Latest LegUp News !!
We had a nice surprise today. The folks at Design World Magazine not only did an article about us and the project we did for Justin Rokohl, but they put together a video about it as well! If you would like to read the article, you can click right here. Click on the arrow below to watch the video!
Thanks Design World!
We have had a number of requests to adapt our system to the Yamaha Royalstar Line. Gary Martens, from Missouri, was nice enough to lend us the bike you see here.
As we dove into this project, we found basically no place to attach our legs support, and no place to mount our actuator! As we looked close, a frame rail that runs under the bike looked like it could be used for our underneath support. We designed some heavy clamps, and were able to attach the leg system.
The actuator lent us other problems! The bike is so wide and has exhaust pipes right where we wanted to put an actuator. We started thinking outside the boix, and came up with a horizontal mounting methodology that we never tried before.
You may be able to see the actuator peeking out from under the floor-board in the top picture! Today we put the bike on its' wheels for the first time, and although we are in the early prototype stages, we are pleased with the results!
Keep watching. We expect to have this available by April 2012!
Onto the next challenge: the Honda Shadow 750! The Bixler family brought us a bike all the way from Maryland! We just test rode it today. Very stable. Unlike all our other installs, we HAD to drill a single hole to attach the system to the bike. Other than that, we are VERY happy with the installation.
Keep watching. We expect to have this available by October 2011!
OOPS!!! As of Septemer 1, 2011, The Shadow system is ready for sale! For more info click SHADOW, call us at 407-834-5007 or email Info@landingear.com and we will be happy to build one for you!
After hundreds of requests, we finally got a loaner Sportster to use to fit the LegUp System to. The engineering went quicker than we thought, but we still have a long way to go!
The 04-Up sportster has very narrow frame rails and unlike many of the bikes we have designed LegUp for, there are very few places we can use as attachment points. Ben came up with a very unique way to use the cross members under the bike to give us a place to hang our mounting plate, and we derived some other ways to reinforce it to the bike.
As you might imagine, this system on such a light bike is VERY stable! We JUST FINISHED!!! Check out our page on this bike at SPORTSTER . If you would like to be one of the first to get a LegUp for your XL, call us at 407-834-5007 or email Info@landingear.com and we will be happy to build one for you!
LegUp is happy to announce that the Victory Vision Project is now complete! It took some doing, but we figured it out and are very pleased with the result. For such a big bike, we were surprised how stable it turned out! If you would like some more info, click on VISION to see the Victory Vision Page.
Next we will be tackling the Harley Sportster!
On to the next project...and this one is a 'DOOSEY' (I'm old enough to remember that, how 'bout you?)! The Vison Victory Tour is a one-of-a-kind motorcycle. Big, Powerful, loaded with features, and Covered in panels! Jack from South Carolina wanted a LegUp for this very Large bike. He trailered it down to our shop, and one of the local morons quickly stole his trailer (if you see a white enclosed trailer with no tag, and a Victory sticker on the back, drop us a line!).
We went to work on fitting this bike, trying to give Jack something to smile about after the trailer fiasco. We quickly noticed a few things. The massive engine IS the bottom of the Frame. No big deal, right? Wrong! We need something to attach our base plate to.
After pulling out more hair than I could afford, we found some factory threaded holes in the back of the engine we could attach to. A U-shaped strap at the front of the plate mounts to existing bolt holes to keep our plate from pivoting. Removing the exhaust, with it's crossover was no picnic either.
It won't be re-installed until we are mostly finished with this project!
It may be a bit difficult to see, but our prototype mounts are on the bike, and we have a plan for the rest of the attachment points. The exhaust you see in the first picture is so wide, we have to add about three inches to the width of our wheels to clear them. No big deal, we did this on the Triumph Rocket build.
Keep watching as we get this bike standing on its own with a LegUp!
we told you some time ago, Tom from Texas sent us his VTX1800 to have LegUp designed for it. We are happy to say that Tom has his bike back with the LegUp LandinGear on it! Who cares about Tom, you say? Shame on you; you should if you have a VTX1800 and you need a LegUp! The VTX1800 project is complete and we are very pleased with the outcome. It is a clean install and the bike is VERY stable with the wheels lowered!
One of the Challenges with the VTX is how low it is out of the box. We found a way to attach our mounting system as you can see, and we had to work hard to keep our parts as high as we could to keep the VTX as rideable as it is without LegUp.
For more information about the VTX project, please vist our MODEL page for a closer look. Thanks Tom!
LegUp is pleased to announce the development of the 'LegUp Lite System'. The LITE system is exactly like our Standard system from a mechanical standpoint, but has a MUCH less sophisticated control system. WHY? To reduce cost and help folks get a LegUp who might not be able to otherwise. The LITE system is completely manual in its' deployment and retraction of the wheel system, unlike the Standard system which is automatic!
