It finally showed up. The Pittsburgh 1000lb motorcycle lift from Harbor Freight is sitting in my garage and I couldn’t be happier about it. This thing has been on my radar ever since I started planning the CB750F restoration, and after about a month of waiting, it’s here and it’s ready to go to work.
The process of actually getting it home was a little more involved than I expected. A couple of quick notes if you’re thinking about picking one up yourself.
Table of Contents
Getting It Home
The Harbor Freight stores in my area are on the smaller side. They don’t stock large items like this on the floor. What you actually do is walk in, pull a card off the wall for the item, prepay at the register, and then they order it for you. I paid $599 and they told me four to six weeks. It showed up in four, which was a pleasant surprise.
Here’s the part that made it even better though. The day the lift arrived, I was scrolling through my Inside Track Club member discounts and saw that this exact lift was on sale for $150 less than what I had paid about 32 days earlier. I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I went in to ask about it. Harbor Freight can be particular about coupons and price matching. But they matched it without any hassle at all. No drama, no back and forth. Done.
One more thing worth knowing before you go to pick it up: this is not a refrigerator box situation. The Pittsburgh lift ships in a heavy plywood crate that fits into the bed of a full-size pickup truck. I had anticipated it being big and borrowed a truck. Harbor Freight loaded it with a forklift. If you’re planning to haul one of these home in an SUV or a car, think again.
Setup and Assembly
Setup on this lift is genuinely simple. The crate took longer to disassemble than the lift did to put together. Once you get through the plastic corner guards and the staples holding the plywood together, the actual assembly is minimal.
Here’s what you’re actually bolting together:
Two wheels on the rear that fit over axles and are held on with cotter pins. Two casters on the front, four bolts each. Two U-bolts, two bolts apiece. A wheel guard at the far end, two bolts. The factory wheel vise, two bolts. The pedals slide on without fasteners and the ramp just drops into place. That’s it. A socket and a wrench and you’re done in no time.
I did opt for an upgraded wheel vise right out of the gate. I’d heard mixed things about the factory unit, ranging from “kind of a pain to use” to “actually unsafe,” and I didn’t see any reason to find out which end of that spectrum was accurate. The upgraded vise was $80. It’s substantially larger than the stock unit, comes with a hand crank, and it’s just a better piece overall.
A Note on Drilling for the Upgraded Vise
If you go the upgraded vise route, know that you will need to drill into the table. The manufacturer supplies paper templates with pre-punched holes to help you locate the drill points, and the concept is solid. You drop the template over the existing holes, use a couple of bolts as placeholders to hold it in position, center punch your marks, and drill.
The one gotcha is that there’s a little slop in the template holes, so it can shift on you. That matters because the top mounting bolts end up sitting very close to a crossmember underneath the table. I had to elongate my holes slightly to shift the vise back enough to get a nut on. I couldn’t fit a flat washer in that top location, but everything else came together fine. If you’re doing this installation, just plan on cheating the vise toward the back of the table to give yourself clearance from that support member.
Upgrades I’m Already Planning
I’m not planning to go crazy with modifications on this lift. But a couple of things came up right away after I got it set up.
The two U-bolts that come with the lift are fine, but from what I’ve heard from other owners and seen in various videos, two just isn’t enough to feel confident securing a bike. My plan is to head to Home Depot and grab two more U-bolts to add further down the table. I also have several unused holes from where the factory vise would have gone, so I’m going to drop some eyebolts in there for additional tie-down points. I’d rather use what’s already drilled than turn this table into Swiss cheese.
The other thing I’m thinking about is grip tape. A lot of guys cover the entire table surface and honestly I think that’s overkill. I also don’t love the idea of setting tools down on sandpaper. What I’ll probably do is run some horizontal strips across the table every six to eight inches, or maybe just one six-inch strip down the center. There’s going to be grease and oil on this table. There’s a chance I roll a bike in here with damp tires. I just want a little extra traction just in case.
First Impression of the Pittsburgh Motorcycle Lift
Overall I’m happy with it. The buying process was smooth, the price match saved me $150, and the setup was as straightforward as advertised. The upgrade path is well documented in the community and the platform feels solid. As the CB750F restoration gets rolling, this lift is going to get a lot of use and I’ll have a much more complete picture of how it performs over time.
Ride With Me
If you’re following along with the CB750F restoration, there’s more coming. Subscribe to the WaltInPA YouTube channel
for more riding content and restoration updates as they drop. If you know someone else who’s been eyeballing one of these lifts, share this post with a friend who rides. And if you want to talk shop with people who actually wrench on their bikes, come hang out in the WaltInPA Discord where good people talk about riding.
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