Recommend a Bike Lift?

[vanion2]

So I finally got the front forks off the Vulcan. Easy enough to do but for one aspect...I had to use two car jacks and a jack stand to make it work. I borrowed a friend's Torin bike lift but the oil pan and headers sit so low below the frame that there was no way to use it without putting weight on the listed parts. I could have removed the headers but that still wouldn't work with the oil pan in the way.

What do you fellow Vulcan 500 owners use for a bike lift?

I am no expert on cruisers but it seems most don't have their oil pan sticking so far below the frame like that. I used the car jacks on each side of the frame between the oil pan and the headers to get the front up high enough to put the jack stand under the frame's cross member right below the radiator and then lowered them jacks down just enough so the weight of the bike was on the jack stand and the jacks act as stabilizing support. It seems to work just fine but seriously there has to be a bike stand that will get the job done that would be both safer and easier to work with.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Triangles]

I've used jack stands on the rear swing arm (made from scrap wood laying around) and a regular hydraulic floor jack with a piece of wood between the oil pan and jack. I used this method to get both wheels off the ground. I'd been eyeballing an Harbor Freight motorcycle lift and trying for figure out how to modify it to not damage the exhaust but, it never got beyond a though experiment.

[vanion2]

Well I just finished doing some research and the key words that came up is "bike lift adapter". Apparently the Vulcan 1500/1600 have one made and can be found on eBay for about $75 after shipping. I am thinking of making a jig out of wood for the bike lift and then having a friend weld up an adapter for the Vulcan 500 that should be pretty universal for any bike lift thus solving all the issues of clearing the oil pan and exhaust.

[Turbojoe]

I have the Harbor Freight lift. My adapter is pretty inelegant. I made it out of scrap I had laying around. It's 3 pieces of 3/4"x3x9 pine(?) glued together. It goes right between the pipes. Works pretty well.

Joe