Often we end up with motorcycles that are compatible with almost no jacks. Looking for cheaper ways to lift your bike without a jack is no shock to us as well. But the question is how to lift a motorcycle without a jack?
For the simplest solution, place some stuff under the kickstand to raise it. Consequently, your bike would get straight up and down. Now install a cheap lift under the compartment found underneath the shock of your motorcycle. Depending on which side you're going to work on, stuff some things under the opposite side.
However, that is the basic we talked about; let’s dig deeper.
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Lifting A Motorcycle Without A Jack
If you don’t have any stand to lift your bike, you might want to try other ways. A satisfying fact is some ways can help you lift your bike without a jack. Let’s try some:
The DIY Methods
Since you’re not willing to get a jack, it is to be expected that you’ll have to make something for yourself to get the job done. There are a couple of DIY methods but if you can get creative, you can do it any way you like. Here are some of the popular DIY methods:
1. Making a wooden center stand
A centre stand is a piece of equipment that lifts your bike through its center of mass, which is right underneath the engine. Store-bought center stands would have fancy hydraulics and valves to raise the bike, but we’re going to do it the old-fashioned way.
You’ll need four pieces of wood. Three pieces for the base and one for the handle. For the base, two of the woods should be of the same shape, at least 2.5 feet long and 0.5 feet wide, and the other one has to be at least 5-6 inches shorter, but of the same width.
For the handle, you’ll need a long piece of wood, at least 4-5 feet long and 5-6 inches wide. Once you got the items, start by gluing and pinning the base woods together. The short one should be in the middle. Line them up perfectly.
Take the handle and place its top portion inside the gap made from the different shaped base wood. Glue it and pin it. Once everything is assembled, it should look like a lever.
To use it, simply place the base horizontally under the engine, grab onto the lever, and pull it up so that the base stands up vertically, lifting the bike.
2. Step Ladder and Ratchet Strap
That’s right, we’re going to use a ladder to lift your motorcycle. The process itself is easy but balancing the bike is the tricky part. To begin, you’ll need a decently tall step ladder and a long ratchet strap.
First, take the strap and wrap it around your bike’s handlebars. Loop it around both of them. Make sure the grip is tight.
After that, open up your step ladder and place it right over your bike. Take the ratchet and pull it up to the top of the ladder and secure it to the end.
It’ll take a bit of force to initially lift the bike but once you’ve secured it, it’ll stay lifted frontside up.
Using Items Around Your House
If you don’t want to take the DIY route, don’t worry, you can just use a few things around the house to get the job done as well.
1. Car Jack
If you have a car jack lying around the house, you can put it to some good use because it can also be used as a motorcycle jack with a few tweaks. The main challenge to using a car jack as a motorcycle jack is stability.
To solve this, get a stack of magazines or anything that can help lift the bike. Place the car jack under the bike right at the center and use the handle to lift it. Now, release the kickstand and place the magazine stack or whatever you choose to go with, under the kickstand.
To make it vertically stable, place something under the front or back wheel (opposite to whichever one you’re working with) with equal height to the magazine stash.
This sounds like a very sloppy idea but this gets the job done with such ease and affordability that it’s hard not to recommend trying. Just be careful with the magazines as they might slip under the bike.
2. Telescopic Cane
This highly unconventional method requires you to use only one single tool. A telescopic cane. The trick is to place it under certain places on the bike to get certain things done.
At first, just release your kickstand and place your bike on a plain surface. If you want to lube your chain or change the rear tire, place the telescopic cane under the exhaust pipe.
However, you need to find the perfect height and angle that will balance and lift the rear end. But it shouldn’t be that tricky since bikes are front-heavy. Just play around with the cane, extend and retract it to find the right point.
If you want to remove your front tire, adjust the height of the cane and place it under the center of the bike.
It should be right on the other side of the kickstand, making it seem like both the cane and the kickstand are working as a lift.
Note that the cane should be 90 degrees to the ground in this case. The setup will be stable enough for you to not worry about the bike falling on top of you.
Final Words
With store-bought centre stands and bike jacks being so expensive, it’s recommended for you to try out these alternative options if you’re not a professional. However, the best way to lift the bike without a jack would be the ladder and ratchet strap method. It’s by far the most reliable.
If you’ve followed through to the end, you now know how to lift a motorcycle without a jack. Hope we’ve been helpful.
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