What is the best way to tilt bike to side to clean underneath?

[Andrew Vanis]

What is the best way to tilt bike to side to clean underneath?

Am doing the upper end gaskets to seal leaks. Bottom is pretty good except the drain plug has been seeping. Since the oil pan perimeter is nice and tight ? no leaks, I?d just like to get underneath to clean off the caked on oil. Since the head is off the engine, gas tank off and completely drained of oil its not that heavy. And I?ll take the exhaust off.

I was wondering about laying it down on the grass or a piece of carpet.

Thoughts?

 

[Brendan W]

You're giving yourself a lot of work. Laying bikes down always finds new ways of hurting turn signals, side covers etc etc and oils that aren't in there magically appear and start spilling. Did I mention forgetting about the battery acid ?
I would brush on degreasing fluid and then hit it with a hose. Nobody sees what's under there anyway and what the eye don't see.............................

 

[cowboyup3371]

Do you have a bike lift? Or, just prop one side of the center stand up, clean, move to the other side.

 

[Andrew Vanis]

Did I mention forgetting about the battery acid ?..

good one. easy to remove if I do go this direction.

Nobody sees what's under there anyway and what the eye don't see.............................

The nose can smell ;-)

 

[Andrew Vanis]

Do you have a bike lift?

no

Or, just prop one side of the center stand up,

How would that look?

Forward back or side to side?

 

[Steve]

Don't do it my way.

.

 

[Andrew Vanis]

Don't do it my way. .

By the look of the palm tree, that one we can blame on the wind.

 

[yank]

By the look of the pine tree, that one we can blame on the wind.

Must be one of those farmed pines.

 

[Andrew Vanis]

Must be one of those farmed pines.

edited to 'palm' as originally intended

 

[GSXR7ED]

That's funny and not funny Steve...I saw that pic posted in another thread...the one about which direction to point the front tire.

Anyway, I was able to get underneath and clean under my "T" simply by putting her on center-stand and laying on the floor (with clear safety goggles) and cleaning the frame and other areas filled with gunk. I did this when I lived in New Mexico; stored my bike inside my apartment.

Ed

 

[mnferwerda]

If you have 2 old motorcycle tires, you can stack (staggered) them on the side you are going to lay the bike down and gently lay the bike down. It has worked well for me.

 

[JTGS850GL]

How about just laying on your back and use a scrub brush? Why make Suzie lay down for you?

 

[geol]

Some spray can engine degreaser will take lot of the pain out of scraping the old gunk. if the bike is outside, you can rinse if (plug what is open) and a lot of the stuff will be gone... If you take a screwdriver or something similar to break up caked chunks first, it really helps.

 

[blowerbike]

load it in a truck.
go to car wash.
roll it out the back until the front wheel is on the tail gate.
strap handlebars to truck bed.
gunk the bottom and then spend 10 bucks or so on wash and rinse.
oh,
if you remove the body work and gunk the top you can have a fully clean bike to work with in the future...squeaky clean.

 

[Rob S.]

...stored my bike inside my apartment.

Ed

Love it. Reminds me of college. First year: my bike in the dining room. Second year: my bike and housemate's bike in kitchen. Who needs a table in there?

 

[chuck hahn]

Take off the side cover and tank and use some truck tires to lay it over on. Piece of rubber mat maybe under the end of the bars. I laid my skunk over on tires and a rolled up huge roofers tarp when i replaced the stripped out oil pan drain. Never hurt a thing.

 

[Grimly]

Love it. Reminds me of college. First year: my bike in the dining room. Second year: my bike and housemate's bike in kitchen. Who needs a table in there?

The handy thing about that, is you can simply lay a sheet of ply over both bikes for those formal dining occasions.

 

[Brendan W]

The handy thing about that, is you can simply lay a sheet of ply over both bikes for those formal dining occasions.

Real ply, Luxury. We used to dream of plywood. However I digress............
The ladies can use the mirrors for nose powdering ( that sounds wrong in today's vernacular ) , the servants can be summoned with the horn ( so does that ) and on those colder apres-hunt days you can warm your feet on the crankcases.

 

[hannibal]

Ed

Really wish I could do this! I'm only on the second floor.

 

[GSXR7ED]

^^ Hey Jordan,

I went on the road from Delaware to New Mexico in Oct 2013 trailing my bike. I stayed out there 10 months and had a blast on my 750T. She got some improvements done to her and I brought her in the first floor apartment most nights. All I did was clean her dirty undercarriage while laying on the floor and watching TV during the work week. We'd spend weekends together and she always got me home.