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I have a J&S jack and a Pitbull jack. They are BOTH Very stable with my previous Road Glide Ultra, and my current Sport Glide. The Pit Bull is physically larger and will lift higher. They are both sturdy enough that I have yet to strap a bike to them. I have grabbed my bikes on them and shook them with no evidence that they are unstable at all. The original jacks that HD were selling were made by J&S. However both of these companies are out of business for whatever reason. They are the best motorcycle lifts ever made in my opinion..
Most of the arms on the other motorcycle jacks will fit inside the arms of the J&S jack.
Yes, I see, but my specific need is to not have to crouch and bend. This wouldn't achieve that.
Jim G
Unless you get a lift table, no matter what jack you get; you are going to be crouching and bending.
Sucks but that is the way it is with us aging old guys, things go snap crackle & pop most times and it is not crawling around on the floor, it is getting up afterwards - lol
Most of the arms on the other motorcycle jacks will fit inside the arms of the J&S jack.
YES, that is the physical truth when you take measurements, and calculate how poorly the newer products can actually stabilize an elevated motorcycle, you begin to see the magnitude of the problem. Also, if you look at the product WEIGHTS, you see a rnage from about 50 lb to 100 lb, for jack lifts that "look the same".
That, plus a worrisome level of quality problems being reported on the newer products out there (the only ones available to buy brand new), make buying one of the newer products very hard to justify, especially if you, like me, were ever responsible for safety in an industrial setting. Most of the newer ones being sold are an accident waiting to happen.
Jim G
Last edited by JimGnitecki; Jul 12, 2024 at 09:57 AM.
Unless you get a lift table, no matter what jack you get; you are going to be crouching and bending.
Sucks but that is the way it is with us aging old guys, things go snap crackle & pop most times and it is not crawling around on the floor, it is getting up afterwards - lol
Exercise & stretching is the key.
The Big Blue lift lifts high enough (30 inches) to not require much bedning or crouching. But, the 2 cross beams are both good and bad. Good in that their position is adjustable to fit the bike being lifted for optimal balance. Bad in that they are only 14" wide. Since my Breakout's frame tubes are 10" wide ctc, that means only 2" of beams on each side to handle slight mispositioning or sudden "slips" when tightening or loosening high torque nuts or bolts. And the Canadian distributor price versus the British price, and its effect on our retirement budget, just angered my wife enough for a strong "no".
And yes, my body is typical of 73 year old bodies. I do stretching, and try to stay very active, but somewhere along the way my left side leg muscle group apparently took some damage that does not seem to be repairable. But i don't want to give up motorcycling.
There is nothing under the sun that is going to meet the OP`s requirements.
OP: Pay someone to wash the bike.
Or buy a table lift and a scissor jack.
Table lift and scissor jack are not a convenient way to wash and wax a bike frequently., and the table just gets in the way. And a scissor jack on top of a table lift is particularly inconvenient for cleaning FRONT wheels. The space required for the table lift is huge. And a Big Blue lift, even at the inflated Canadian distributor price, is still a LOT lower cost than a table lift plus quality scissor jack (if a quality scissor jack even exists anymore).
I wish used Big Blue lifts were actually available.
I wish used Big Blue lifts were actually available.
It's not, but it is available new.
Sure, it's expensive. But how much pleasure will it bring you?
You're old enough to have kinda switched over to that spend the money, get what you really want, type of thinking. It ain't a bad way to think.
If this is the lift that will let you wash your bike to your hearts content, and do work on when you want, all without crouching and back pain.... Well, spend the coin and enjoy.
YES, that is the physical truth when you take measurements, and calculate how poorly the newer products can actually stabilize an elevated motorcycle, you begin to see the magnitude of the problem. Also, if you look at the product WEIGHTS, you see a rnage from about 50 lb to 100 lb, for jack lifts that "look the same".
That, plus a worrisome level of quality problems being reported on the newer products out there (the only ones available to buy brand new), make buying one of the newer products very hard to justify, especially if you, like me, were ever responsible for safety in an industrial setting. Most of the newer ones being sold are an accident waiting to happen.
Jim G
I replace my old Bike Master lift with the J&S after I used a friends J&S jack. And I can change the 3 fluids on the Harley using the J&S jack and the added pan.
I never dropped my bike using the Bike Master jack for about 30 years. Just had to select placement based on what I was working on.
Last edited by Goose_NC; Jul 12, 2024 at 12:40 PM.
It's not, but it is available new.
Sure, it's expensive. But how much pleasure will it bring you?
You're old enough to have kinda switched over to that spend the money, get what you really want, type of thinking. It ain't a bad way to think.
If this is the lift that will let you wash your bike to your hearts content, and do work on when you want, all without crouching and back pain.... Well, spend the coin and enjoy.
Page 3, second picture.
It shows the Big Blue lock.
You could easily use it as a secondary stop to help the acme screw.
Thanks for finding and downloading the Big Blue user manual! And, yes, I see the lock holes now, but don't yet understand how you would lock the lift at different heights.
But, in the meantime, I called TMG and asked one of their reps a bunch of questions about measurements and features. He did not know many of the answers, as this is a new product fro them, but he wrote the questions down and said he would get the answers and call me back, but likely not until sometime next week. IF I could make that TMG lift work for me, I would need to modify or replace the 2 beams that the bike sits on, for all the reasons you noted early in this thread. But if I did that, and if the rep's answers turn out to be satisfactory, that COULD be made into a pretty decent lift.
It also has some advantages, some even over the Big Blue:
- The TMG base is 36" wide x 36" long. I THINK that is bigger than the Big Blue base (Big Blue does not provide the measurments unless I missed them)
- The lift will accept bikes with ground clearance as lows as just slightly higher than 3 inches (the rep says the tops of the lift beams are 3" above the floor). Since my Breakout has 4.5" of ground clearance, I could make higher/stronger beams or simply add 1/2" thick steel plates to the tops of the 2 factory beams
- The lift supposedly lifts a bike 18" above the 3" beams, which is a bit better than most jack type lifts
- No high torque low rpm drill required
- No need to use one hand to screw the lift down - it apparently has a release **** on the hydraulic cylinder, which MIGHT even allow adjustment of the descent rate
- Cost falls between the jack lifts and the Big Blue
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