Head lift stand compatible with v11 Sport or Lemans

[al_roethlisberger]

Has anyone confirmed any "head lift" style front stands that are compatible and work well with the V11 Sport or Lemans?

I'm not a huge fan of the front stands that just have the two "fingers" that the ends of the forks sit in.  Those seem less than secure...

There are quite a few makes and models of head lift stands, but I just wondered if anyone found any that work well with the V11 Sport or Lemans geometry and fender. 

 

BTW, does anyone know:

1)  If there is indeed an open hole in the bottom of the triple tree center head-tube for one of these head lift stand's pin to slip into?  I should go look myself, but it's midnight and a cold and wet walk to the garage  

2) If yes "there is a hole", then what the diameter of that hole is in mm?  Again, I should go look myself, but see aforementioned time-check

(I can always go look in the next day or two myself if no one knows)

 

Attached is a photo of the type of stand I'm referring to as a "head lift" style.

 

P.S.  It really is too bad that AFAIK the rear swingarm of the V11 has no capability to mount lift spools, or does it?  I've seen a number of adapters for other makes & models of motorcycles that allow spools to be mounted to the swingarm even if the swingarm doesn't have the threaded bushings for spools.

 

Thanks.

[KINDOY2]

I tried a few times on my V11's with the "Pit Bull" head lift stand that I have used on my Ducati's and Aprilia's..even with the right sized pin to fit inside the steering tube ..I couldn't see anyway it could be compatible with the front fairing and headlight, its too low and too far out for the Pit Bull stand to be able to fit under and back to the steering tube . 

I don't remember the pin size needed but its very small inner diameter compared to most bike..and I don't have a V'11 right now I can measure.

 

 

 

[guzziart]

Yeah, swing arm spools would be great but don't know if it would be any easier for me than the "factory" style contraption that has me sweating every time I use it.  My forks are up into the clamps about 8mm more than stock because of the hbar risers, I wonder if that is why it is a chore lifting up onto the stand??!!   To aid in lifting my Lemans (and center stand bikes) I toss a 1"x6" under the rear tire, it helps.  Plus the factory style stand allows a greater multitude of rear end tasks to be performed if needed vs. spools...imho

Anyway, the headlift thing looks too for tire & fork oil changes.  It won't work on '03 lemans, lower fork clamp is covered...some sort of air dam and not easily removable, brake line runs through it.

Art

[al_roethlisberger]

26 minutes ago, guzziart said:

Yeah, swing arm spools would be great but don't know if it would be any easier for me than the "factory" style contraption that has me sweating every time I use it.  My forks are up into the clamps about 8mm more than stock because of the hbar risers, I wonder if that is why it is a chore lifting up onto the stand??!!   To aid in lifting my Lemans (and center stand bikes) I toss a 1"x6" under the rear tire, it helps.  Plus the factory style stand allows a greater multitude of rear end tasks to be performed if needed vs. spools...imho

Anyway, the headlift thing looks too for tire & fork oil changes.  It won't work on '03 lemans, lower fork clamp is covered...some sort of air dam and not easily removable, brake line runs through it.

Art

 

I have the factory stand as well, and it works great... when it does 

But it's lift location also gets in the way of some tasks as well, so I've been thinking it would be great to also have the ability to lift via the swingarm.  But of course our swingarms do not have spool bolt locations.

However, I've noted a few "adapters" on the market such as linked below for the Honda Grom, which have a bracket that clamps around the swingarm that the spools are then mounted to.  There aren't any of these adapters on the market specifically for the V11 Sport/Lemans, and I'm sure there never will be, but I think I'll go take some measurements of the V11 Sport/Lemans swingarm dimensions and reach out to some of these manufacturers to see what the dimensions are for theirs.  If lucky perhaps one of these adapters could be used with the V11 Sport/Lemans swingarm.

https://www.pit-bull.com/pit-bull-spool-adapter-kit-honda-grom-msx-125-f0125-000

 

And yep, the underside of the bottom triple is covered with a flat bit of fairing, but perhaps it could be drilled to allow a pin... noting the clearance issues pointed out by KINDOY2 above are still an obstacle.  I suspect this would be another V11 R&D and testing project to find if a particular make & model of head lift stand might work and what special accommodations one would have to make to get it to actually work around a Lemans fairing, fender, etc.  For example, perhaps a particular make & model of head lift might clear if the "chin" of the fairing were removed by removing its four bolts?  

Maybe I'll get that bit of fairing off this weekend, measure the hole in the head tube, and then see if there is an inexpensive lift to experiment with some time.  

