Hydraulic Bike Lift - decision made!

Just one point. The lift goes up through an arc of a circle so the bike moves sideways as it lifts. That would be awkward inside my cramped garage. 

I have a Clarkes lift, makes life a lot easier. I had my Jubilee on the lift, about two foot up without the locking bar. Came back about two weeks later, the lift had lost is pressure and slowly came down. This would normally be no problem but I had left a small box below the back end of the lift. The back of the lift had settled on a 12in box with the front of the lift touching the floor. With luck the bike was strapped to the lift. Nearly had a heart attack. Always insert the bar.

John

Having read through the posts my comments might be a little belated. I have a very similar lift as that mentioned which I bought for lifting my now departed Triumph Speedmaster which it lifted perfectly well enough but, when I tried to lift my Slimline 99 I found the lifting arms were in contact with the exhausts. I designed some blocks to locate on the frame tubes but these made balancing the the bike a little dodgy. Since then its been taking up space in my garage and currently has my chop saw sat on it. I bought a proper lift table from CJ Autos last year and boy what a bonus that was. Easy to assemble and lifts the Dommi high enough for me to do just about everything on the bottom end without my old back and knees playing up. I would recommend a 'proper' lift if you have the space

John. 

and have used it for several years. As said, it sometimes needs some creativity to make cradles for different bikes - a Honda NX650 was a particular challenge - but I find them excellent. A bonus for a small workshop is that you can move them from side to side so attend to one side of the bike at a time.

The main drawback I found is that they can be unstable front-to-back especially when say you take the front forks and wheel off. I keep meaning to make some struts to support the bike under these circumstances. And as said, always engage the support struts.

My lift was an ebay job and cost well under £100.

hello have you seen these easy side lifts  that easy stow away and easy to take apart  one cost me just lest then 80 quid  and lifts my dominator up to just the right height and it give you access to the front and rear wheels  making it easy of them to be removed the side lift also is very good to use in smaller type sheds were you have less room to manoeuvre  around,  so have a look on eBay see what you can find   yours  anna j