How to Tie Down a sport/sport touring bike? | GTAMotorcycle.com

How to Tie Down a sport/sport touring bike?

Hammer

Hammer

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How is the proper way to tie down a sport touring bike?

any pics would be great

gonna be towing it home with a trailer...

bike is an 03 katana

any help is appreciated
 
Canyon dancers are OK for "real" handlebars but aluminum clipons are not designed for that kind of load. Best bet for a sportbike is to use a chock on the front wheel and tie down from the lower triple clamp at the front, and the rear pegs or frame rail at the rear. I have a set of Helibars on my bike and they specifically say that their warranty is void if the bike is tied down by the bars. Just an FYI. A good inexpensive wheel chock can be had through Parts Canada, any dealer can order from them, about $160 and you don't even need to bolt it down in the truck or trailer. No, not Pingel, they won't work for a sportbike as they will contact the front rotors.
 
Used Canyon Dancer II on my F4i clip-ons - absolutely no problems, held the bike perfectly, loved it!
 
You can get ratcheting straps at Canadian Tire, and they are not very costly. I recommend you use four straps, so the bike won't fall if one loosens. I have pulled lots of bikes, from 125 to 1100 cc, between GTA and Florida, and none has suffered any damage, so it appears I lash them down well.

You need a strong cross-member in the trailer, so you can run the bike forward to it and it will keep the bike from going forward. It is good to have rails each side of the tires so the bike can't slip sideways.

I agree that front straps should go around the triple clamp, a big hunk of strong metal above the front wheel. If the hooks at the end of the straps do not fit there conveniently, also get strong nylon loops, then put a loop over the clamp and a hook in one or two ends of the loop, depending on how you affix the loop. Find or make a strong tie-point in the trailer, ahead of the front axle, and about a foot out to the side of the bike. The straps must pull the bike forward and down.

To make the ratchet work right, start with the ratchet fully open and the strap running freely through it, then draw the strap nearly tight. Start taking up the slack, first on one side then on the other, then keep tightening until the front suspension is [almost] fully compressed. Then find a strong point behind the seat or above the rear wheel, and run some straps to tie-points out to the side; these may be ahead or slightly behind the place where the strap attaches to the bike. These do not need to be as tight as the front straps.

If you like, you can give your trailer a name, but that name will probably turn out to be Lurch. All the trailers I have known have used that same name, which they all fully deserve. Good luck.
 
skapan said:
Just an FYI. A good inexpensive wheel chock can be had through Parts Canada, any dealer can order from them, about $160 and you don't even need to bolt it down in the truck or trailer.
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You can get a wheel chock for much less than $160 if you don't mind a quick trip to Buffalo. I picked one up at Harbor Freight Tools for $29.99 on sale. They have a variety of them ranging from about $20 to around $75 or so. The one I got was on-sale for half-price. FYI they always have 20% off coupons on their website, that will help reduce the price even more.
 
skapan said:
Canyon dancers are OK for "real" handlebars but aluminum clipons are not designed for that kind of load. Best bet for a sportbike is to use a chock on the front wheel and tie down from the lower triple clamp at the front, and the rear pegs or frame rail at the rear. I have a set of Helibars on my bike and they specifically say that their warranty is void if the bike is tied down by the bars. Just an FYI. A good inexpensive wheel chock can be had through Parts Canada, any dealer can order from them, about $160 and you don't even need to bolt it down in the truck or trailer. No, not Pingel, they won't work for a sportbike as they will contact the front rotors.
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If you're putting that much tension on the bars, then you're doing it wrong. You're likely to blow your fork seals.

I've got two Baxley chocks (see image on my link). They work remarkably well.
 
Canyon Dancers I or II on the front handle bar (compress forks to 30-50%) -- if you do it too tightly, you will blow your fork seals like Rob said. As for the back, one strap through each passenger peg and make sure it is sitting tightly in place. Make sure it is not wobbly or anything. This makes a total of four straps which you can get at CDN tires for $45 before tax and holds 1,100 lbs. I used those as it's better to be safe than sorry on our bikes.

It would be best if your trailer had a wheel chock so that it will make things easier, I brought my bike from Rochester last week and the uHaul trailer, albeit cheap, worked without any problems.
 
It sounds like a one-time tow just to get the bike home. You don't need to buy a bike chock for that one-time deal.

Use two-by-fours to build a trough for your tires to sit in and prevent side-to-side movement of those tires. Put your bike in the trailer or truck bed. Cut a couple of pieces of two-by-four to the width of the inside of your trailer or truck bed. Lay one across the bed in front of your front tire, and one across the bed behind your rear tire. Cut two more pieces running from the front of your trailer or truck bed to a foot behind your rear tire, placing one on each side of the bike against your tires to create a raised trough for your tires to sit between, then screw them to the tops of the first two-by-fours that you laid down as cross pieces. You'll only need one or two screws per "crossing", four to eight in total.

That two-by-four set-up will help prevent side to side movement and front to back movement, will take 5 or 10 minutes to make, and will cost you all of $10 for wood that you can later use for something else.

The only thing left to do is strap the bike down. To keep the bike upright use one strap from from left front corner of trailer to triple-tee or handlebar, and one from right front corner to triple-tee or handlebar. Use one more strap across rear to keep the back tire tire down and in the trough.

With the two-by-four trough keeping your tires in place, you'll need only a very tiny bit of compression on your front springs to keep the bike upright and in place. That means virtually no stress at all stress on your handlebars and fork seals. It also means that you won't need heavy tie-down straps to keep the bike down and springs compressed.

For a bit of fail-safe back-up, if you're using open-ended hooks just put a bit of duct tape around the hook ends and their hooking point to keep them in place if they slack off a bit on bumps or by themselves.
 
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For anyone using a decent sport chock (eg: Baxley or one from Princess auto) the recommended way to strap is from mid section on bike angled forwards.

http://www.baxleycompanies.com/Images2/Sportchock/sportchockpdf.pdf

I have been doing this for 4+ years now, and have NEVER had a problem with restraint or suspension... and have went many many KM's. Most bikes have somewhere you can get the correct angle somewhere where the subframe connects to the main frame for sportbikes. This is solid as a ROCK!

Makes for a very easy tie down as well. SAVE your suspension.
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