Pulling A Trailer With A Sport Bike | GTAMotorcycle.com

Pulling A Trailer With A Sport Bike

J

jemlinus

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Awesome day to ride in Kawartha region this morning and I saw a CanAm with a trailer attached to it and wonder... Can I do that??

I do spend a lot of time on my bike and the only reason I drive my cars is just to haul some stuff. I have a sport touring bike with 650cc engine, but I'm willing to upgrade to a litre bike if I need to.

Has anybody done this? How does a trailer affect the handling of a bike?
 
with a 650 you'll notice its there, also loading is pretty important as the trailer will 'pull' on the bike on sweeping turns. You want well balanced , slightly tongue heavy but not like loading a utility trailer.
I'd look at a top case and soft bags unless this thing is really needed. I've traveled a long way with a clean T shirt, swim trunks and a visa card.
 
You can go with a single-wheel or a two-wheel trailer.

If you get a single-wheel trailer it'll be able to lean with the motorcycle and won't affect the handling as much as a two-wheeled trailer. Plus, there's only one tire track, so when you avoid potholes, your trailer's tire will as well. Typically it's as wide as your bike is, so you don't have to worry about clearance issues when filtering or making tight maneuvers.

single-wheel.jpg


A two-wheel trailer can be larger, so you can carry more stuff. But it can't lean, so your handling is affected. And because it stays flat relative to the ground, the ball and hitch mechanism has to be a bit more complex to allow for the lean of your bike. And it's now a three-track vehicle, so you'll have a tougher time avoiding potholes and debris without at least one of the tires hitting it.

sporty-pull-behind-motorcycle-trailer-going-fast.jpg
 
I'm not looking into travelling purpose, more for work. I do carry large gear now and then so I thought about using trailer instead.

Seems like too much of a compromise.
 
One of the guys in our club slid his wing backwards down a dirt hill with his trials bike on his trailer. He was ok btw just bruised up a bit then rode the 2 day on his trials ride, lol likely crashed on that too. :D hardcore riders (y)

What if you put 2 wheels one in front of the other in tandem to reduce the tongue weight on your bike, that might be cool.
Any motorcycle drawn trailer will probably eat rear tires and chains like crazy but at least you have room to carry spares. Totally makes sense if you are going on some kind of cross country odyssey thing.
 
The trailer will end up riding the bike! Physics 101.

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
 
Maybe a Hippobox would work for you?

1564940516122.png
 
That Kipmoto trailer is neat, and certainly pretty cheap at $1,000 CDN.

I know a number of people who pull 1 and 2 wheel trailers, but they're on larger (1100 cc and up) sport touring bikes and usually pulling camping gear/luggage to an event where the trailer is then unloaded and parked for 2 - 3 days while the riders runs local roads.

One guy pulls a Unigo type 1 wheeler he built and he claims that at a spirited pace on back roads the trailer has no impact on handling on his ST1100.
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