Technical Field The invention relates to a stand according to the preamble of claim 1.

When two-wheeled vehicles, such as motorcycles, scooters, mopeds or bicycles are to be transported from for example the manufacturer to an importer or from the im- porter to the dealer, they need to be fixed to prevent them from tipping over on or in the means of transportation used, for instance a truck, a box van, a ship, a train, a plane or the like. Other situations require this type of fixing as well, for instance the transportation of wrecked vehicles to the garage or of motorcycles used in competi- tions from one racing event to another. Two-wheeled motorcycles may be provided with a supporting leg, but this is often not sufficient. Usually, motorcycles used in competitions are not provided with supporting legs at all.

Background Art Many different stands are known for fixing two-wheeled motor vehicles in the verti- cal position to enable repair and transportation. US 4,681, 299 discloses a lifting de- vice for motorcycles, the motorcycle resting with the lower face of the cylinder block on the lifting device and a pair of straps being wrapped around the foot rests.

A disadvantage of said lifting device is that it is relatively tedious to use because an effective fixing is obtained only when the device is lifted all the way up to abut the lower face of the cylinder block to allow the straps to be wrapped around the foot rests.

WO 01/53190 Al discloses a lifting device for motorcycles, said lifting device in- cluding a jack and two supports whose upper ends are intended to engage the foot rests of the motorcycle. In order to prevent the motorcycle from tilting about the axis

of the foot rests, it is furthermore necessary to use stabilising members fastened to other parts of the motorcycle.

A stand according to the preamble of claim 1 is known from US 4,460, 158. This stand includes a base part to be positioned on a surface, a lifting member being ver- tically displaceable in relation to the base part and having a supporting surface adapted to abut a downwardly facing surface of the vehicle, and said stand further being provided with a retaining member having a downwardly facing contact face adapted to engage an upwardly facing surface of the vehicle and to secure the vehi- cle jointly with the lifting member. A disadvantage of said stand is that the lifting member must be brought to abut the downwardly facing surface of the vehicle in or- der to allow the retaining member to abut the upwardly facing surface of the vehicle.

Disclosure of Invention The object of the invention is to provide a new and improved stand for securing a two-wheeled vehicle and allowing the vehicle to be fixed in a fast, simple and steady way.

The object according to the invention is obtained by mounting the retaining member on a holding member being mounted on the base part and projecting upwardly there- from such that the vehicle is clamped between the retaining member and the lifting member, when said lifting member is moved to its raised position. This allows the vehicle to be fixed in a fast and simple way, the stand being arranged in relation to the vehicle such that the lifting member is under the vehicle and the retaining mem- ber is above an upwardly facing surface of the vehicle so that the motor vehicle is secured between the retaining member and the lifting member when said lifting member is moved to its raised position. Thus, it is not necessary to first bring the lifting member to abutment and then secure or arrange the retaining member cor- rectly in relation to the vehicle.

According to the invention, the stand may include two holding members being inter- spaced in the transverse direction of the stand so that the vehicle can be arranged therebetween, and the retaining members of said holding members extending trans- versely from the respective holding member towards the other holding member. In this way, a particularly steady fixing is obtained, allowing the retaining members to engage the vehicle on each side thereof.

According to the invention, when seen in a cross-sectional view, the retaining mem- bers may be reversed U-shaped such that the contact face has downwardly extending legs on each side. As a result, the retaining members are particularly suitable for en- gaging the foot rests of a motorcycle which in this way can be received in the U- shaped cross section.

According to the invention, the retaining members may be displaceable in the longi- tudinal direction of holding members and/or in the transverse direction of the stand, thereby allowing the stand to be adapted to various types and sizes of two-wheeled vehicles.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the lifting member may be positioned between the two holding members which are shaped as vertical guide means for the lifting member, thereby obtaining a particularly simple and practical embodiment.

According to the invention, the holding members may be U-shaped in a vertical sec- tional view, the U-shaped transverse section receiving the end of the lifting member.

As a result, a particularly simple guide mechanism is obtained.

According to a particularly preferred embodiment, one of the legs in the U-shaped transverse section of each holding member may be provided with an incision to al- low the lifting member to be brought out of engagement with the holding members when the lifting member is in its lowered position. This allows the lifting member to

be removed from the stand, thereby making it easier to arrange the stand under the vehicle or to roll the vehicle over the base part into the correct position. After having positioned the vehicle in relation to the stand, the lifting member may be arranged into place in the cross section of the holding members again to fix the vehicle.

According to the invention, the stand may include a jack being removably arranged between the base part and the lifting member. Such a jack may be a standard prod- uct, thus being easily replaceable.

According to an embodiment the stand may be adapted to allow the jack to be se- cured to the lifting member and with the secured lifting member to be brought out of engagement with the holding members in the lowered position of the lifting mem- ber. Accordingly, it is particularly easy and simple, especially in cramped spaces, to position the vehicle and the stand in relation to each other as the vehicle only is to be rolled over the base part, per se, whereafter the jack and the lifting member can be positioned so as to fix the vehicle.

According to the invention, the downwardly facing surface of the jack may have horizontally acting fixing means and the upwardly facing surface of the base part may have complementarily shaped fixing means, thereby allowing the jack with the secured lifting member to be fixed on the upwardly facing surface of the base part in a particularly easy way.

The retaining member (s) and the lifting member may preferably be arranged in the same vertical plane extending perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle.

As a result, significant moment of force influences of the vehicle are avoided so that other parts of the vehicle, for instance the wheels, need not be under significant load, thereby sparing the bearings of the wheels by not exposing them to heavy vibrations during transport.

