The "Low Slinger" Pops its First Wheelie

This morning marked the end of my four say stint on night shifts.  I got home at 7am and not wanting to sleep the whole day away like I did the last time I came off nights I set the alarm for noon and planned on redeeming myself from the botched attempt to pull the headlight brackets off the forks earlier in the week.

So I headed to the local hardware store to get a new 5' length of 3/4" threaded galvanized pipe and two 18" lengths of 3/4" threaded galvanized pipe and couple end caps that had gone missing at some point in the years I have moved my bike hoist around.  After getting the whole thing assembled this time, everything went to plan and I got the bike lifted off the ground with ease.

As you can see below the hoist when properly assembled sturdily holds up the GS quite well, it also does a good job with my SV650 and after a buddy of mine who built his own after seeing mine was able to lift his entire ZX10R off the ground with mine at the front and his at the back.  They are quite useful for suspension work and I've also used mine for when I need to replace steering stem bearings or pull the triple trees.

A quick note here, always break the nuts on the triple trees before you lift the bike off the ground it makes thing much easier and safer.  Once I got the bike in the air I finished loosening the nuts on the triple trees ans with a little coaxing I was able to get the forks slid down enough to get the headlight brackets out, as well as that gaudy piece of plastic that "dresses up" the lower triple clamp.

It already feels cleaner I actually was thinking about keeping the stock signals they have a definite old school feel to them and I wouldn't need to spend any money on new turn signals then, Perhaps there is a way to customize them a little bit so they aren't so gaudy.  The front does look much cleaner without them!

One of the other things I really like about my bike hoist is how small it breaks down.  It hardly takes up any garage space when disassembled.

After I got everything cleaned up all that was left was to sit down and figure out how to re-bend the brackets so that the headlight will be straight as well as the turn signals.

The next step is to attend a garage beer session at my good friends place and get these bad boys bent back to the proper shape.  Once I get that done I will probably re-paint them a gloss black before I put them back on the bike.  That is probably all I will get done this weekend as I have some painting to do around the house but look for an update later next week!