Building A Bike Lift
By Rickko
For quite awhile I'd been reading the ads looking for a reasonably priced bike lift because I knew
the time was coming when I'd have to replace my front and rear tires. I wanted to remove them
myself so I needed to find a way to get the wheels off the ground at home. I was also getting
tired of crouching into a small ball on the left side of my bike every time I cleaned it. Again, I
wished my bike could stand free in an upright position. The sophisticated lifts I saw advertised
cost in excess of $400 and the inexpensive ones, about $80. So, like many others before me, I
decided to experiment a little and build one myself. After talking to friends and seeing examples
of other homemade lifts, I came up with a pretty simple one. It will take you about 1/2 hour of
time shopping at Home Depot; then 15 minutes to assemble, and cost you less than twenty
dollars. To construct this lift you'll need the following items. (Some, you might have lying around
your garage; which if true, will save you even more.) These are Home Depot's prices as of
4/28/97.
(1) 3 ft. long 4" x 8" Douglas fir @ $2.00/linear foot $6.00
(1) 4' x 3/4" galv. threaded pipe @ $4.32 $4.32
(1) 3/4" galvanized pipe flange @ $3.11 $3.11
(4) 3 1/2" x 5/16" lag bolts @ .50 each $2.00
Sub-Total
$15.43
CA Tax
1.20
Total
$ 16.63
Note 1:
After building the lift I found the pipe flange from Home Depot is from Taiwan and a little brittle
(although I'm still using it, cracked and all). I suggest trying to find a stronger one at your local
hardware store.
Note 2:
For a Sportster frame you'll need a 28" long piece of 2x4 and four long nails to secure it to the 4"
x 8" and 2 1" eyebolts.
You'll need the following tools to assemble your lift:
Pencil & Ruler
Electric (not battery powered) Drill
1 3/8" Paddle bore drill bit (Will cost about $5 at Home Depot)
3/16" Wood drill bit
1/2" Socket to tighten lag bolts
Small pipe wrench
Hand saw to notch the wood to compensate for the exhaust header on the Sporty that hangs
below the frame or
A hammer (to nail the 2x4 to the 4" x 8" if building this for a Sportster frame)
Instructions:
Locate and mark a point on the 8" wide side of the 4"x8"x3' piece of wood that is 3 1/2 " from
end and on the centerline of its length (see Assembly Drawing)
Using the Paddle bore drill bit, drill a hole through the 4" thickness of the wood centered at the
point marked above.
Place the Pipe Flange, countersunk, into the hole and mark the four Lag Bolt hole locations on
the wood.
To ease screwing in the Lag Bolts, pre-drill each lag bolt hole with the 3/16" bit ensuring you are
drilling at a good 20 to 30 degree angle away from the centerline of the hole just bored through
the wood. Drilling at this angle eliminates the pointy end of the lag bolt from emerging through
the other side of the wood when fastening the flange to the wood.
Re-seat the flange in the 1 3/8" hole, then screw the lag bolts down securely with the socket
wrench
Insert the 4' galvanized pipe through the bored hole threading it into the flange and tighten with
the pipe wrench.
You’re done! You may want to paint the pipe red or orange so it stands out and alerting you not
to accidentally trip on it. Another suggestion is to wrap some duct or electrical tape around the
handle end of the same pipe for comfort. And lastly, stapling or tacking down some old carpet
over the lifting edges of the 4" x 8" will keep the wood from removing paint from your frame
each time you lift the ole scoot.
To operate your lift, insert the wood directly under your frame somewhere beneath the engine.
Check that you won't be putting pressure on something you shouldn't and insure the ground
beneath your bike is level). If you can with your left hand, hold your bike upright leaving the
kickstand extended outward. Now push the handle of your new lift rearward and downward.
Voila! Your bike is lifted and in an upright position making it easier to work on, clean and to
check the oil (smile, Softail owners).
Notes for Sportster owners. The Sportster front exhaust header is lower than the frame tubes.
Using the lift as designed above would cause the 4"x8" lifting surface to put pressure on the
exhaust header. Therefore to lift the Sportster properly you'll need to nail a 1"x4" or 2"x4" to the
lifting surface of the 4"x8". It should be cut 28" long and aligned flush with the edge where you
drilled the hole for the pipe. Robert Kemper mentions this in his email below.
Additionally, because the Sportster frame is so narrow, for safety and security you should
purchase two 1" eyebolts. These would be fastened to the lift so you could run a strap through
them and over the seat to keep the bike from falling on either side. Both Robert & Dave talk
about this in their email below.
COMMENT FROM ROBERT KEMPER:
From: "Robert Kemper" Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 00:41:53 -0400 -If you end up buying a
2"X8"X8' to cut in half for the lift because the store doesn't have 4"X8"s, buy 2 1/2" lag screws
not 3 1/2". -The 8" isn't 8". So, you may have to add a piece of 1"X4" to the top (then you get to
trim that). This is good because you won't have to cut a notch. I used a 1"X4" that went 4" past
mid-line (28" on a 4' board). - The pipe is not designed to thread all the way to the bottom of the
pipe flange. Fortunately, I asked someone who knew that and I didn't foolishly try to return a
"defective" flange to the store. Don't EVEN try to thread it from the bottom up to save from
counter sinking the flange. -Only Rickko can build a lift in 15 minutes. Real time including trips to
store, borrowing tools from neighbors, etc.- 6 hours. -Eyebolts are a nice addition to tie the bike
down, but when you place the lift so that it catches those rail looking sections on the bottom of
the chassis, the bike feels solid as a rock! EXCELLENT LIFT!
COMMENT FROM DAVE GARRETSON:
From: Dave Garretson Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 18:18:48 EDT Subject: lift improvements Just
wanted to send a few improvements to you that I had made to your lift that you have posted on
the net. If you are building this lift for a Sportster recommend the following improvements: 1)
use a 4' long 4" x 8" and put two eye bolts in the wood about 3" from each end so that they face
the ceiling when the bike is on the lift. Now when you put the bike up, take off your seat and use
two nylon pull type tie downs to secure the bike frame under the seating area to the lift at the
eyebolts. Straddle the bike and pull them tight simultaneously and viola the bike WILL be stable
no more worry about the narrow sporty frame and the bike's stability while up on the lift. 2)
When drilling through the wood to install the pipe and flange, use two different size bits so that
the wood lends some support to the pipe and the flange doesn't take all of the weight. I did this
and used the same flange you did; however, my pipe flange has yet to break or crack.
COMMENT FROM TERRY BAYNE
From: "Terry Bayne" Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 07:48:21 -0800 Saw the posts about Rickko's lift
and thought I would mention the mods I made. First gotta say thanks to Rickko! I built one
about a year ago and use it at least twice a month, if not more often. When I built mine, I had
seen the posts about the flange cracking.... so I spent a few minutes looking at things before I
did the drilling... What I ended up doing was two things...first I drilled the hole in the lift to be
the same size as the outside diameter of the pipe - tight enough that it had to be tapped into
place. Then I countersunk the flange on the other side (drilling out the existing hole just enough
to allow the flange to fit.) This arrangement allows the pipe and the wood of the lift to take most
of the stress, not the flange.