The rider needs to push and hold one button to lower the wheels and the other to raise them. Certainly this is a bit more cumbersome than the automatic speed sensing of the original LegUp system, but it reduces the initial cost by $500! Purchasers of the LegUp Lite system will be able to upgrade to the Automated system later if they wish. For more information check out our LITE page. Thanks!
We just got back from Bike Week 2011 in Daytona Beach Florida! We met a ton of folks, and we all learned a lot. We prepared the video below so you folks can have a peak at the action. Thanks to everyone who stopped by!
Tom from Texas had this VTX and needed some help. He sent us his bike and we started working on engineering the LegUp system for it. While it has taken longer than we had hoped and Tom has been extremely patient, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
One of the problems with the VTX is how low it is out of the box. We found a way to attach our mounting system as you can see, but we have to raise the wheels and the lower actuator mount point to keep the VTX as rideable as it is without LegUp. The bike is proving to be exceptionally stable with the wheels down.
In the next few weeks, we will be finalizing the design. Moving the system just a bit to clear the exhaust completely, and re-establishing the full lean angle by raising some of the attachment points are all the challenges we have left! Keep watching as this development continues!
A customer wanted a LegUp system for his BMW K1200LT. We have recently started developing the system on his bike. The BMW is a BIG bike, and we are early in the process of making the mounts and deciding how to get this bike into our lineup. We have found some spots to mount the support plate; the big kickstand got a bit in the way, but we found a way around it.
The difficulty with designing for this or any other bike is that we do everything in our power to avoid modifying the motorcycle. We always look for existing bolt holes that we can use, and we design attachment points to mate with these rather than drilling or cutting.
These efforts slow down the development some, but make for a better design once completed. Keep watching as this development continues!
Here we go again!!! Our new project is the Kawasaki Vulcan/Nomad. We have been looking at this one for several weeks now and have had some recent break-throughs. It may not look like much, but we have come up with attachment
points and methodologies for the mounting plate, the legs and the actuator. This is all small prototype stuff, but we are confident we can turn these into production pieces!
One of the most unusual problems we encountered, that took up much of the room we would like to use, is that the oil filter is mounted under the bike. If you look at the overflow hose in the left hand picture, right next to it is the oil filter. We will be replacing the filter with one that takes a wrench to remove it, and we have left enough room for the oil to drain in front of our plate. Looks like it is going to work.
Another difficulty we encountered was the pipes. We could not use our normal leg system because the pipes would not allow the legs to rise high enough. A small change to our jig, and we came up with plenty of clearance!
Keep watching!
We FINALLY finished developing the LegUp System for the Honda GL1500 model (1988-2000). What an engineering challenge this turned out to be! The covers on this bike made finding bolts and mounting points to use almost impossible! We finally got it done and as of 8/15/2010 It is available for sale! Thanks for your patience. Have a look at the video below.
LegUp LandinGear is pleased to announce the addition of another bike model to our lineup! The Yamaha Stratoliner has just been completed. This mid-sized cruiser is a very interesting machine, with its' art-deco styling and V-twin motor.
It wasn't terribly difficult to adapt the system to this bike, and we are very pleased with the result.
Clearance for the actuator was difficult as we needed to clear the wide swing arm.
The good news is we figured everything out and as of this day (June 25, 2010) we are able to offer this system for sale to Stratoliner owners. For more information, click STRATOLINER .
Ok... Let's see who is watching! We are still finalizing the last of the engineering on the GL1500 design, but demand has forced our hand. While we will NOT likely ship the first GL1500 LegUp System until August 15 (Maybe sooner!), as of this date (June 19, 2010) we have decided to accept deposits for the system, to try to be fair to those who have waited so patiently for this bike to be completed!
We will ship the first GL1500 systems to those of you who wish to participate in this waiting list system, in the order we receive deposits. The cost of the system will be $3,495 , and we will take $500 as a deposit amount.
As we get closer to production, folks on the waiting list will be sent an email with estimated ship dates. Domestic Shipping will be FREE to all Waiting List participants ($50 Value)!
If you have a GL1500 and have been wishing for a LegUp, Call us at 407-834-5007 or email us at Info@landingear.com and we will call you to arrange your deposit.
We would like to thank all you GL1500 riders for your enthusiasm!
The most requested bike since we started has been the GL1500 Gold Wing. We finally got a donor bike and started working.
What we found was that the covers are making it very difficult to get everything to fit.
We have to use the left rear Crash bar as an upper actuator mounting point, requiring heavily machined bracketry to attach to the bar.
Clearance for the actuator was also difficult as we needed to clear the left rear floorboard.
The good news is we now (June 1, 2010) have a working prototype. Our Engineers are working on finalizing the manufacture of the mounts, and we should start taking orders on or about July 1! Keep Watching!
