Certain maintenance tasks, like changing the front tire or working on the forks, require you to jack up the front end of a K bike.  Ideally you have something like the hydraulic floor jack pictured here:

If you have a belly pan then remove that first.  Then put the bike on the center stand. In order to keep from scratching the oil sump, plastic a block of wood on the jack, place it under the front of the oil sump and jack up the front of the bike until the front tire leaves the ground - being sure not to jack up the bike by a belly pan bracket.

There are some alternatives to using a floor jack though.  Most automotive scissor jacks (like the one in the trunk of your car) will also work.

If the bike is on a motorcycle lift on the center stand then you can use a ratcheted tie-down to pull the rear of the bike down until the front wheel lifts off of the lift.

In fact, you really don't need anything special at all.  You can just have a helper push down on the rear of the bike until the front wheel lifts off of the ground and then place something the correct height under the oil sump. Here's a couple of examples.

When I had a flat front tire in The Yukon I used a big rock I found on the side of the road so I could take the wheel in to get the tire repaired.

When I was visiting a friend in Phoenix and wanted to get both wheels off to have new tires installed, I used a stack of phonebooks.

© 2013 Drake Smith - Please do not use or reproduce this elsewhere.  Feel free to link to it though.