Little lesson learned over the weekend. I had put my bike up on the lift for the fist time a week or so ago. Had a buddy help me as I'd never done it before. No problems, strapped it down after I got it up in the air.....I didn't have time to work on it at that point so I left it up on the lift......came back about a week later and the lift was no longer "lifted" - I dunno if thats normal or if I have aleak in the hydraulic cylinder or sumthn but it had lowered itself right down and the bike was on the ground - luckily because I had the little frame rail attachments on the bike the space between them and the fully dropped lift was pretty thin so the bike didn't fall over it just ended up leaning a little to the left and the frame rails (with attachments) were resting on the lift so no damage - just about crapped my pants when I saw it.....

Anyway - never leave your bike unattended on the lift!!!!!

So I put it back up on the lift and did what I meant to do in the first place (installed my curved, laydown plate brachet - thanks Hogrida!!!!, replaced the derby cover and removed the upper belt guard). This is where lesson 2 comes in. The blow torch is your friend. I had tried fuggen everything to get that front torx 30 off the belt guard wit no luck - I read in here somewhere to heat it up and give it a go so I hit it with the blowtorch for about 10 seconds and - it came right off!!!! no problem. Anyone wrestling with that beotch - just hit it with a torch and it comes right off.

 

My lift has a bar that can lock the position of the lift in 3 places.

 

same here thats whats its there for

 

you gotta have a lock bar...

 

there should be a lock on the lift! i always lift it up, then lower it to the lock so that supprots the weight not the hydrolic

 

As others mentioned, use the lock bar.
Never trust a hydraulic jack to keep it lifted. Most all will bleed down over time, some faster than others.

The hydraulics is used to lift the load, not keep it supported for any length of time.

 

hmmmm; seems I must be an idiot (as if there was ever any doubt)........I dont think there is any locking bar on mine (it was a cheap one I got at Costco) but I'm gonna have a closer look before I use it again.