Any recommendations for an hydraulic, no electricity available, lift for my Cali? Time to stop grovelling on my knees. Thank you.
I have a Draper one. It is the narrower width one, 450mm and so takes up a bit less space than the wider 600mm ones. Most of the time, one of my little Stornellos is up on it. I do very occasionally put the T140 on it, but have never put one of the big Guzzi’s up there. I don’t have much of a run up at it and struggle to get the Bonnie on. Not sure if I would manage the Spada or Cali. I live alone with no one around to help so just prefer to continue working on the floor, it just feels safer.
The best solution seems to be if you can set them down into the ground to avoid the 6 inch ramp up onto the deck.
As Don Spada says, can be a bit worrying using one in the garage when living alone.
I bought a Seeley one years ago, front wheel is clamped in a vice. I made an extension so that the bike will go further forward, before pulling onto main stand. sides on this one are angle upwards, might be awkward dependant on the mainstand, had my bmw 1150gs on it ok.Waste of money for the amount of times I used it!
Previous posters on this one have almost sounded negative. I’d like to give a bit of balance to that.
I can’t advise on the make of mine as I’ve lost sight of that. I can say that it is a heavyweight model, has good width with turned up edges. There is a wheel clamp at one end and a sliding removable hatch at the other to aid wheel removal. I think these features are both worth looking out for. The ramp is removable for when I raise the table which gives me better room to get round it in my garage. Also, mine is a scissor action so it raises within its own footprint.
Whilst some of my bikes do feel heavy to me now when wheeling them around the yard, with a short straight run up to the table I find no problem wheeling them up the table and onto the ramp. Once on, if the bike has a centre stand then that and the wheel clamp are good enough to hold it. For prop stands only then I have a couple of straps that hook into holes in the table.
I keep a bike parked on it ordinarily, and having a number of bikes on the fleet there is often one going on for work. It felt like a bit of a luxury when I bought it but it is a real game changer for service work – I cannot stress that enough. Changing that spin off oil filter that Guzzi cunningly hid inside the sump? An absolute pleasure. Seriously.
The main issue for me has been if I want to put a bike up on the table backwards, for when I want to drop the front wheel for instance. That is a lot more precarious when I’m on my own. To assist that I bought a 240v supply cable winch with remote operation – so obviously needs a power supply. I mount that up in the bench vice that lines up with the end of the table then use that to pull the bike up whilst I guide it.
Pics attached of some works in progress. One with Blue reversed on clearly shows the removeable hatch. The ramp also clips on at that end, you can see it leant against the wall behind my Rexxer in one of the shots.
Thank you for your help. I think that I’ll just have to keep looking for a reasonably priced one. There was a chap selling them at the Shepton Mallet show a couple of years ago. But I’ve missed two years of that.
I have one that I bought on eBay in January 2019 for £259.99 free delivery, great bit of kit! It was scratched in delivery and I got a discount of £30.00 from the seller. The seller was martyns-bargains not sure if he is still trading.
This is not my bike on the lift! The Stelvio fits on it! As with Butch’s one the ramp is removable and the front wheel is clamped. It is galvanised under the red paint and so I was not too bothered with a few scratches.
That looks as if it might be the one. Thanks.
I’ve had a look and the seller doesn’t have any bike lifts on eBay at this time. The ones I found are crazy money!