How would you lift the rear of a bike for a shock install, without a center stand?

I was replacing the tires on my bike today, and going to install the shock I have from Jamie at the same time. Except when I finally looked at the instructions in the service manual, I realized my idea of jacking the bike up from the centerstand mounts on the frame was going to be a total no-go. With a car jack, I wasn't going to have two points of contact to form a stable triangle with the front tire.

So.....

Hang the rear from the rafters like I do the front when I'm doing fork work?

Or remove the exhausts from both '86s, and temporarily swap the center stand from my white F2 to the RWB F1, swap the shocks on the F1, and then swap the centerstand back to the white VFR? (although I guess I could confirm that the supertrapps and the centerstand are mutually exclusive at the same time.

 

Further question: Where you put the shock reservoir on an 1986 bike? (I'm picking up stainless hose clamps to hold it in place tomorrow).

 

Use your passenger pegs to hang from the rafters. That's easy. Or more complex would be to use some some jack stands and wood to create a support structure to hold the ass end up by a contact point on the subframe. Or you could run a 2X4 across the passenger grab handles and support with a couple of step ladders or saw horses. Looks like you have a full rack luggage setup. Use those as contact points for jack stands or running a 2/4 across the rack hoops and lift. You have all sorts of options.

Jose

 

To hell with all that swappin shit!!!!!! Just hang her from the rafters should do just fine.

 

Yeah, I think I had to rafter hang from the subframe before I finally got a center stand for VFR#1 to put the Twin Clicker on.

 

Not everyone has rafters.

I have a method for lifting both ends without a centerstand, used it many times, no fuck-ups yet. The bike is either leaning VERY lightly against a wall or secured with a strap to something to prevent any tipping movement.


First, get the rear wheel about 11" from a wall, secure with a strap around the frame. Next, place sissor jack and 2X4" block centrally under the 2 stand mounts. Use jack to lift the rear wheel about 3-4". Then place a support stand under the front of the oil sump, blocked up and adjusted so that it's a tight fit. Next, lower the jack enough to pivot the front wheel up an inch or so, and both wheels will be up. Normally, you'd do any heavy torquing or untorquing on axles before you lift the bike.

 

I ended up going the safe route. A pitbull front-stand (via the steering stem), and then jacked it up from a bolt through the center-stand mounts. Was a little wobbly at times, but it did the job. I borrowed the front-stand from a friend, and wow, is that nice. I'm going to have look into getting one of those for myself.

 

Yep, that's what I do. As you can tell here, there are several ways to skin a cat.

 

Pit Bill stands are the shit. Camp out on C-list, they pop up pretty frequently for cheap and damn near new usually.

 

There are definitely some good prices on cl... wow. I'll keep that in mind.

 

This is how I did er,