motorcycle lifts

How to Build a Motorcycle Lift

2010-06-05T00:56:00.000-07:00

Trying to clean or repair your motorcycle without a lift can be a very painful experience. Having to constantly stoop down or bend in uncomfortable positions can wreak havoc on your back, and make what should be an enjoyable experience turn into a dreadful chore. What is even worse is how expensive motorcycle lifts can end up being. The best solution to both of these problems is to take matters into your own hands and craft a motorcycle lift all on your own. Follow these steps.

1.Make space in your garage large enough to house your motorcycle lift. You need to make sure that before you build your lift that there is enough space to work and build the lift, as well as enough space to store it and use it when it is finished.

2.Get your tools together and prepare your work space for the project. Keep your tools organized neatly so that you will have them at your disposal when you need to use them. A few tools you will need for this project include a hand saw, hammer, drill and drill bits, pencil and ruler and a pipe wrench.

3.Take your pencil and make a mark on the 8'-inch wide side of a 4" x 8" x 3" piece of wood. The mark needs to be about 3 1/2 inches from the end and needs to be on the center line of the wood.

4.Drill a hole through the wood at the mark you just made. The hole needs to be drilled through the 4-inch thick part of the wood. You will need a specific drill bit that is a 1 3/8-inch paddle bore bit.

5.Insert a piece of pipe flange in the hole you drilled. Mark four lag bolt locations on the piece of wood with your pencil and ruler.

6.Drill out each of the lag bolt locations. This will help you get the lag bolts in place a lot easier than just trying to put them in with no holes already made.

7.Screw the lag bolts into their locations. You will need to use a socket wrench to securely fasten the bolts into their proper location.

8.Insert the galvanized pipe through the hole, thread it into the pipe flange, and use a pipe wrench to tighten it all up.

Motorcycle Stunt Riding Facts and More

2009-11-03T18:18:00.000-08:00

Motorcycle stunt riding is a growing sport in the United Kingdom and the United States. However, United States law prohibits "stunting" motorcycles on public roads and it can even get you in jail quickly.
If you're buying a second-hand motorcycle, check if the bike has been stunted. Check for flat spots on the front tire which shows you that the bike has done some wheelies and also check for scratches which could have resulted from a crash. Stunting can trash engines, transmissions and the suspension, so beware unless you intend to use your bikes in the same way, as a stunt bike.
Robert Craig Knievel, Jr. is probably the most famous American motorcycle daredevil. Now considered as both an icon and a legend, he started his career as an entertainer somewhere in the late 1960s. He performed numerous motorcycle jumps which are televised in the entire country. His attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon located at Twin Falls, Idaho back in 1974 was among the most watched (it ranks number 4) event in ABC's Wide World of Sports up until this date. He died last year, November 30 at age 69.
Some Motorcycle Stunts & Drill Teams in the US include the South Florida Bike Crew, D-Aces Stunt Riders Motorcycle Team (Wasau, Wisconsin), TenNinety6 (Kalamazoo, MI) and the Hardly Angels (a Women's Motorcycle Drill Team).
Bob Duffey, a professional Motorcycle Jumper was dubbed as "The Fastest Man on Two Wheels Backwards". He's got an ET of 11.71 seconds and a trap speed of 122 mph. The man is untouched on the dragstrip riding backwards. This record was done on a 1979 stock Kawasaki Z1R-TC, his favorite bike, at an IDBA (International Drag Bike Association) sanctioned event.
Debbie Evans - The Queen of Trials was the first woman to successfully ride in the US Trials during the late 1970s and is generally considered as the best female rider in the history of the sport.
Australian Robbie Maddison now holds the record for the "Longest Motorcycle Jump". He broke it earlier in January this year at an exhibition event sponsored by a big hotel. He leapt 322 feet, 7 inches (98.34 meters) totally and ended up smashing the Guinness World Record of 277 feet, 6 inches (84.58 meters) set in 2005 by Trigger Gumm.
Perhaps the most widely known sport bike motorcycle stunt is the "wheelie". It is a trick where the front wheel or wheels come off the ground and the vehicle is balanced on the rear wheel or wheels.
Other Popular Bike Stunts include the handstand (The rider does a handstand on a moving motorcycle), the Endo (a stunt which lifts the motorcycle's rear tire off the ground while balancing the bike on the front wheel or wheels while still rolling), the Stoppie (stopping a moving motorcycle, so the rear wheel is raised in the air while the machine is balanced on the front tire and comes to a complete stop), 12 O' Clock Wheelie (a kind of wheelie that is straight up and the rider scratches the tail of the motorcycle on the street), Circle Wheelie (wheelie while driving in a circular motion), and Combo Wheelie (a wheelie that features multiple rider maneuvers while on one wheel).
A full range of protective gear should be worn when attempting a stunt in a high powered motorcycle. Some popular brands include Alpinestars, Teknic, Icon, Sidi and Joe Rocket whilst Arai, Bell, AGV, KBC, Icon, Shoei and Suomy are some of the popular helmet brands.

