Pit Posse.com Scissor Lift Stand

What it is

• A shop lift for your bike.

This hydraulic scissor lift is made for your workshop out of heavy duty steel. Ment to raise and lower you bike to ease working on it with the push of a pedal, the lift range is 13-inches to 36-inches. The top plate has an area of 13 ¾-inches x 16-inches and features an oil and gas resistant rubber top. The lift top is raised by a foot pump activating a scissor hoist and lowered by a release knob. Safety features include, hooks to stabilize the motorcycle and a safety rod to lock the lift in five raised positions. An optional caster wheel kit is available for an additional $30.00. It is available in black.

How it works

• Easy to raise and lower the bike.
• Built like a tank, heavy and tough.
• Instructions and some of the finish details are rough and expected for the price.

I have been working on gas powered two wheel things since 1968. My Briggs & Stratton mini bike and my eight year-old body were both closer to the ground than my 2014 dirt bike and my 54 year-old body. I’ve grown tired of working on my bikes on the floor. It was time for a bike lift for my shop.

An email coupon arrived in my email in-box for 25% off from Pit Posse, so I placed an order from their web site and just under $200 (Including Shipping) later my Posse Scissors Lift arrived. Upon opening the package it was about what I expected from something inside a Chinese cardboard box. It had that standard smell of Chinese shipping oil. My first thought was the lift was kind of heavy, but it had strong welds and a durable paint job.

There was a bag of loose parts, a safety rod, “J” hooks for the footpegs and a small booklet. This is where I had a small let down. The lift is shipped with the Foot Pedal for raising the lift partially disassembled and the spring and special cup / washer for the pedal are in the loose parts bag. The “booklet” that came with the lift contained no information on how to assemble the foot pedal. I eventually figured it out. The next challenge came with the “J” hooks and threaded knobs that hold the motorcycle to the lift base via the foot pegs. The holes in the knobs were not threaded all the way through. After only a few spins the threaded knobs stopped turning. This problem meant I had to bust out my tap set and finish to job that should have been completed at the factory. All of this just leaves you wondering if you made a good purchase before you have even used the lift.

Now that the lift was assembled, I put it into use. As I said it is heavy, but this proves to be a good thing as the weight gives it the needed stability when you have a 250 lb. dirt bike over 30” in the air. Working in conjunction with the stand’s weight are four large feet, I found the lift very stable with a motorcycle fully raised, and you can bump and tug on the bike with little worry. The pump stroke via the foot pedal is light and extends the stand to a height of 36-inches at its tallest from a starting height of 13-inches. Mechanically it is very easy to raise even things that are above the recommended weight limit. Lowering the bike is simple and controlled with a turn knob.

To really put the lift to the test, I preformed the following tasks. Removing the rear wheel, changing the rear brake pads, while the wheel was removed, service the air filter and bleed the front brakes. I am happy to report that working on your motorcycle while standing (or sitting in a normal height chair) is very nice. The air box was at chest high and easy to see into for cleaning and air filter alignment. Removing and installing the wheel was simple as well. Changing the rear brake pads was great at eye level in a chair and the bike was stable enough to loosen and tighten the pad retainer pin. Finally bleeding the front brakes was much easier with the caliper raised off the ground, much more convenient to pump the front brake lever and open and close the bleeder screw all by yourself at a level that does not require bending over. Adjusting the bike mid-work is a few pedal strokes or a twist of a knob.

You still have to lift most bikes about an inch to get them on the stand when getting started, but the good side to this is that they do not tip over when the stand is fully collapsed. There is a safety rod that can be installed to prevent the stand from dropping without notice. To further test the stand we threw a 600 lb. adventure bike on it and were able to lift it easily at close to double the recommended weight. Don't try this in your garage, we're professionals. Additionally with any shop tool you want to be careful where you put your fingers and especially with kids, this could be a concern. Scissoring blades are no place for fingers.

I've seen this same design stand branded by other manufacturers likely built in the same factory (or at least from a factory that uses the same parts, build and quality) last for a long time of shop use only leaking a little bit of fluid over the years. It is built like a tank—industrial quality though not too pretty. And replacement jack pumps are available through Pit Posse.

Overall I am pleased with this motorcycle lift, it is what I expected and is very useful. A small improvement from the distributor with the initial user instructions would go a long way.

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