My S40 seems pretty straightforward to lift, relative to some other machines I own. I think I just used a car scissors jack, that I've added a strong, but relatively small ~ 1.25 thick x 3.25" wide x 14" long slab of maple to. The wood plank is long enough to bridge the frame rails, and narrow enough to find a spot for between features welded to the frame. I add some shims as needed to ensure I'm pushing against the frame rail on both side, and lift front or rear, but I don't try to lift the whole machine on the narrow footprint of a scissors jack.
My Honda Shadow 1100, was much more of a challenge, much heavier, with a softer engine underbelly, frame rails at different heights, and more limitations on access. For that I built a cradle.
Motorcyclejacks dot com has designed a patent pending adaptor for motorcycle lifts, they imaginatively call the "Universal Adapter". It offers 4 height and position adjustable perches. I won't post a link, because their marketing and website are awful, but I attached the biggest picture I could grab. Sells for ~$90, according to the website. I'd want to at least see better pictures before investing, but the concept looks promising.
The idea appears somewhat similar to that used by the clamp-on adaptors from RedLine, which appear to be designed to clamp to a heavier duty lift, but offer height adjustable perches. These would allow adjusting a parallelogram lift to frame rail span, with the lift crosswise to the bike's main axis. Pricey, in my opinion at $250 for the set of 4.
https://www.redlinestands.com/catalog/lifts-c-290/parts-accessories-c-290_304...Too bad Vevor hasn't included threaded perches on their reasonably priced Motorcycle Lift. It does appear in some pictures, however, that the perches, which appear to be adjustable in span, can be rotated to either axis, so perhaps they are threaded? However, the feature isn't called out, either as rotatable or individually height adjustable. Vevor makes decent quality for just a few dollars more than dirt cheap Harbor Freight quality.
https://www.vevor.com/hydraulic-motorcycle-hoist-c_10310/vevor-motorcycle-lif... If they made the perches individually height adjustable, I'd rather have two of these, bolted securely to fairly wide, 3/4" plywood pads, than a single parallelogram lift. Would be quite a bit more adaptable, and secure, in my opinion.
I own a parallogram lift, like your Pittsburgh, but it almost never gets used. Always seems to be either overkill, or inconvenient, or in the way of what I'm trying to do. If I had more workspace, I'm sure it would see more use.
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