By Nail Khazen

Overhead Fastening Without Ladders and Lifts

2009-11-02T19:39:00.000-08:00

Overhead Fastening to Concrete Decks
Many times on the site, you are called on to suspend items from a concrete deck, bar joist or metal deck. This article will give you a few ideas to fasten to the deck from the floor in particular, hanging ceiling grid wire, jack chain and threaded rod. Just some applications include electricians suspending light fixtures and cable, low voltage contractors suspending cable runs or speakers, ceiling contractors suspending grid and many others.
To Concrete
If you do any amount of fastening at all to concrete, you likely have a Hilti or Ramset gun, but do you have an extension pole? Most of these tools can be mounted on an extension pole allowing the worker to reach the deck without a lift or ladder. The most common type of pole tool is a fixed length pole, usually 6' that you mount your tool in. The tool will have a actuator lever at the other end like a clutch lever on a motorcycle to actuate the tool. Some tools like the Ramset Viper tool are specifically made for use on a pole tool. There is a telescopic pole tool that will extend from 6'-12' in one foot increments allowing you to reach almost a 20' deck from the floor. You can shoot ceiling clips with grid wire, or jack chain or a threaded rod clip to suspend threaded rod.
To Bar Joist
Tall buildings with bar joist ceilings can be a real challenge when the deck is 20' in the air. While some electricians have a "trick" they use with piece of EMT to twist around the bar joist, this can be difficult to do all day. Flange clip tools can make this job easier. You can get a flange clip that you can fasten to grid wire or jack chain and then using a special install tool, you can raise the clip to the bar joist and engage the clip and your done. You can also get flange clips that will screw on to a piece of threaded rod, and you can reach up and install to the joist.
Wood Ceilings
Fastening to wood beams from the floor can be easy if you have the right tool. Look for a tool called the lagmaster that will telescope from 6'-12' and drive an eye lag and tie the grid wire to the lag all at once. There is a version of this tool that will allow you to install Sammy screws (rod hangers) from the floor with the threaded rod already installed.
Metal Decks
Metal decks can be handled much like the wood ceilings mentioned above, you would just use a self drilling eye lag for metal on the end of a lagmaster pole and you can zip right along.
Even Faster
Want to move along even faster? The above mentioned ceiling clips and flange clips can be purchased pre tied with grid wire, saving you the time of tying them your self. You may pay a little more but many of these costs can be passed to the end user. Also, I often figure it costs a buck a minute to run a guy, I would rather have him focus on his trade rather than assembly work

By Jeffrey Richard
Jeffrey Richard Level: Basic PLUS Power tool salesman with 15 plus years of experience in sales and service of power tools with an emphasis on powder actuated tools and gas ...

Motorcycle Engine Variety

2009-10-29T23:24:00.000-07:00

Motorcycle engine design and innovation has long surpassed that of the automotive industry, and industry observers agree that the big companies like Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki can muster considerable R&D prowess here, which can then be applied to their automobile engines.
Competitors are especially aware of this. Says former Oldsmobile chief engineer Ted Louckes: "That's where the leading edge of piston engine technology is today. It's not in automobiles; it's not in aircraft. It's in motorcycles."
The Goal: Better Combustion
When considering the advantages of a combustion chamber crammed with more than four valves-per-cylinder, the first inclination is to think, aha! Flow area! Five valves equals more flow area! True, to a degree, but that's only part of the Yamaha's design strength.
In the reigning days of the two-valvers, engine designers would control pinging by incorporating squish bands into the combustion chambers. By the 1960s, the four-valve heads of Cosworth and Honda racing engines were allowing narrow included valve angles and thus shallow combustion chambers. Put the spark plug in the center, and voila!, good combustion.
Yamaha looked beyond four valves to unlock even better combustion. In the early '80s (Yamaha had only been a serious producer of four-stroke engines for about ten years!) it experimented with a variety of head and valve configurations, even trying a seven-valve-per-cylinder (four intakes, three exhaust) design.
Finally, five valves per jug was found to be the right combination. This design gives the engine extra intake valve perimeter, which allows it to flow more air at low-to-medium valve lifts -- exactly where valves in most production automotive engines spend most of their operating time.
Honda of America Mfg., Inc., has combined plant and production engineering with advanced manufacturing techniques to become one of the leading engine producers in North America.
The million-square-foot plant manufactures 500,000 high technology engines and drive trains a year. Kinzer noted that the plant produces everything that makes a car "go and stop." He said that even Japan has no Honda facility comparable to the Anna plant. Its production, he reported, equals the total of seven similar Honda manufacturing units in Japan. At present production levels, a Civic or Accord engine is produced at the Anna plant every 27 seconds.
Honda's iron foundry operates three shifts per day. The ferrous casting and machining operations include the production of engine cylinder sleeves and brake discs and drums. Aluminum casting operations include high pressure casting of engine blocks and transmission and torque converter cases, low pressure casting of engine cylinder heads and gravity casting of pistons.

By Joe Bella