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Trailoring a bike

Lonney

Lonney

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Me and the wife go to Williamsburg once a year for a week. We ride the bike down takes about 5-6 hours.When I have the wife with me im nervous and tense which takes its toll and makes my back hurt more. We take this trip to see Skyline Drive,BRP,and to do the ride where ever the road takes me not to see 95! We still put close to a 1,000miles on the bike and had two days off for rain.Ahh but I had my truck there so we had a blast! Now we are making plans to visit the dragon. I wrote this because I thought that putting your bike on a trailer was weak but I have changed my opinion on that!

Getting old
Lonney
 
Lonney said:
Me and the wife go to Williamsburg once a year for a week. We ride the bike down takes about 5-6 hours.When I have the wife with me im nervous and tense which takes its toll and makes my back hurt more. We take this trip to see Skyline Drive,BRP,and to do the ride where ever the road takes me not to see 95! We still put close to a 1,000miles on the bike and had two days off for rain.Ahh but I had my truck there so we had a blast! Now we are making plans to visit the dragon. I wrote this because I thought that putting your bike on a trailer was weak but I have changed my opinion on that!

Getting old
Lonney
Click to expand...

Ain't nothing "weak" about trailering your bike. Why not be comfortable on your way down so you can be relaxed when your riding around on all those beautiful roads down there. I'm "trailering" all the time now. Couldn't care less what anyone thinks. :cheers:
 
I have to agree with trailering Lonney. When the goal of the trip is to have an enjoyable motorcycle ride but you have a great distance to cover to get to the enjoyment, then riding the motorcycle TO that point is exhausting. We don't want to arrive weary/tired/worn-out and then expect to ride for enjoyment.

But this is if you are making a bee-line to that location... if you have a lot of time and plan back roads and "stopping to smell the roses" along the way? Then trailering isn't the best plan... So, I guess it depends on what's in between, how much time you have and what you want to cover along that path.

As for going to the Dragon and surrounding roads? Yes, I'm making a bee-line with the trailer in tow!
 
I agree with Billy and Eric! Not weak at all to trailer your bike if what matters is riding when you get to your destination. Plus it's nice to have a car/truck if you go out to the stores or to eat...not to mention not having to really worry too much about the weather.
 
I started trailering a few years back when taking my wife to socal, beats the heck out of 500 miles of tire eating slabs. I have an inclosed trailer, nobody can give me grief about what they can't see.
 
One of my neighbors has a neat little trailer, Trailer in a Bag. It's nice that you can take it apart for storage, some of us doesn't have a big garage. It's a bit pricey but seems like it's worth it.
 
I was going to ride to Daytona, last March, for Bike Week (1000 miles even, one way), but my wife was very anxious about me riding so many miles in a day without company.

So my choices were trailering the bike down or not going. The only bad part was towing 1000 pounds with my little car which is not supposed to be used to pull anything (says so in manual :shaking head: ). Had to downshift before every tiny incline. Oh and the fuel economy was AWFUL! I normally get ~30mpg ... I was barely getting 16 .. in the end.. worth it :D
 
I'd trailer my bike if I owned a car! It really sucks doing 600+ miles of I5 and wasting a whole day just to get to the good roads in California.

Nothing wrong with that :)

Days off because of some rain, though... Not so sure about that one ;)
 
Aww im not afraid of a little rain Dustin I barely get wet on the st. It was good days to let the woman drive so I could :icon_beer:
 
There is one other option... Hand her the car keys and a GPS, hop on the bike and say "See ya when you get there!" Ha!

Forgot about the tire wear as mentioned by OnsSizeFitsAll.... Save the rubber for the FUN STUFF!
 
I'm considering something like this for travel.... put the bikes on the trailer which has a truck box with locks for storage plus I can lock stuff in the truck... Just haul the bikes and tent off the truck! I'd also considered making a rack for the trailer and putting the tent on top of that, then the truck AND bikes are easily free to travel.

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Cobalt said:
There is one other option... Hand her the car keys and a GPS, hop on the bike and say "See ya when you get there!" Ha!

Forgot about the tire wear as mentioned by OnsSizeFitsAll.... Save the rubber for the FUN STUFF!
Click to expand...

I tried that wife wasn't goin for it!
 
I started having C4/C5 issues a couple years ago. I now trailer to/from events. Its just not worth living with no feeling in my hand and arm pain for months.
 
Anyone have a pic of their FZ1 tied-down on a bike trailer? Dirt bikes are easy and light, but what's the best way to tie up/down the heavy FZ1? Thx!
 
Darth5oh said:
Anyone have a pic of their FZ1 tied-down on a bike trailer? Dirt bikes are easy and light, but what's the best way to tie up/down the heavy FZ1? Thx!
Click to expand...

I don't have a pic of the FZ1 but in the Yamahaulers section, there's a lot of photos of bikes tied down.

I use the Harbor Freight wheel chock, Canyon Dancers on the bars and one strap looped through the rear wheel to keep it from hoping around. Every end on my tie-downs are all spring-loaded clasps.
 
Darth5oh said:
Anyone have a pic of their FZ1 tied-down on a bike trailer? Dirt bikes are easy and light, but what's the best way to tie up/down the heavy FZ1? Thx!
Click to expand...

It's not really different from tying down a dirt bike. Harder to initially get it up on trailer, but tying down is the same. I thought I had a pic of mine tied down, but can't find it.

I use Canyon Dancer, which works amazingly well

0000_Canyon_Dancer_Bar_Harness_II_Black.jpg


And for the rear, I use passenger peg brackets as tie-down points.
 
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