I know we all know the dangers so I don't think I'm telling you something you don't know. We need reminders, and one thing that I learned from the very early days working at a gas station and putting stuff on jacks and lifts is to check, and recheck. At the station, when putting something on the lift, we would inspect the lift by raising it before we brought the car in. Then we would bring the lift to the car and make sure it was on good lift points. Then we would lift the vehicle until the pressure was just leaving the tires, then we would shake the car. I've carried that habit throughout my life and have applied to other things, especially lifting my motorcycle. I still have one of those Sears jacks, but I'm at the point that I need something like the sissor jack. When I put the bike on the jack, I'll lift until the front tire comes off the ground, and then I shake the bike, and then I raise and lock at the first point, and do some shaking. I constantly recheck to make sure the bike is still on the same pad points throughout the work. The shed I work in is a hazard to itself, I don't want the bike coming off that jack onto me. When I did the exhaust last I just used the jack to up right it, but kept it on the wheels. Reading this is making me think even more not to use this jack beyond that ever again. I'll be looking on eBay for a good used sissor jack for future work. Of course, checkout the c-clamps before lifting. So we should ride in a way to be able to ride another day, we should be lift in such a way that we'll ride another day. And yes, this bike is heavy, and out of balance with the trunk on, on those sears motorcycle jacks.

Those are for the enduros and the likes....