Comes ready to go out of the box, no assembly needed. My bike has 12.5\" of clearance and this lift is able to clear both tires off the ground, but not by a whole lot. Easy to operate by hand, and you can also put a socket on it and operate with a drill for quicker up/down. It held my bike up overnight (both wheels off the ground) without sagging down so that's a good sign. Does everything it's supposed to do and it's $60.