wheel stands

So I bought a wheel stand off a guy down the road for 10$. It's not going to work for me unless I can fab some pieces to attach to it to get under and lift my forks. I need to take my front wheel off to do a tire change. My question is, what do you fellows use to lift your front end to take the wheel off? I have a nice heavy cycle jack, but don't want to have to take the exhaust off.
The bike is an '83 KZ1100.

thats a rear stand for a bike with "spools" you could probably fabricate something to make it work. I like this style of stand for the front. It lifts the bike through the steering stem. you can pull the forks this way. You can put a rear stand on wood blocks and lift the rear of the bike really high. then put jackstands under the frame rails near the front, when you lower the back of the bike it will teeter-totter back to lift the front wheel up. Weigh the rear down and you are good to go.

Does the KZ1100 have a centerstand? Ed

650ed wrote: Does the KZ1100 have a centerstand? Ed

My two 83 KZ1100 LTDs do, yes.

I use a paddock stand for the back wheel as I binned the centre stand to fit the Harris pipe. For the front wheel,I just use a jack but I stack wooden blocks on it to avoid the exhaust and put all the weight on the crank cases. It works well enough and is pretty stable. You should be able to manage the same with what youve got.

My kz1100 does have the center stand.

Since your bike has a centerstand you should be able to use a bottle jack under the front of the engine with the bike on the centerstand to raise the front tire off the ground. On my KZ650-C1 I put a small piece of wood between the jack post and the oil pan to ensure the jack didn't damage the pan and made good contact with the pan. Then I gently pumped the jack up until the rear tire just barely touched the floor - don't pump the jack too high or you can lift the bike off the centerstand and the bike will fall over. Then I removed the front forks without a problem (see pic below). Be sure to do this on level ground, not a hill . Ed

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with center stand on a bit of 1/2 inch plywood I slip wood frame under the triple tree. The top horizontal 2x4 slides in and out and is sometimes replaced with a longer length when further leverage is required

That is pretty darned simple and ingenious JR.

I was thinking (uh oh} making some lower shock bolts with spools, or adding a piece to add spools when needed for the rear tire.

I managed to get both wheels of the ground with my ABBA bike stand.
My back is very happy about this.

I used a car jack under the front of the motor for many years. It worked, but I had a few close calls. If you wrench on something and it causes the bike to move forward a bit, it can topple the jack and come off the center stand. Not good if the wheels are off.
If you do it that way, I suggest using some means to tie the center stand in a way that it is locked into place and can't pivot on its hinge. That way the bike won't easily rock forward.

This stand (home made), plus the center stand, lets me disassemble the bike down to the frame.