I believe most everyone is in agreement that getting the rear wheel off of an R65 is a real PITA. Just not enough clearance between ground and fender. Grump...
The shop manual’s recommendations are to, “Place the rear shocks on their stiffest setting. It may be necessary to lean the bike to one side.” Great tidbit of help. Now all I need to do is grow a couple more arms; each about six feet long.
I have read and also been advised to put a scrap of 2x4 lumber under the center stand as a way to gain a bit more tire-to-fender clearance. If you've ever done even a minor bit of construction chores, you’ll recall that a 2x4 actually measures 3.50”x1.75”. So, let’s see if we can hoist the bike onto a 3.50” narrow ledge and then keep it there while we yank on and curse the rear wheel. Now visualize your R65 being bumped as you tweak on it and the bike suddenly falling off the little scrap of wood you’re trusting to secure the bike. UhOh.
Using some scrap 3/4” plywood - actually, it’s 23/32” - I sawed out two 14”x14” squares and glued them together. A 2x14-inch strip of plywood, with a 1.25” dia x 0.125” deep flat-bottomed recess centered on the strip, positions the lift point of a small hydraulic bottle jack. The wooden strip is positioned above the frame rails and under the oil sump.
Raise the jack until the front tire touches the shop floor. No further or the center stand might retract as the weight comes off. Consider securing the center stand in the down position by using a length of nylon line.
I found that it was still necessary to deflate the 120-width rear tire to squeeze it past the left side rear shock absorber mounting bolt. But it did come off without the bike falling off a little bit of 2x4.
Couple operational notes here. I had to recruit my wife to assist me in the vertical dead lift of a 450+ pound BMW motorcycle. No way I could get the bike up and onto its center stand all by myself with the plywood “lift” positioned under the stand.
The small wooden crosspiece is a prototype and the plywood proved to be sorta “bendy”. I had to place a small bit of 0.50” MDF between the crankcase and the plywood strip for a more secure lift point. I will use some of my expensive White Oak cabinet lumber to fab a stronger replacement.
Note how much the bike has moved on the plywood base as we made our one-time lift. The center stand’s feet were originally placed closer to the front edge of the panel but our grunting power lift team did the best we could. Did not want to press my luck with the Chief-of-the-House, so made a small, one-time extension for the base of the bottle jack.
This post has gotten a little “wordy” but I believe the idea is far better than a 2x4. The photo shows all. Maybe I’ll paint the lumber black and put a BMW sticker on it... maybe not.
Topic: DIY Cheap-o Kinda Bike Raiser-Upper Service Thing (Read 921 times)