Does anyone own or have experience of using bike lifts? I’m not looking for something that you’d find in a busy, professional workshop. Those rapidly ascend in to four figures and I can’t justify the cost.
I found this site that appears pretty useful but I have no expertise so it could be a load of old toot for all I know.
They all seem to hold the bike by locking in the front wheel, which is good and all that, but what if you need to remove the wheel, forks etc? Is there a better solution than jacking the bike up underneath the engine? That seems a bit unstable to me.
It’s unbranded, I thing its one of those generic ones you see. Draper, Sealey etc put their name on them, I,ll have a look when I’m home from work. I paid somewhere in the region of a couple of hundred for it.
It’s actually has a bit of side to side sway in the first few feet when lifting it, bit becomes much steadier the higher you go. Its just down to the design of the supporting legs, the more vertical they get, the more solid they are. So I wouldn’t swing off any tight bolts with it only raised a foot or 2!
Mine! Used daily as also a welding bench and many more uses!! It’s a Clarke 450kg air/hydraulic and came as an engagement present complete with a parts washer. Remember to push the boat out as every biker needs those shiney unneeded tools to go with it!! I’ve put a sheet of ply on it for protection unfortunately it stops me from using the wheel drop out door!
I’ve got a Clarke lift which I used successfully for my Vincent and Guzzi restorations. It’s great to be able to work on a bike at that height if you’ve got a big job to do. Mostly, though, it lives folded up against the workshop wall. For smaller jobs I get by OK with the bike’s centre stand and a small platform type scissor lift under the engine. Always fit your bikes with a centre stand!
The Clarke seems to be winning the popular vote. The CML3 looks to be about £600. I’ve just noticed they do a scissor jack (CML6) that can sit on the lift, which answers my previous question. Every day’s a school day.
I bought the Clark bike lift. Apart from the obvious ease when spannering at a decent height and not lying down, its quite a good security feature too.
My bike lives up in the air each night in the garage, i drilled a hole through the security bar and use a padlock, plus a couple of heafty chains around and through the lift hopefully deter the scum…
That’s a good idea for the security. I’m also looking at the Clark bike lift. Haven’t bought it yet but it’s on the shopping list. In fact, I’ve just looked and it’s currently on offer with 20% off at Machine Mart so I might have to hit the checkout button!
Machine Mart successfully tempted me with their 20% discount offer. I’ve ordered a Clarke CML3 bike lift. £109 off the normal price (yay! ). Delivery cost added £72 (boo! )
). Delivery cost added £72 (boo! 
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