We just finished developing the LegUp System for the Triumph Rocket III model. Tony Price shipped us his bike and although it presented some of our toughest Engineering challenges, it works great! Keep watching as we document this new model!
After what turned out to be our biggest adaptation challenge to date, LegUp Landingear is finally available for Harley Dyna Models. The system mounts up front instead toward the rear of the bike. The setup is great, and the bike is VERY stable with the wheels down! It works with Mid-mount or Forward controls (mid-mounts have a bit less lean angle when up) and is available for 93-Present Dyna models. Give us a call or drop us a line for more info.
Here is a new project we are working on for some folks who need more help than the standard LegUp system can offer. We call it 'LegUp Plus' and it uses four wheels instead of just two, and it will never let the bike fall over! We are still developing the product, but you can check out the video of the prototype below!
After quite a few trials and tribulations, LegUp Landingear is finally available for Harley Softails. There are a few small Caveats. The bike cannot be lowered as there is so little room under there, lowering will scrape the mounting points on sharp turns. The bike must also have either some sort of saddlebags, or a Harley-style, right-side tool box, to house the computer. Other than those two things, the setup is great, and the bike is VERY stable with the wheels down! Give us a call or drop us a line for more info.
Come See the LegUp Landingear System in action at Daytona Bikeweek 2010 (February 26 - March 6). We will be located at 1903 South Ridgewood Ave, South Daytona, Florida, at the Porkies BBQ (One door south of Miller's on US1). Click 'BIKEWEEK' for all the info!
LegUp is working diligently to finish the next two models to have LandinGear systems adapted to them. The Harley Softail (87-present with some exclusions) and the Harley Dyna Models (2000 to present).
The Softail was reasonably easy to adapt to the system (shown here on a Standard, but something with bags would be more appropriate), as strong attachment points are available. We are just polishing off some engineering work and this version should be available in time for Christmas!
The Dyna presented a whole other problem for us as the bike has no frame just in front of the rear tire as most bikes do. Unfortunately, this is the area we normally use to attach our system! We had to get creative and we did. Notice that it is mounted just behind the front wheel on the frame. We had to make a linkage system to allow the actuator to move the legs, and the entire mechanical part of the system is self-contained and can be pre-assembled off the bike. A cover is being developed to make the whole deal look better! We still have quite a bit of work to do here, as the engineering is in preliminary stages, but we have ridden it and it seems to work very well... We will keep you posted!
LegUp is pleased to announce that we have launched (as you can see) our new and improved Website! We have worked diligently to make this site easier to navigate (we have buttons top and bottom), easier to read, and more pleasant in general. All the pictures and videos on the site allow you to click on them, and will fade out the rest of the site and generate a larger picture with greater detail. Try it on the picture here, and click anywhere after you see the bigger picture to return to EXACTLY where you were before! Our thanks go out to RD for all his effort on this project!
We hope you enjoy the site; Thanks for visiting!
LegUp was pleased that our local FOX affiliate, WOFL, came and visited, and put together this video piece. We have had great response and we would like to thank David Martin and his exceptional crew for a job well done!
Well Gold Wing folks, your wait is over! As of August 1, 2009, the
GL1800 system is ready for sale, much sooner than we anticipated. The stability
surprised even us! The GL1800 is much heavier than the Harley, but with just a
few engineering changes, we have been very pleased with the results!!
Click GL1800 Page for more information!
Gold Wing fans, listen UP! We are designing LegUp for the 2001 and Later GL1800's. We have solved most all of the engineering difficulties and just have to finalize a few things and put test miles on it. The system hides GREAT! Give us a bit of time and we will have LegUp for you too!
Click on the pictures for a larger view. If everything goes as planned, we will have absolutely no changes to the bike. We drove it for the first time today (7/17/09) and it feels stable. Lots more to do, but we hope to have it ready by September first!!
Good news for owners of 93-97 Harley Touring bikes! We have just had the opportunity to implement LegUp on bikes for these years. We are glad to report that the system fits. There are a few issues. First, the hand controls on bikes older than '96, would not allow us to mount our handlebar switches as we do on the newer bikes. We developed a mounting bracket (seen at right) that will solve this problem.
Our other concern was the left side cover, which is significantly different on these bikes. The good news is that the upper actuator bracket actually clears the side panel, the bad news is that it does NOT clear the rear shock air valve (see photo). When installing LegUp on bikes with this type of valve, the valve will need to be removed from the bracket, and relocated. It winds up not to be a big deal, as we rarely use this valve and it can be simply wire-tied in any convenient location behind the bags.
So if you have an older touring bike, give us a call. Even if it is older than 1993, there are a few measurements we would ask you to make to determine if LegUp will fit your bike.
Just completed! We have designed our own attachment system to do away with the Harley center stand we used previously. Strong, simple, it gives us much better geometry. Check out the engineering drawing. We will be getting pictures up shortly!
Thanks !!!
