Member Contributer Havagan Posted June 18, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted June 18, 2013 I have never needed motorcycle stands in the past because all of my motorcycles have had center stands -- until now. After doing some research online, the available options tended to fall into the "buy Pit Bull" crowd or the "buy cheapo" crowd. The former figures you pay a lot of money up front and are happy and the latter group figures you buy cheap and replace when they break. In the middle lies the T-Rex Racing motorcycle stands. Reviews talked about how well built they were while still being less expensive than Pit Bull stands. Given their reputation and price, I went ahead and picked up a rear stand (with spooled and non-spooled attachments) and front stand (with triple tree attachment) -- they arrived yesterday. My initial thought was pleasure. Each piece of metal was individually bubble wrapped. As I started pulling the pieces out I noticed that I was missing a couple of washers (not a big deal); I had six washers for eight bolts. Then I noticed that the o-rings on the rotating lift attachments were in pieces. Hmmmmm. When I assembled the stands, I noticed a big issue: the right leg on the rear stand is drilled incorrectly and it's shorter than the left leg and it's also rotated towards the inside. I can't use the stand like this. I don't know if it's just me, but I assembled the front stand as directed by the included printed instructions (yeah, metal sleeve through hole and then bolt through metal sleeve, got it.... wait....) but the triple tree attachment just freely rotates and won't lock in place. The bolts fit through a plain metal sleeve that is wider than the stand tubing and so the bolt just freely rotates despite my having the bolts pretty well cranked down. There's an o-ring (with no clear instructions on where it goes) that I tried in different positions but it doesn't have much effect. I feel like an idiot. It's two bolts! So one defective unit and one defective assembler. Hopefully T-Rex will stand behind their products and ship me the parts that I need to get the stands in working order. I emailed T-Rex Racing customer support and will let you know the results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer YoshiHNS Posted June 18, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted June 18, 2013 Sorry to hear about the troubles. Doesn't look well made at all. Maybe partly why the Pit Bull stuff is usually worth the extra dough? I bought a PSR Economy front and am happy with it. It took a little bit of pulling to get the pipes to fit together, but everything is straight and all the hardware was there. More importantly, it works and is pretty solid for $50 shipped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer 2thdr Posted June 18, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted June 18, 2013 I just picked up a Pit Bull SSA rear stand for my new to me CB1000R. Can't say enough about the build quality...really top notch. I think I paid $160 which was not terribly more than the other brands. And it came with the proper pin that fits like the machined part that it is into the axle/hub on my bike. I did get the stand from Motorcycle Superstore which sold it for about $10 less than the Pit Bull site and I got free shipping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Havagan Posted June 19, 2013 Author Member Contributer Share Posted June 19, 2013 Still no response to my customer support email that I sent to T-Rex Racing. I always prefer dealing with customer support issues via email so that I have a documented chain of question/answer, but it's been two days and no response yet so I'll give them a call after work today. Amusingly, I tried to use their "Live Chat" feature on their website only to find out that it's not live at all! You enter your information/question and get a "we will get in touch with you soon" message instead of live chat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer HumalogAddict Posted June 19, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted June 19, 2013 They were pretty slow when I was communicating with them as well. At the time there was talk of them doing no cut sliders for 6th gens but it fell through unfortunately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Havagan Posted June 19, 2013 Author Member Contributer Share Posted June 19, 2013 I got an email from T-Rex customer support just now. The broken o-rings "aren't really necessary" but they'll send me four new ones and they'll also send over the two missing washers. As for the wonky leg on the rear stand, they say that the order of tightening the bolts can make a difference, so I'll re-bolt them this evening. I'm not sure about this explanation since it's just two drilled holes in the handle piece that line up with two threaded holes in the leg piece -- not sure how it's going to "twist" when you tighten the bolts, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and bolt it up the way they said. After that I'm going to measure the left and right leg bolt holes on the rear stand and if they're off they said that they will replace the unit, no problem. They swear that once the front stand's triple tree pin is inserted into the bike's triple tree and the stand rotated down, the pins will self-lock and the stand will stop swinging and support the bike solidly. They said they get this question all the time -- perhaps some better instructions would be good then, yes? I assume it's a weight thing where no weight on the bike means the stand freely rotates while the bike weight locks it into position at some point. I'll play with this one this evening also. Crossing my fingers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crakerjac Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 I bought a cheap Harbor Freight rear stand for my Magna... Never again. 