I have a couple of the mid frame jacks that worked fine in the past and now have a lift table from Harbor Freight that I use exclusively. I park the bike on it every day when I get home (often multiple times a day) and it's SO much easier now to adjust tire pressure and check things between rides. Some people will talk trash about the HF lift table, they either haven't owned one or didn't understand how to use it.

 

I bought a HF lift table in 2017. Used it find for a couple of years. Then something happened to it. It would not lift my 2002 ElectraGlide as it had for many times before. Something got bent somehow. So I sold it.

I do like having the space back in my garage. I have a motorcycle "jack" that I,ve had for 20+ years. It does all I need.I keep looking for a used lift table, but haven found one yet.

 

I bought an HF lift and added their wheel chock to it.
I use it for my Electra Glide.
I have never had any problems with it.
Look for coupons and sales.

 

Have a HF myself and over 4 years with it and no problems at all and I think it was under $300.00 with their coupon...seems built out of heavy gauge steel and only thing I can see that may be cheap quality is the jack itself...still no problems with it though.

 

Glad to see several here like there Harbor Freight lifts. There have also been failures.
As Izzo stated pulling your $20K+ machine onto a lift you cheap out on doesn't sound great, however it's not my job to stop you. Parking on it is not the issue. The issue is raising your bike and how stable it is if you are performing real work. If you use it to polish or just change oil it may be good enough.
I have a Black Widow Pro Lift, the scizzor jack for stability, as well as heavy ratchet straps. I also have a hydraulic jack. I need all of them.

Jack is very handy, but sometimes a lift is required.

Also have had lawn mowers and ATVs on the lift.
A hoist comes in handy also, but rarely for bikes.

 

I don't bother with it waxing or polishing.lol Not just trusting my bike on it either but the ceramic tile floor among other things in my dining room too!
My winter build in comfort...Screw heating the garage with propane when it's -20.
Can it fail? I'm sure it could. Like anything hydraulic. Failed on my $130,000 Peterbilt too. Now I don't normally by $hit from HF. Don't get me wrong. Lotta junk there. Like a compression tester that reads 50psi off because the Schrader valve is on the wrong end of the hose! I just don't see anything majorly wrong with this lift. But then I didn't go there and buy it new either.

 

What jack is under the frame?

 

Just a scissor jack I used to get the rear wheel off the lift slightly to turn it over to get each cylinder at TDC. It's just sitting there now. It was used behind the rear shocks. I had a piece of wood on it and braced the cases up when I unbolted it from the tranny and pulled the pins too. Works better than my hydraulic jacks because it goes really low. My hydraulic ones don't go low enough. It's the jack from my GL450 actually.

 

One huge improvement that I made for loading onto my lift was to make a small platform the same heighth as the lift in it's lowest position. I don't know about anyone else but when driving onto the lift there is that magical moment when my feet were not able to touch the ground if I stalled at the right (or wrong) spot. I actually pull the platforms a couple of feet more past the end of the lift and makes it so much easier when loading.

 

OP still needs to return & specify what they're wanting...jack, or lift? Also, $300 budget won't cut the mustard f/ raising a touring bike, unless you find used (JMO).