 

 

[al_roethlisberger]

I've dropped Pit Bull an inquiry about inside dimensions of their Grom adapters.  It's a long-shot, but we'll see what they say:

 

https://www.pit-bull.com/pit-bull-spool-adapter-kit-honda-grom-msx-125-f0125-000

[gstallons]

I will look and see what the I.D. of the hole is and let you know . can that piece be removed from the stand and turned down ?

 Now , Pit Bull has a pin listed . P.N. / SKU # F0001-001 pin available. You could contact the Co. for dimensions ?

[gstallons]

I got 18mm i.d. on both bikes.

[al_roethlisberger]

7 hours ago, al_roethlisberger said:

I've dropped Pit Bull an inquiry about inside dimensions of their Grom adapters.  It's a long-shot, but we'll see what they say:

 

https://www.pit-bull.com/pit-bull-spool-adapter-kit-honda-grom-msx-125-f0125-000

 

So this is a bit of a fork in this thread, talking about adapting spools to the rear swingarm to accommodate a standard rear paddock/lift stand.

 

Pit-Bull responded very quickly today, but in a friendly way declined to provide the dimensions per an agreement with the designer of the adapter, which I can sort-of understand.

 

But as a workaround, he said if I would provide the dimensions of the V11 swingarm, he'd gladly let me know if it would fit.

 

So a quick measure with my caliper says that our swingarm is just barely shy of 51mm tall and is similarly just about 26mm thick.

 

We'll see if they say they are anywhere close.  I'm also searching around for the dimensions of the Grom swingarm to come at it that way. 

 

Of course if none of this "spools adapter" business works out, there are versions of rear lifts that don't need spools that might work OK if well made.  They run the gamut from the cheap Harbor Freight units to more expensive and robust looking Pit Bull models.  And BTW, the Pit Bull looks pretty sturdy and like it would keep the bike stable 

 

1000 Lb. Capacity Motorcycle Swingarm Rear Stand (harborfreight.com)

 

Pit Bull - Standard Forward Handle Rear, Motorcycle Stand [F0042-000] (pit-bull.com)

 

 

[al_roethlisberger]

6 hours ago, gstallons said:

I got 18mm i.d. on both bikes.

 

It's probably safe to assume the ID for the Lemans is the same, but worth checking.  I can't imagine why or how it could be different, but we've been surprised before.

 

I'll try to measure that by this weekend while I'm out in the garage finishing cleaning up after neglecting the garage for about 2 years 

 

Several of the head lift stand brands either come with multiple sized pins, including 18mm, or also sell the different sized pins separately. 

 

So I don't think one would necessarily need to turn/mill a too-large pin down to size unless you needed a specific stand that for some reason didn't include the correct pin size, but that seems unlikely (I hope).

 

Front Stand Head Lift – Vortex Racing

 

 

Pit Bull indicates that the following model is compatible with "Moto Guzzi, Sport Models", so I've inquired if that translates to the V11 Sport/Lemans/etc series:

 

Pit Bull - Hybrid Headlift - Motorcycle Front Stand [F0100A-000] (pit-bull.com)

 

 

[cash1000]

I use a DRC stand. The 15mm pin fits my RM fine

DRC B2510 Road Front Stemup Stand – Cycletreads

It's the opposite here in New Zealand 30+ C.

[al_roethlisberger]

12 hours ago, cash1000 said:

I use a DRC stand. The 15mm pin fits my RM fine

DRC B2510 Road Front Stemup Stand – Cycletreads

It's the opposite here in New Zealand 30+ C.

 

Excellent, thanks for the recommendation!

 

One of us will have to give this or similar a try with the Lemans fairing.  A quick Google looks like it is only available down under though?

 

I'm hopeful that one of these will clear the "chin" of the Lemans fairing as-is, or worst case just remove that little "chin" panel from the fairing to make it work.

 

And of course if one is doing major work on the Lemans, the fairing is likely off anyway, so that may be a moot issue in many cases.

 

 

[al_roethlisberger]

14 hours ago, al_roethlisberger said:

 

So this is a bit of a fork in this thread, talking about adapting spools to the rear swingarm to accommodate a standard rear paddock/lift stand.

 

Pit-Bull responded very quickly today, but in a friendly way declined to provide the dimensions per an agreement with the designer of the adapter, which I can sort-of understand.

 

But as a workaround, he said if I would provide the dimensions of the V11 swingarm, he'd gladly let me know if it would fit.

 

So a quick measure with my caliper says that our swingarm is just barely shy of 51mm tall and is similarly just about 26mm thick.

