolls up on. The bike will then pivot forward and the ramp becomes the top of the stand. There is a flap(?) that also pivots and supports the rear of the bike after the top is level. My description here is faily lame so just check out the pictures. I added a few features to my stand that were not in the plans. This thing weighs about 47 metric tonnes so I added two wheels to one end and a handle to the opposite end. This allows me to wheel the stand around when there is not a bike on it without much trouble. Doing woodwork in the garage makes alot of dust so I cleaned the garage out today now that the paint is dry enough to bolt on all the hardware. Oh and while cleaning the garage I found the plans I made.
*Had a bit of trouble posting extra pics. See the post below for more.

8 comments:

Martini Moon said...

What is your favorite motorbike?

Lucky said...

Nice stand! I might have to whip one of those up for my garage. Mine'll probably have more skulls on it than yours, though.

Surly said...

Lucky- currently there are no skulls on my stand. I planned on pinstriping it or sticker the hell out of it. There is a plastic "lifelike human skull" somewhere in the garage however.

Surly said...

martijn- My favorite motorbike? That's one I'll have to ruminate on. Not an easy question. Check back later.

Biker Betty said...

I will have to show my husband, he does woodworking too. The stand looks great. Isn't it always the way, find what you are looking for AFTER you're done, lol. I think that's a Murphy Law. Great pics.

Grumpyunk said...

Great stand, Surly!! The force is strong w/ you.

Roger, the Brit Guy has a similar setup in his shop. Really nice. The wheels were a great idea.

I was thinking of a small hydraulic bike lift, but after seeing Roger's yesterday and yours today ....... I'm reconsidering.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the stand pics and drawings. I worked in a bike shop in the late 60's and we had them. Fast forward 3-4 decades and I got a bike again and where the hell am I gonna see some plans to build a ramp/bench. Bingo. Thanks Estimado.

Pat L said...

Very cool stand! I need to make one that'll handle BMW sport-tourers, the mid-600-pounders or so.

I'm curious about how you modified the Eurostands plans, and what you added? What would you do differently next time around?

I'm thinking about just making two at the same time, since there's not much of a jump from 2 to 3 sheets of plywood anyway :)