Grand Pitstop Motorcycle Wheel cleaning stand

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

I had my 1200RT for 14 years, and my 1100RT for 10 years before that.  I didn't wash them as often as some folks, but when I did, I was pretty thorough: getting the front wheel cleaned and waxed was an important part of the job.  The 1200RT was pretty nose-heavy when up on the centerstand, but I could just manage to unweight the front wheel with one hand on the bike's "chin" while spinning the wheel with my other hand.  

 

My new bike, a '23 R1250RT, seems to be even more nose-heavy.  So I decided it was time for an assist:  

 

Grand Pitstop Motorcycle Wheel cleaning stand

 

 

 

This is a set of rollers you slip under the wheel of your bike, making it easy to spin the wheel for cleaning purposes.  This particular one is made for bikes less than 485 pounds, but that's OK - I'll only ever be using it under the front wheel, and only when the bike is on its centerstand.  They do sell a version that's rated for bikes up to 600 pounds, if you ever want to use it under the rear wheel while your bike is on its sidestand.

 

I did have one problem when I first tried to use it.  The centerstand on the R1250RT barely raises the bike, and so I couldn't rock the front wheel high enough to slip this thing under it:

 

 

 

 

A piece of scrap wood under the centerstand solved the problem:

 

 

There is a fixed crossbar on one end of the thing, apparently intended for rolling your bike up onto it if you don't have a centerstand.  It might have been possible to roll my bike backwards onto this thing while popping it up on the stand, but looking at how low my front wheel is in that ground-level pic above, I probably would have ended up with the rear wheel pinned against the ground if I had tried that.  

 

With the roller stand in place, it took very little effort from one hand to rotate the wheel while hosing/scrubbing it down, and again later when applying polish.  The only challenge is that since the front wheel can steer to either side, it can walk itself towards either edge of the rollers, so you need to pay a bit of attention to steering angle while spinning the wheel.  It's not a major problem: the whole system isn't frictionless enough for the wheel to coast on its own, so you only need to pay attention while you're actively turning the wheel with your hand.  If it does get too close to one side of the rollers, you can just steer the other way and spin the wheel a bit more.

 

Overall, quite happy with it, and wish I would have bought on years ago.  It was $22 when I bought it just a couple of months ago, but I see they've now raised the price to about $25.  Still not a bad deal.  

[Hank in WV]

I just use a small/cheap bottle jack under the engine.

[Wayne Johnson]

My 23 has the same problem with clearance on the center stand. Never had an issue with the 19. Brought it up at the 600 mile check and was told it is normal. Used the same method (wood) to solve the problem during tire changes also. It does make it a little difficult to get off the center stand at times