WORKSHOP STUFF: ABBA Superbike Stand

Bertie Simmonds / £100 / www.abbastands.co.uk

After 10 years of faithful service, my ABBA Superbike Stand has been retired. Well, sort of… it’s gone to another home. 

It’s fair to say that this has been the stand of choice, despite having some standalone paddock stands and a hydraulic bike lift. It’s been able to ‘hold up’ a range of bikes from an Aprilia RSV1000 Mille (1998); Tuono (2006); 1996 Suzuki GSX-R750 SRAD; Honda CBR900RR FireBlade (1997); 1995 Yamaha YZF750R; and an array of modern motorcycles, too.

What I love is the stand’s simplicity. You join the two halves of the stand, and they slot into the swingarm pivot point. For around £15-£20 you simply purchase an adaptor kit for the bike you own, meaning that you don’t have to buy brand-new stands. You can even buy a ‘dealer kit’ should you wish, with a vast array of adaptors to suit most bikes from the last 30 or so years. If you don’t own a bike, the broken down two halves are easily stored, and you can add a ‘Front Lift Arm’ to the basic stand which lifts the front wheel off the floor.

The only niggle with the ABBA Superbike Stand is that you do have to get the adjustment right, so it’s tight before you hoist the bike on to the stand. The setting of the width of the two halves of the stand often has to be pretty spot on, otherwise when you extend the handle to lift the bike up, it can wobble and sway. That said, I’ve never dropped a bike with it yet: highly recommended. I’ve recently replaced it with an ABBA SkyLift.