2nd time I used it I tweaked one of the legs. The last thing I want is to have the bike up on the stand and come crashing to the ground causing hundreds to thousands of $$ in damage (depending on what the bike lands on) because I wanted to save $100. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer vfrcapn Posted June 20, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted June 20, 2013 I've heard some favorable feedback on Trex a few years back, nothing outstanding though and nothing like PitBull. At the track days I've done, the instructors have said they regularly put sssa bikes up on the PitBull and have riders mount the bike to teach positioning. Given your experience I'm not sure I'd trust just the bike on that. It looks like just poor manufacturing on the rear. If it were me, and it's not, I'd return and spend a few extra on the PitBull or pick one up off Craigslist. Crossing fingers isn't a good risk management policy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer YoshiHNS Posted June 20, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted June 20, 2013 http://www.motorcyclegear.com/parts/track_and_garage/motorcycle_stands_and_lifts/psr/econo_front_fork_lift_stand.html http://www.motorcyclegear.com/parts/track_and_garage/motorcycle_stands_and_lifts/psr/valentino_max_rear_motorcycle_stand.html These are what the F2 are on. I've sat on the bike and leaned around a bit. Unless you're reaching for the next wall over it's rock steady. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Havagan Posted June 20, 2013 Author Member Contributer Share Posted June 20, 2013 The front stand worked as advertised. As soon as you start to lift the front end, the weight of the bike causes the pins to self-lock and the front end comes up and is stable. The rear stand definitely has off-center holes on the right leg. I sent the pictures to T-Rex last night; hopefully I'll hear back today that a new rear stand is on its way. Top holes: Side Holes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Havagan Posted July 19, 2013 Author Member Contributer Share Posted July 19, 2013 A final note now that this T-Rex Racing Stand saga is over. T-Rex sent me a UPS return label and I sent back the defective rear stand and they sent me a completely different rear stand and didn't ship me the non-spooled swingarm attachments. I emailed and got no response, emailed again and still nothing, called and they said they would ship me the attachments that afternoon. After the attachments didn't arrive after 10 days, I sent another email and got no response, called and they said they would ship them out that same day. This time, they actually did and after a few days the non-spooled attachments were in my hands. It took a month, but the wheels are finally off the Ducati for new tires and the suspension on its way to Daugherty Motorsports for rebuild. The stands are beefy and well-built and the bike is quite stable on them. Getting them here was a bit of a pain in the rear, but done is done. I'll give props to T-Rex for replacing them without costing me a dime in shipping, etc. but I was annoyed at how they ignore most emails sent to their customer service address. Lesson: Calling support is better than emailing support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer 2thdr Posted July 19, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted July 19, 2013 Good to know...I was thinking about about a front stand from them for my CB1R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer JZH Posted July 20, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted July 20, 2013 So... was the price break worth the hassle? Sorry, I cannot be objective...I hate cheap tools! Ciao, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Havagan Posted July 20, 2013 Author Member Contributer Share Posted July 20, 2013 Can I be sure buying Pitbull online would have been hassle free? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer FJ12Ryder Posted July 20, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted July 20, 2013 Well, I did buy the Pitbull stand and they sent the wrong pin. But they sent out the right pin immediately after I contacted them and told them of the error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer YoshiHNS Posted July 20, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted July 20, 2013 I didn't have any problems with the PSR econo stuff, or their pricier stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer 2thdr Posted July 20, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted July 20, 2013 I got a Pitbull SSA rear stand because it wasn't that much more expensive than the T-rex stuff, but the front stand in a Pitbull is quite a bit more. Plus, I'm running out of farkle money...ugh! Gotta say the PitBull rear stand is top notch quality... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.