I am trailing my bike 500 miles shortly and I will be traveling over a lot of mountains and bad roads. I not new to towing, but wanted to see if anyone had any good suggestions to securing the bike. I get a sick feeling every time I hit a bump and picture my bike falling over. I know a lot of guys that have made that mistake and I wanted put this up to see if anyone had a tried and proven method that has worked for them. The front of our bikes are hard to get to without damaging the plastic.

 

i use a wooden floor 6x12 utility trailer for transporting my bike. i use a sportbike specific wheel chock that i bolt through the floor. i also use whats called a bar harness. it is basically a strap that slips on over the clip-ons on both sides. it is supposed to stabilize the bike, equalize the load, and prevent tie downs from slipping off. another thing that i do is put some non-skid strips (basically self adhesive course sand paper) on the trailer floor at the spots where the tires contact to help keep the bike from shifting side-to-side. one more thing, i attach the rear tie downs to the subframe at about a 45 degree angle to not only keep the bike held down but to keep it from moving side to side. i would also recommend ratcheting straps. they don't slip like the slide-through-and-pull style.

by the way, i bought the wheel chock and the bar harness from dennis kirk if interested (around $100 for both)

 

thanks... will look into the denniskirk site. I was thinking about using a wheel chock. My trailer is designed with two metal bars in the center front where the tire touches. I use a short ratchet strap to hold the tire in place there, so there' no movement at all. Was really trying to think of a better way to strap down the front with out putting so much stress on the rubber grips and clip-ons.

 

I use ratchet straps also, i`ve used a couple of methods. Just remember to compress the suspension as you tie it down helps prevent the bike bouncing around. When i`m doin it (Trackdays etc) i put the rear pegs back on for transport and ratchet strap them either side to keep the bike down. other than that same method as you peeps.

 

I'll have it back on the trailer in a few days. I'll take a couple pictures of my anchoring points/methods and see if you guys run away in horror or thinks it's safe.

 

The Canyon dancer is the harness you are talking about. It's one of the best tools for trailering a bike. A good rule of thumb is you can't ever have too many tie downs holding the bike. We usually use two in the front with the canyon dancer and one good one in the back.

 

would like to see those pics

 

I'll post them here Friday, if I have time before I leave town or on Saturday when I make it to where I'm going.

 

Here are the pics of how I trailer’d my bike. First off, she fell over. Not because of how I strapped her on, but I had ****ty luck. I bought new straps and two of them broke. Good ones from Lowes at that. I went to a truck stop, my brother drives a truck for a living and he showed me 800 lbs. locking ratchet straps. My other ones were like 400 lbs. ratchet, but they didn't have a locking ratchet. I am also, doubling every strap now so I have a fail safe incase one brake again. With all the straps I had on it, they we very little damage. It actually fell over because of the rough area I had to stop in. It really wasn't a fall, the bike just kinda slowly learned to the left and rested on the railings... putting a couple little scratches on the upper fairing, no big deal. But my anchor points worked great. I know the upper straps on the clip ons look like they are touching the switches, but that's just the pictures. Pics are in the following postings... feel free to make suggestions.

 

front and rear pics

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