Homemade Rear Lift

With tires in the near future for my 2012 I was shopping for lifts last week. I got to thinking that the front lift looks like it would be a pain to build but the rear is just a lever and a pin, no big deal.

So I took a few hours Sunday afternoon and some scrap from a previous project and (over) engineered this:

I'm no welder/fabricator, not by a long shot (collective "no shit" from those who are) welds are not all pretty but they are solid.


First, I turned a 3/4" rod down to fit the lift point nicely:


Then started cutting pieces and parts, measurements were all "that looks right":


I was worried about strength of just the tubing, so inside is another piece of 3/4 rod:


Ready to weld:


This looked like a weak point, so I sleeved it, also later added a brace:


Pretty much complete, also added the "prop" so that you can get your hand under it when the bike is on the lift:


Works like a charm, wish I had made it about 3" shorter though!:

 

Looks pretty cool. Nice of Honda to leave that lifting pin mounting block there.

 

It was...they could have gone the GM route and required some specialty "j-tool" to be able to pick the rear of the bike up!

 

Maybe you'll luck out and the "no shit" crowd will tell ya it shoulda been made of titanium.

 

Thanks for the post. Going to build my own based on our photos!

 

Flippin' awesome. I built a lift for a '06 CBR1000 and it worked great but, I bought the Pitbull(too much money) for my VFR1200. Great lift but, I would have rather copied yours. Again, Great job, brother!

 

As always there are things I wish I had done differently now that it is made. The biggest is the height. The upright support should have been about 3-4" shorter, there is no need to get the bike so high off the ground. I don't know how much the rear is levered back down by a pitbull front stand but that would be the determining factor for height. For reference the main support rod on mine is 12" long.

To check myself, I did a close-up video of raising the bike and I don't see any bending in the stand anywhere as the bike is picked up, even so, there are a few little fabrication technique changes I would make if doing it over. That's what you get when you pend 5 minutes thinking about making something and 3 hours throwing it together.

One thing to note, the main support rod and the lever/handle are a few degrees less than 90* offset from each other. That way the weight of the bike is a little past vertical and the stand is stable with the bike on it.

I used Sch 40 3/4" ID pipe and 3/4" rod because they are an easy slip fit together.

 

I would have made it out of titanium.

 

I think you should do that then, I hear unicorn farts are the optimum shielding gas for Ti welding.

 

Naa, I just use Bondo

 

That's a misleading title: "Homemade Rear Lift" I had visions of PVC pipe and binder twine or at best galvanized threaded plumbing pipe. That's stand it "shop built."

 

I like stuff like this.
and wanted to build one myself, but instead bought the stock one.
from the pictures, especially the steel welding table, and "I turned down the dia to fit", part, I think that's more than most of us could do.

I would suggest, you take that 3" out of the height, and see if there would be any interest in selling a few to those here on this list.
either unfinished, needing welding a kit sort of, or with a removable handle,

just an idea.
I thought the pit bull was too expensive,
I asked T-Rex, if they would make one, but they said no.

thanks for posting up,

 

I really appreciate the compliments, I enjoyed the simple project because it was just a project. Anything I did for sale would have to meet a standard that I could, but don't want to meet. I could improve this thing 10 fold on a second try, but it does the job for me so why? Just me, but if it is not perfect I wont put my name on it from a business perspective. The other thing is that free time away from work is worth more to me than I could realistically sell this thing for.

A question though, as far as a removable handle; is that attractive because many people store their bike on a stand instead of on the side stand? I only really wanted a stand to work on the bike, change tires etc. so a removable handle didn't matter to me and was just another weak point.

I may give a headstand a try next, I think there are some fabrication issues with the tools I have now, but the tools I need (want?) would cost little more than the pit-bull stand so it may be a wash. Materials would be negligible. I really need to handle one though, the angles and weight distribution are going to be more critical and harder to just eyeball on it.

 

Nice job on the lift

 

the pit bull stand for reference.
$200 almost.

 

Mind if I ask how much the materials cost you and what type of metal are the rods?

 

The materials were leftover from another project so I'm not sure exactly, the place I buy from sells only 20' lengths, realistically it should have been about $10 worth of materials. And about 4 or 5 hours labor. Add a few dollars for shielding gas and wire.

The steel was just plain hot rolled steel, nothing fancy.

 

Thanks man

 

Well, I have no welding talent nor equipment, but I have friend with plenty of both! I printed off your photos and info. Bought some pipe and solid rod (for the pin going into center stand hole). In less than 30 minutes my friend had me a great lift! I painted it so at least I helped in some way Works great.

Any photos of a homemade front tire lift?

 

Good deal, glad it worked out!

I actually ran up on a great price on a stand from a friend of androgens who was shutting down a speed shop near me. So for $40 I figured I would just go with that.

Both have been well tested recently with my gravel low side and deer vs bike incident. They work great.