Ok so I got sick of wading thru the millions of posts of how to strap down a bike and throw it in a truck bed. for Thanksgiving I had to travel from Phoenix to San Diego and then back. I was speaking about it with my friends and I mentioned how nice it would be to ride down there. Anyway long story short, I borrowed a trailer and cargo straps. I didn't have the $$ or the time to get to a bike store for those fancy mancy hand grip straps, this is how i solved that little dillema:







While my buddy was pulling the straps tight, I was sitting on the fuel tank bouncing so the strut would compress. This is a VERY important step!!!!!! You don't want your precious to litteraly bounce off your trailer.

Next thing I had to tackle was the back end. I thought of several diffrent ways to do this and this particular set-up worked for me.









As you can see I threaded it thru the rear passenger pegs and the rear tire. The only point of contact with the bike was the pegs. Once again while tightening the straps I sat and bounced on the seat to compress the strut.

Finally, being a bit paranoid I wanted to ensure the bike wasnt going anywhere and I guess I wanted that warm fuzzy feeling, plus i had a couple extra straps, I did this.



That was a little paranoia setting in, but what the hell right, its my baby!! The over all picture looks like this:



So there it is!! I litterally put this trailer thingy together in like 15 minutes, I borrowed everything, and now I am back home without any extra scratches/dents/dings!! Ohhh before i get flamed for how filthy the bike is, the pictures were taken on the trip home after riding for a full 3 days.

I really hope this helps, because as you can see in the last picture I do not own a pick-up and every post i found was how to strap it down in the back of a pick-up.

If anyone has any questions feel free to reply or PM me, I will gladly share any information!!!

Jay

 

wouldnt flame you because of a dirty bike

huge chicken strips maybe but never dirt

if you ever decide that you need to trailer a lot
invest in a baxley sport chock
you ride right into it and it locks the front down completely

 

nice post...useful stuff!
________
BODY SCIENCE

 

Aren't there trailer's that are specifically made for bikes. I'm not sure what they look like though. I have a Lincoln Town Car but it doesn't have a hitch. I heard that you can attach a hitch to any vehicle. Is that true? If not, is there anyway i can haul my bike?

 

i like this method

[IMG]local://upfiles/10054/8B379E9F594C480D9006DE29A2FCD5B7.jpg[/IMG]

 

Be very careful wrapping the bars like that.

On bike that don't have true clippons ( the older ninjas I know had risers on the fork tops that slotted into the top triple, instead of clip-ons. This metal was cast. Cast metal is very brittle and I saw what I was warned about - the cast snapped, the bike flopped over into the R1 that was being trailered with it.

On the new sportbikes getting a better spot to tie from is difficult, however, consider going to the lower triple instead. It'll work as well once you get the angles sorted out.

Otherwise, great post. Demonstrates the proper X-technique.

Woot.

 

To improve upon this method even, spend the $20 for Canyon Dancers and be done with it. Also for the rear (if I tie it down, i dont always) I do similar to what you have, but just hook the left side in the rear peg as you did, but not through the wheel. Seems simpler to me. Nice post though.

 

When I actually do go out and buy a trailer for my bike I will get the canyon dancers, but I put this together in 15 minutes with all borrowed stuff from friends that ride only dirt bikes. I was just happy to be able to safely get to and from phoenix....

 

U-Haul will attach a hitch to any car... just gotta get the right redneck with enough wild turkey sometimes

 

Yes you can mount them on prettymuch anything. Maybe $30.00 to buy it and DYI.