Swingarm Spool adapters for Harbor Freight motorcycle stand

If you are serious about doing your own maintenance on your bike you really need to have at least a rear swingarm stand.  I picked this one up from Harbor Freight a few years ago but have never really been satisfied with the paddle type swingarm attachements -

I find swingarm spools to be a much easier and stable method of lifting the rear of a motorcycle so I decided to look at upgrading this stand with the ability to interface with a set of spools.

After a bit of googling I was coming up with no results that jumped out at me until I chanced upon an Amazon review of these -

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 The user posting the review advised that these were a perfect fit for the Harbor Freight Haul Master stand (item # 65620).

I decided to take a chance and luckily, the reviewer was spot on.  Both the Harbor Freight stand and the stand the Motorsports products adapters were designed to use a 3/4" square tube mounting point.

Harbor Freight original

Motorsports Products adapter

The adapters appear to be well made and finished and actually fit more smoothly in the stand that the original paddle adapters the came with my stand. 

The adapters originally came with rubber caps for the long end of the spool interface to prevent scratching of the swingarm while maneuvering the stand and lifting the motorcycle into place.  Unfortunately my spools are quite large in diameter and keeping the rubber caps in place was crushing and damaging the caps so I removed them.  If you have small spools this should not be a problem. 

Installation is as simple as removing the old paddle lifts and sliding the new adapters in place, adjusting them for the width of your spools and lifting the bike as normal. 

Lifting my ZX-6R

One downside is that the HF stands don't have the optimum angle for lifting with these installed and it is a bit tricky to get the bike on the stand if you are doing it by yourself.  If you are not comfortable with that and don't have anyone around to help I would recommend getting a better stand with spool provisions from the start.

It is also worth mentioning that the Harbor Freight stands are not of the best quality.  They are plenty stable (had to bend one of mine a bit so it would sit flat) but you would likely be better served getting a nicer stand from the beginning.

That all being said though, IF you already have a HF lift and want to use spools this is a great way to upgrade your stand.  For the amount invested it works well and if my stand somehow walks off from pit lane someday I won't be too broken up, which I can not say for something like a $150 pit bull stand.