Topic: 74 CB 550 Triple Tree Stand Compatibility

[LLG47]

Hello everyone,

Forgive me if I come across as a novice, as I am one. I've spent some time over the past few weeks rebuilding the new front forks I bought for the CB550 that I purchased a few years ago. I've been trying to determine methods to lift the front of the bike off of the ground using a hydraulic jack, the center stand, and something to sit the engine block on, but it doesn't seem particularly safe or stable enough for me to start working.

I want to buy a triple tree front stand that utilizes a pin, so I can take off the forks and lift the wheel off the ground, but have found limited information about this online or in this forum. Has anyone else used this type of Jack on this particular motorcycle? What size pin would fit the triple tree? Or, are there any other methods you have used that are better than this type of stand?

If a question of this nature is somewhere on this forum that I have missed, could someone redirect me to that post?

Thanks, I greatly appreciate any help.

Lawrence

[BomberMann650]

Depending on what exhaust you have.  I've tilted bloo back on the centerstand and placed a pair of jackstands under the frame rails.  Stood solid the whole time I overhauled the front end.
You'll have to do it like that if you ever plan on removing the lower triple.

[eigenvector]

I hang the front of the bike off the rafters by ratchet straps.  the bulk of the weight is on the centerstand, so the ratchets don't hold much weight so long as you keep the tilt back reasonably small.

Balancing the bike from underneath while working on the forks is not a fun job - too many things to get dented, broken, scratched.

[Stev-o]

I hang the front of the bike off the rafters by ratchet straps.

+1..much safer than a bike on a jack and more room to work on it.

My garage has a sheetrock ceiling so I bolted a piece of metal angle iron to the joists and then attached the 4" ratchet strap to it. Works great.

[DaveBarbier]

I use a front stand from Venom. I think I'm using the 22mm pin, but I got the stand for the CBR600RR. I found that it didn't lift my front wheel high enough, my tire still couldn't spin. So I cut it apart and welded in extensions to make it about 1.5" taller. Worked like a charm. You could also put 2x4s under the wheels of the stand to raise it more. 

[LLG47]

So here is what I did.

I went a ahead and took that hydraulic jack, put a piece of 2X4 on it, and wrenched the bike on its center-stand up enough to slide a cinderblock and another plank underneath. A few shims later, the bike was steady. It seems that many come up with the ceiling rafter idea, and I thought that was great but I have nothing strong enough to support that, so my dad held the thing for quite awhile as I got the wheel off, the caliper, and the rest of the mess just to get those forks off. As I suspected, a frozen one was the culprit, but one worked perfectly and was a full 3 inches longer. I put the new ones on, and suddenly I'm just a few weeks away from having this long project done with.... except for the oil leak of unknown severity.

Cheers,
Lawrence