In an effort to free up some more space in my shop, I decided to hang my old Yamaha CT1 from the ceiling. My shop has 13' ceilings, so I don't have to worry about hitting my head on it when I walk under it.
The first step was to evaluate the strength of the ceiling and check the location of the ceiling center. My ceiling was constructed with 2"x 8" joists, so I felt that they could carry the load without issue and the center of the ceiling was located between two joists.
When something heavy is going to be hanging over my head, I like to over engineer the mounting system. I chose two 1/2" eye bolts for my mounts and used 2" x 2" x 1/4" steel angle to span the joists. I also filled in the gap between the ceiling and the attic flooring with 2" X 6" lumber, so that the eye bolts would not be able to move from side to side during the installation of the motorcycle. I then used a 12" x 1/2" drill bit to bore a hole from the attic all the way down to the garage ceiling. Once the holes were drilled, I bolted up the eye bolts using lock nuts.
With the mounting system in place, I hoisted up the motorcycle with a chain hoist on the rear eye bolt and a rope and pulley on the front eye bolt. I then ran a length of 5/16" chain through each eye bolt and attached it to the motorcycle's frame using shackles to connect the ends of the chain together.
As a final touch, I installed some blue lighting under the tank and seat of the bike. I ran the wiring up the chain and through the ceiling, then down inside the wall to a blank face plate. Then I mounted a standard female power fitting in the face plate which allows me to simple plug in the lights using a 12 volt power supply.
After the wiring was completed, all that was left to do was wipe down the motorcycle and enjoy my extra shop space.
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