Motorcycle Lift Safety and Tips

When it comes to working on your motorcycle on a lift whether you're fortunate enough to own a table lift or you ever regular pedestal style lift with a hydraulic Jack of the utmost importance is to make sure the motorcycle is secured to the lift before you raise the lift. Any time I put a motorcycle on a lift, I make sure the wheel vice is tight. I make sure I use extra straps. And before I allow those straps to bite down on any Chrome Component, I use another soft cloth between the Chrome and the strap. Click them securely. Always check the motorcycle. Make sure it's secure, whether it's on a table lift or on a portable pedestal hydraulic jack style lift. Again, before I elevate the table lift, I make sure all the surroundings are clear. I can start to let the air into the piston. Let the motorcycle rise slowly. If you're gonna use a table lift like this at it's full elevated position, make sure the piston fills completely with air. Lower the lock then release the air. Release the air so the locks sits against the locking mechanism. You're not depending on the pneumatic cylinder to hold the weight of the motorcycle and the table lift while it's all the way up. If you're gonna work at the lift at another elevated position other than all the way up, raise the lift up, hold the locking mechanism as you lower it. Again, make sure you hold the stop. Make sure it engages into each side of the locking mechanism. Make sure the lift itself is supporting its own weight not the pneumatic portion of the cylinder holding the weight of the motorcycle. You can see it's very secure. Anytime I'm working up in the air, I like to cover the motorcycle on areas I'm not working on. Again, if you're in the habit of working with a portable stool or if you happen to be standing on a milk crate to raise and do something that's above your reach, make sure all of these components are away from the lift before you lower it. If you happen to lower this lift down onto a stool, or you happen to catch the corner of a milk crate as you lower it, it will hold one side of the table lift up, the other side will keep to lower, the motorcycle will tip over on you. I've had it happen to me. Don't try to save the motorcycle. Make sure once it stops, comes to arrested position, if it does happen to tip over on you, always unplug the air source. At that point, you need assistance. Get a few friends. You can make sure whatever caused the lift to tip over, you remove it from the lift. That point you can stand the motorcycle still strapped to the lift. You'll find if it does tip over, the motorcycle will stay on the lift because it's strapped in position. Stand the motorcycle backup, take a moment, calm yourself down. It happens to the best of us. Make sure you check everything on the motorcycle. They'd could've contacted with the floor. Then at that point you can raise the lift with the air, unlock the safety, lower the motorcycle in the lift to the ground correctly. Again, a little bit of looking forward at what you're going to do. Before you do it, can save a lot of aggravation, a lot of potential damage, if you don't use a lift correctly. One last thing I wanna address, you always need to keep the working surface of the lift, clean and dry. Whether it's wet from moisture or wet from contaminated lubricants, you need to keep this surface dry. You don't want any type of oil underneath the rear tire where the motorcycle can shift side to side and potentially fall right off the lift. Even though the front wheel is locked in, you still have full rotation of the neck bearings on the frame. If this back tire starts to slide off, it can fall off the lift when it's elevated. Third thing you really need to bear in mind, lifts like anything else, need maintenance. You'll see, there are grease fittings. You'll see there are bearings that allow the lift to roll up and down the ramp mechanism freely. The wheels need a light lubricant. Make sure they roll freely if you're gonna move the lift when the motorcycle's off the lift. Never attempt to move the motorcycle when it's on the lift. No matter how many friends you may have, take the time, unload the motorcycle, move the lift, reload, re strap the motorcycle. Another critical area to keep free of debris are the locking notches. You don't want this locking mechanism to settle half into the locking notches and then come dislodge when you're working on your motorcycle.