Wheel Removal

[baileyjn]

I have both front wheel and rear wheel stands to get both wheels of my bike off the ground. I was planning on taking both wheels off at the same time to get my pirellis put on quicker after work tomorrow. I mentioned that to my dad on the phone and he thought it was a bad idea because it is unstable. Does anyone have any recommendations? Anyone have any bad stories? What do most of you do?

[bennice]

I did exactly what you are planning to do. Rear stand first, front stand last, and the reverse when it's all done. While my wheels were off I also took off my fairings and gas tank and dropped in a new cam chain tensioner, cleaned my air filter, cleaned the chain, and anything else I could think of that was needed. I didn't have any stability problems that I noticed - most importantly my bike stayed put.

I've heard it's best if you have a triple tree stand in front, but I've never used one so I don't know for sure. I think that as long as you have decent stands, you've done your part to lift the bike correctly, and nobody does anything stupid to your bike while it's sitting on the stands, you should be okay.

I've got Pit bull for the rear and T-rex for the front. Truth be told, I'd rather have Pit Bull in front, but the T-rex worked fine.

[TVoyagerXII]

I have a small hydraulic bike lift from Harbor Freight, but I did each wheel one at a time. I felt like the lift was stable enough, but I couldn't stand the thought of the bike maybe falling over.
It only took a me about 3 hours and on my Boulevard I had to drop the exhaust pipes. I broke them down put in new tubes (that was the real hard part) and I think it would have been faster if it had not been my first time and those stupid 90 degree valve stems.

[xeon]

What kind of stands do you have? I've put mine up on both stands several times and they are fine. I have T-Rex stands, which are on par with Pitt Bull which are pretty good stands unlike say Handystands. I find the front stand made by Handystands to not be very confidence inspiring. If you have good stands toss it up, pull the wheels and get on with it... that is my opinion.

[WeBeToyz]

I use Pit Bull stands front & rear. As mentioned, lift rear & then front and reversal when setting down.

My front stand is the Forklift model, but I have gotten the converter for it so it lifts the bike by the steering stem. While the stand was stable w/o the converter, I found I liked the extra stability when lifting via steering stem especially if the bike was going to up for a couple of days. The converter is convenient when pulling forks, etc.

[luvda6R]

I had a bad incident with my stands, which was pretty much due to my inattention. I was doing the same thing as you, had never done it before so had my bike up on stands for about 3 days while I got the new tires put on, and did a lot of head scratching, etc. I have the Handy Stand universal setup.

Handy Industries Online Store

Well, long story short, I finally had my tires on and was about 15 minutes from taking the bike off the stands. With all the wrenching and knocking around I did on the bike, it had tipped forward slightly on the rear stand over the few days, and finally completely rolled forward off the stand. Luckily the front stand kept it upright until I could get a friend to help get it on the ground. If I didn't have it on the front stand also, it probably would have tipped over. Also would have sucked if the tires were not on yet.

So, maybe it wasn't a "long story short", but I'd say I would have been worse off if I only had it on the rear stand at that time. Also, just keep an eye out for that "rolling forward or backward" as you work.

[bennice]

One thing that I do like a lot about the T-rex stand I have is the rubber feet on the bottom when the bike is lifted. It helps prevent the bike from rolling forward on the stand's wheels. I know with my Pit Bull, I can push the bike back and forth a bit if only using the rear stand.

The only negative I've come across with the T-Rex really isn't that big a deal. It's that when assembled they aren't shaped as precisely as the Pit bull stands (which are one piece), so one side may not be perfectly symmetrical with the other. But mine is close enough that it made no difference at all.

[xeon]

Originally Posted by bennice

It's that when assembled they aren't shaped as precisely as the Pit bull stands (which are one piece), so one side may not be perfectly symmetrical with the other. But mine is close enough that it made no difference at all.

Noted that myself, you have to loosen the bolts up a bit and realign it then re tighten. I've had to realign mine once after some pretty regular use. I noted one of the rear wheels was off the ground, indicative of it not being square. It wasn't really an issue, but I tend to be a perfectionist.

[baileyjn]

I ended up putting it up on both stands and taking both wheels off. It was not a problem. OMFG Pirellis!