Asst. on RT tie down

[Sloth]

Anyone have any good advice on how to tie down an r1150rt?

 

I have a trip planned to Colorado and unfortunatly I don't have enough time to ride it out and back. I'm from michigan and I would lose at least two days by riding it out and I want to see as much as possible there. I am very excited about riding the San Juan Skyway. So many great roads out there and so little time available.

 

I have an enclosed trailer with anchors in the floor but am worried that if I tie to the handle bars the straps may crack or damage the fairing. Any help would sure be appreciated and I am sorry if this post is in the wrong spot. Promise to do a ride report with pictures when I get back.

 

Thanks,

Sloth

[Deseret Duck]

There is a "harness" available from your dealer which fits your bars and allows for secure tie down at the front. Get it---don't try to tie directly to the bars. Then, remove the plastic "covers" at the rear to allow access to the frame members for securing the rear----do not try to tie to luggage rack or the side bag support.

[DavidEBSmith]

Better than tieing down the handlebars, tie down to the front fork legs as described in this post. Use the tiedowns on the fork to pull the front wheel tight against a wheel chock, 2x4, or front of the trailer.

 

To try to clarify (although these pictures might not help too much) here is where you should tie down the front:

 

Wrap tie-down extensions around the fork legs right above the cross-brace. The GS picture looks like you're tieing to the sliding part of the fork tubes, but on the RT, the fork tube above and below the cross-brace is solid - the slider is higher.

 

You should ratchet the front tie-downs down solidly. You don't have to worry about compressing the suspension, as you would if you tie down to the handlebars, because you're tieing down below the front shock. As the truck goes over bumps, the body of the bike will bounce up and down on the suspension over the normal range of travel, as it's intended to do. (It is a bit scary to look in the rear view mirror and see the bike bouncing around on a trailer, but it's more secure to tie it down this way than to tie it down with the suspension compressed.

 

The rear tiedowns go to the black frame members highlighted below that you find when you remove the black plastic side panels.

 

 

These tiedowns really only stabilize the back of the bike - they don't do the brunt of the hold-down work. You can wrap soft tie-down extensions around the frame tubes or hook the tie-downs directly to the tubes.

 

Run these rear tie-downs in the opposite direction from the front ones - if the front ones run to tie-down points in front of the bike, run these backwards, and if the front ones run to tie-down points behind the front fork, run the rear ones forward. The idea is that, in addition to side-to-side bracing, you want one set of tie-downs pulling the bike forward, and one set pulling it backward, so it won't roll. If you have both sets of tie-downs pulling the bike in the same direction, it can roll in that direction, the tie-downs will go slack, and it will fall over. The tie-downs should be arranged something like this:

 

 

Once you have the bike tied down, put it in gear so it won't roll. Remember that it's in gear when you try to roll it off the truck.

 

As stated before, don't put it on the center stand. The stand isn't designed for having the bike bounce on it for thousands of miles. (Same goes for the side stand). Moreover, if the bike is on the center stand, it's less stable than if it's on two wheels, because it can teeter fore and aft on the center stand. Finally, unless you tie the center stand to the front fork, there's a chance that the bike could shift forward and roll off the center stand.

[Sloth]

Thanks for the help, that looks much better than my original plan.

 

Sloth

[RightSpin]

Tie down just like David said. The addition of a wheel chock for the front makes it even more stable.

[Springer]

Follow the post by David. I trailered mine a couple of months ago using the same directions and it works perfectly.

[John_Bennett]

Excellent Instructions!

[E Biever]

Hi,

We've trailered our bikes a few times south this winter and tied our bikes as in David's instructions. Piece of Cake,,,,takes 5 minutes and you're set. I put the system cases back on so there is no worry about them getting scratched. I pack the plastic side panels as they cannot be reinstalled once the bike is tied down. We put our bikes in our trailer each night as it was fast and safe to do so. Good luck and have fun.

[Macamoose]

I brought my RT down to AL from DE through a couple of tornado warnings and the tie down method that David described worked well and kept the bike quite secure. I agree that it looks a little freaky in the rear view as the bike moves around.

Thad

[Bprimm]

Never thought about strapping it like that! Thanks for the effort in making it clear.

 

"I would lose at least two days by riding it out " Some of the members might gain 10 hours.

 

I doubt that would include me, though.

[Rinkydink]

Just got back from CO and I (shudder) trailered my RT also. I used a canyon dancer for the front but I realize now that the method above is much better. Be sure and ride to Lake City from Creede and on to Gunnison. You won't regret it. Good Luck Let us know what you thought when you get back!

[MontereyJack]

Your tie down set up looks great . I have a question I just put a Pingel wheel chock in a trailer. Pingels recommendation are that both the front and reartie downs pull towards the front into the wheel chock. Does this sound funny to any of you? I'm going to use 3 sets of tie downs two pulling forwards and one to the back

[Ian]

David,

 

I bought my racket tiedowns to use when taking my rt on island hopping ferryboats. These do have floor connection points. Never used the tiedowns yet but your instructions look great. Of course on a boat I won't have a wheel chock. Have you any recommendations regarding the stands in this case?

 

Ian

[kudzu]

Pingels recommendation are that both the front and reartie downs pull towards the front into the wheel chock. Does this sound funny to any of you?

My first reaction was that, tied that way, an abrupt deceleration could launch the bike forward over the top of the chock. As a practical matter, the downward force of the front tie down would probably be more than adequate to prevent that from happening. I'll be curious to see what some of our technical-type gurus have to say.

[subvet]

Being an HD-owner for many years I have experience w. bikes and trailering. I like David E.B. Smith's approach but have not tried it yet. If I ever trailer the RT again, I'll try this.

I have a long shallow metal channel with flipped-up end that acts as a chock. Under acceleration, the straps will stretch and front wheel/tire pops out of the chock.

Solution:

I use an additional strap to secure the front wheel to the chock. I use a short 1-ended ratchet strap approx 3' long. You can pick these things out of swap-meet vendor "bargain-barrels" for a buck or 2 each.

Lace the strap through the wheel and around the chock then ratchet tight.

This helps prevent the wheel from working itself out of the chock as the straps stretch under acceleration, and especially when straps get wet from rain.

Also greatly aids in the tie-down process. This is the first strap I install. It holds the bike in place while I install/adjust the others.

[philbytx]

I use Eebie's method on my single rail Kendon and it works VERY well !!

 

Difference with the Kendon is the front wheel "bucket/clamp" holds the bike from going fore and aft and you put the rear tie downs running "forward" to the Kendon tie down hook on the axle.

[DavidEBSmith]

My first reaction was that, tied that way, an abrupt deceleration could launch the bike forward over the top of the chock.

 

I think any deceleration abrupt enough to launch the bike over the top of the chock, launching the bike will be the least of your worries.

 

Seriously, it depends on the kind of wheel chock you have. philby has the new Kendon trailer that locks the front wheel in the chock. With that kind of chock, the bike won't roll, you'd have to decelerate hard enough to rotate the back end of a 650 lb bike up through 90 degrees. To do that, you've probably hit a brick wall. On the other hand, my Kendon trailer doesn't have a locking wheel chock; it has the end of the loading rail angled upward. Theoretically, if all the tiedowns go forward, it could roll forward and over the end of the rail, especially if the bike is not snugly pressed forward against the chock. Realistically, the heavy bike would have to roll forward and up, which isn't that likely. Plus I put the bike in gear after it's tied down, so it won't roll, it would have to slide. Not likely.

 

I've seen homemade trailers with a 2x4 for a front wheel chock, and you might be concerned with something like that.