Brief Description of the Drawings The invention is explained in detail below with reference to a preferred embodiment shown in the drawings, in which Fig. 1 is the stand in an end view Fig. 2 is the stand in a side view securing a motocross motorcycle, and Fig. 3 is the stand viewed from above Best Modes for Carrying out the Invention A stand for securing a two-wheeled vehicle, especially a motocross motorcycle, is shown in an end view in Fig. 1. The stand is preferably made of steel sections and includes a base part 3, a positioning rail 11, two vertically extending holding mem- bers 9 attached to the base part 3, a vertically displaceable lifting member 4 as well as a jack 10. The holding members 9 are made of U-sections, the cross sectional openings thereof facing each other. The U-shaped sections serve as guide means to the horizontally extending lifting member 4 made from a square section. Between the lifting member 4 and the base part 3, a jack 10 is arranged, which can be of any type, but which, in this case, is a scissor jack. At the upper end of each holding member 9 there is provided an inwardly extending retaining member 6 also made from a U-section, the cross sectional opening thereof facing downwardly. A posi- tioning rail 11 in the form of a trough-shaped section projects perpendicularly from the middle of the base part 3. This positioning rail is intended for receiving the rear wheel of the motor vehicle. The holding members 9 are provided with incisions 16 in the legs of the U-shaped section indicated by a dashed line in Fig. 1. These inci- sions 16 are of a size allowing the lifting member 4 to be removed horizontally when the lifting member is in a lowered position. The jack 10 can be fixed or re- movably arranged on the downwardly facing surface of the lifting member 5 and can

be fixed to the upwardly facing surface of the base part 3 by a pin-bore mechanism.

When the stand is to be used for securing for example a motorcycle, the lifting mem- ber 4 and the jack 10 are removed from the stand, whereafter the motorcycle is rolled in-between the two holding members 9 so that the rear wheel is placed in the positioning rail 11 as shown in Fig. 2. The motorcycle is arranged so that the foot rests 12 extending from each side of the cylinder block 17 are directly underneath the retaining members 6. The jack 10 and the lifting member 4 are then arranged as shown in Fig. 1, and by activating the jack 11, the lifting member is raised to abut the downwardly facing surface of the cylinder block of the motorcycle or the frame, and the motorcycle is raised until the foot rests abut the downwardly facing surface 16 of the horizontally extending legs of the U-shaped retaining members 6. As a re- sult, the motorcycle is clamped between the retaining members 6 and the lifting member 4. As it appears from Fig. 2, the rear wheel rests on the rail 11 and the front wheel rests on the surface 18 in the fixed position, but the majority of the weight of the motorcycle is carried by the stand. The bearings of the wheels are thus not under significant strain during the transport on for instance a truck, where the stand and the motorcycle are exposed to vibrations. The stand 1 and the motorcycle 2 are very steadily positioned due to the width of the base part 3 and because the front wheel and the rear wheel of the motorcycle abut the surface 18.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the stand from above. It clearly shows the position- ing rail 11 including a bended metal plate having a horizontal bottom part 12 and two lateral parts 13 extending obliquely upwards therefrom. The dot-and-dash line 15 indicates the positioning of the scissor jack 10, the jack being inclined in relation to the base part. This allows an easier access to the rotation means 14, see Fig. 1, by means of which the spindle of the jack can be rotated so as to raise and lower the jack.

The middle the base part 3 is provided with an upwardly extending guide pin 19 which can engage a correspondingly shaped hole in the jack.

The invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For instance, the jack 10 and the lifting member 4 can be permanently arranged on the stand, in which case it may be necessary to push the stand in between the front wheel and the cylinder block and then roll the motorcycle a little forward until the foot rests are underneath the retain- ing members. Alternatively, the stand can be positioned so that the longitudinal axis thereof is inclined in relation to the longitudinal axis of the motorcycle, whereafter the rear wheel is rolled up on the positioning rail, the front part of the stand then be- ing turned in between the front wheel and the cylinder block, followed by the mo- torcycle being rolled forward again until the foot rests are underneath the retaining members 6.

The jack can be fixed to the downwardly facing surface of the lifting member 4 or alternatively the upwardly facing surface of the jack or the downwardly facing sur- face of the lifting member 4 or both can be provided with simple mechanical fixing members to fix the two in relation to each other in the horizontal plane.

The lifting member 4 can also in a simple manner be included in the upper part of the jack, which usually is used for lifting a vehicle or the like.

In Fig. 1, the upwardly facing surface of the lifting member 4 is provided with a glued rubber layer 5 to protect the downwardly facing surface of the vehicle and in- crease the friction, thereby reducing the risk of the vehicle slipping on the lifting member while it is being raised.

In the illustrated embodiment, the total height of the stand is approx. 400 mm and the two holding members 9 have an interspacing of approx. 470 mm, the retaining members 6 extending approx. 100 mm inwardly from each holding member. The width of the base part is approx. 750 mm and it is made out of a hollow square sec- tion measuring 30 x 50 x 2.5 mm. A U-section measuring 40 x 40 x 4 mm is used for the holding member. A hollow square section with the cross sectional dimen-

sions of 30 x 50 x 2.5 mm and a length of approx. 538 mm is used for the lifting member.

In the illustrated embodiment, the foot rests of the motocross-motorcycle are used for fixing. It is, however, also possible to use other parts of the motorcycle, for in- stance the upwardly facing surface of the cylinder block, the seat or the fuel tank.

The stand according to the invention is particularly suitable for the transportation of motocross motorcycles, it being easy to position the motocross motorcycle on a trailer or in a box van due its compact structure.

However, it is also possible to use the stand for other types of two-wheeled vehicles such as common motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and even common bicycles. When the stand is used for securing a scooter, it is possible to use the upper face of the foot resting base thereof as the face engaging the retaining member. When the stand is used for a bicycle, it is possible to use the pedals for fixing.