swingarm and fork stands

[r409z]

I have a full exhaust on my 500 and had to get rid of the center stand. I was thinking of getting a swingarm stand and a front fork stand so its easier to do oil changes and just generally easier to work on. Does anyone use stands a lot? Is it easy for one person to get a bike on stands or does someone have to hold it straight up while its being lifted (instead of down on the kickstand). Just looking for some input before I spend some money....

also, has anyone found a removable solo seat cowl for the 500 yet?

[JTpaintball70]

I've seen a few stands that only need one person to put the bike on there... can't remember any of them right now... I'll look when I get home from work.
And I second the solo cowl for the 500. There are some people making some kewl ones over at ninja250.net for their bikes, so I dont see why it would be that hard to make one for the 500Rs.

[nathan600r]

You don't really need a center stand for oil changes, with the oil filter out, just stand it up for about 30 seconds and that should be good enough.

[r409z]

You don't really need a center stand for oil changes, with the oil filter out, just stand it up for about 30 seconds and that should be good enough.

I also want to take my tires off to have my rims polished or powder coated and just want to be able to change chains, sprockets, dog bones on my own as well as anything else that would require wheels to come off. I just dont usually have someone around to help put it on a stand. I just want to know how easy it is to get a bike on a stand.

[QKENUF4U]

either PITBULL stands or a set of HANDY INDUSTRIES stands (109$ delivered) will do you just fine.
all depends on how much you want to spend. i have BOTH along with my K&L front stand. ive used them all. the PITBULL STANDS are the best but $$$, the HANDY stands are nice and do the job but the front needs to be modified to be 100% trustworthy, the K&L is like the PITBULLS but not as much $$$