Unless you have some weird racing bike, your motorcycle probably came with some sort of built in stand. If your bike only has a kickstand then you’ll probably want at least a rear-wheel paddock stand in order to do maintenance on the chain, clean or change the wheel, or simply store it for the winter.

Whatever your reason for wanting a paddock stand, you’ll be happy to know that they are for the most part pretty affordable and that you should have no issue finding one that suits your needs. But there are still some junk products out there. I’ve put together some of the most frequently bought paddock stands here and given them a look, based on their value for money and what people who have owned and used them have to say.

Is it really impossible to mess up something as simple as a paddock stand? Well, I guess we’ll find out together.

Venom Triple Tree Headlift

This front wheel stand from Venom is a little pricey to be sure. It does however come with compatibility to a wide range of sportsbikes from the big Japanese bike makers as well as Ducati and BMW.

It isn’t just a stand; it lifts the front wheel completely off the ground so you can easily do maintenance on the wheel. There are also wheels on the stand, which helps stabilize the bike on different surfaces.

There are some caveats. The durability of the product seems more or less OK for home use and occasional maintenance, but it’s probably better to get something more professional if you do lots of track days. It also seems that some smaller bikes, under 400cc, don’t quite fit regardless of which pins you use. It may be worth phoning up the manufacturer and ensuring compatibility if you have one of the smaller sports bikes.

In fact it turns out that many people who were perfectly reasonable in their expectation that their bikes would work with this stand had some sort of issue.

Can I recommend it? We’ll, it is quite a bit of money, but if you do your homework about compatibility issues this should be a pretty decent quality stand.

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CHN FW-1

The CHN FW-1 front wheel stand is not much to look at. This is definitely a product that cares more about utility than looking cool. It looks like warehouse equipment. On the positive side it is very affordable, coming in at half as much as more “brand name” stands.

The FW-1 comes with lift pins for five different sizes that CHN says are the most popular, and it also has four wheels. One nice idea is that the stand can be configured to lift the bike by the steering head tube, which means that you can even remove the fork during maintenance.

Assembly is apparently so easy that a child can do it. A minority of people seem unhappy with the build quality, but the overwhelming majority are happy with their purchase and you also have to keep the price in mind when evaluating fit and finish.

I think this is probably the ideal lift for the biker on a budget.

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Excel PST-004

You don’t get a simpler stand design than a metal triangle that goes on your axle. Of course, this stand only holds up your bike; it doesn’t lift anything. It’s for MX and other bikes that have had their kickstands removed for clearance purposes. Hey, it beats leaning the bike against a wall or tree.

There really isn’t much to say. It’s zinc coated so it shouldn’t rust, it’s pretty strong, it will work (officially) with up to 500CC bikes, and it costs less than twenty bucks.

There are no complaints; it does what it says and if you need one like this you should just buy it. Simple.

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Venom Front and Rear Combo

While most of us can make do with either a front or (mostly) rear stand because we take our bikes to the shop for the more complicated stuff, if you want to do the pro thing and lift your whole bike off the ground you’ll need both. So it’s better to buy a combo pack like this since it’s a fair bit cheaper than buying them separately. These stands are more or less the same as others I have seen. They look pretty good, they’re fairly compatible with a range of bikes, and this combo is priced very well indeed.

Acclaim for this stand combo is nearly universal. Although obviously not top quality, these stands will get the job done and let you get into swinging a wrench yourself.

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Pit Bull Hybrid Dual Lift

Whenever you read someone’s review of a paddock stand it will probably start with these words “It’s not a Pit Bull, but…”
Yep, Pit Bull stands are the benchmark that people use to judge the quality of other products, so that should tell you something about their products. As you’d expect, these also carry a price premium and this single stand is well over two hundred bucks.

What makes this hybrid lift stand so special is the fact that you can convert it from one lift style to the other. You can either set it to lift from the forks or from the lower triple tree. It has seven indexed height settings.

What’s great about Pit Bull though, is their professional service. When you order this stand you can have them replace the standard pin to one that fits your bike perfectly, and they provide a sizing chart for that very purpose. Now that’s service.

The quality of this stand is also a step above; if you have the funds a Pit Bull is definitely the way to go.

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