 

We'll see if they say they are anywhere close.  I'm also searching around for the dimensions of the Grom swingarm to come at it that way. 

 

Of course if none of this "spools adapter" business works out, there are versions of rear lifts that don't need spools that might work OK if well made.  They run the gamut from the cheap Harbor Freight units to more expensive and robust looking Pit Bull models.  And BTW, the Pit Bull looks pretty sturdy and like it would keep the bike stable 

 

1000 Lb. Capacity Motorcycle Swingarm Rear Stand (harborfreight.com)

 

Pit Bull - Standard Forward Handle Rear, Motorcycle Stand [F0042-000] (pit-bull.com)

 

 

 

I heard back from the Pit Bull folks, who BTW are very responsive and friendly 

 

It looks like the Grom adapter might juuuuuuust fit if someone wanted to fiddle around with it, perhaps relieving a little metal from the inside of the adapter to fit the width of the swingarm, but on-the-other-hand it would also probably scratch the h3!! out of the finish on the swingarm so it's probably not worth it 

 

Again Pit Bull, and others, obviously make some rear lifts that just use L-shaped pads under the swingarm, and the Pit Bull unit in particular looks like it would hold the bike well not just vertically, but also horizontally.  So a rear lift of that type may be the best option.

 

https://www.pit-bull.com/moto-guzzi-motorcycles/moto-guzzi-motorcycles/moto-guzzi-sport-models/standard-forward-handle-rear-motorcycle-stand-f0042a-000

 

 

 

 

Quote

Hey Al,

 

Yes, the “Sport Models” category is actually very specific to the V11 Sport models(I just renamed it so no one would get confused about the 1200 Sports which we do not fit).  So yes, everything in that category including the #1 pin will fit your specific model. 

 

As for the Grom adapter, the 51mm dimension could be made to work, but if the swingarm is 26mm thick, it’ll deform the adapter and it won’t work.  25mm would work…even 25.2 or 25.3mm, but 26mm is too much.  I ran into the same problem with the Kawasaki Z125 Pro.  The adapter was just a little bit to narrow, but when I tried to force it over the swingarm, it made it unusable.  It was frustrating for sure, because the Z125 and Grom swingarms are nearly identical in dimensions and we hoped to fit them with the same adapter.  I’d offer to build you a custom one, but we had the steel piece formed by our steel supplier that has the machinery to make them quickly…the only downside is we have to order hundreds at a time. 

 

Let us know if you have any other questions at any time.  Thanks and have a good day.

 

George @ Pit Bull

 

[Speedfrog]

I couldn’t help being tickled to tears by that piece of wisdom at the end of the video:

”If you have a junk bike, buy a junk stand;  if you have a kick-ass bike buy a kick-ass stand!”  

Now, onto some soul searching quest to determine what kind of bike you have... 

[al_roethlisberger]

Here is a shot of the fairing piece on the Lemans that blocks the underside of the triple tree.

One could just remove it when needing the stand, or maybe cut out the appropriately sized hole for the head-lift pin.

 

 

 

[activpop]

20 hours ago, al_roethlisberger said:

 

So this is a bit of a fork in this thread, talking about adapting spools to the rear swingarm to accommodate a standard rear paddock/lift stand.

 

Pit-Bull responded very quickly today, but in a friendly way declined to provide the dimensions per an agreement with the designer of the adapter, which I can sort-of understand.

 

But as a workaround, he said if I would provide the dimensions of the V11 swingarm, he'd gladly let me know if it would fit.

 

So a quick measure with my caliper says that our swingarm is just barely shy of 51mm tall and is similarly just about 26mm thick.

 

We'll see if they say they are anywhere close.  I'm also searching around for the dimensions of the Grom swingarm to come at it that way. 

 

Of course if none of this "spools adapter" business works out, there are versions of rear lifts that don't need spools that might work OK if well made.  They run the gamut from the cheap Harbor Freight units to more expensive and robust looking Pit Bull models.  And BTW, the Pit Bull looks pretty sturdy and like it would keep the bike stable 

 

1000 Lb. Capacity Motorcycle Swingarm Rear Stand (harborfreight.com)

 

Pit Bull - Standard Forward Handle Rear, Motorcycle Stand [F0042-000] (pit-bull.com)

 

 

I picked up a used pair of PB stands for the V11 but needed to buy these because the rear stand was set up for spools. http://www.pit-bull.com/?model=f0002-001

Bike seems rock solid. Front has standard cradle for fork bottoms. When needing the front lifted I use the BT  center stand and tie off the front end to a truss and pull it up with an inline come along. Nothing in the way with that method. Not everybody has a strong truss above their bike though.