Trailering Tie Down

I am anxiously awaiting delivery of my '04 ST. I can see there may be occasion I may want to trailer it. Where is the best place to attach tie down straps? Should you compress forks a little? What is the recommendation?

Thank You

Tony

Try not to tie to the handle bars... unless a secondary, they are built with dampeners in them.

Use the crash bars under the wings and off the rear frame

Make some loop slings to give the hard parts of the straps from rubbing on the bike. Make sure you have enough downward pull. We use some cheap harbor freight wheel chocks makes loading much easier.

They are on sale!!!!!

I hate to trailer but when I do it's in the back of an rv to make base camp.

Take a look at my trailers and tie down system, might make you stop and think about how you transport a bike. Kieth

http://www.kieth.smugmug.com/ go to the trailering equipment gallery....

Use soft hooks, tie down to the front forks at the triple clamp.

Make sure your d rings allow you to not hit the fairing.....with the strap

Tie the rear of the bike down ....remember pull down and forward not to the rear.

Do not over tighten the front down, it can knock out your fork seals.

If one secures the rear tire the bike will not move and will be much less likely to fall over.

There's some more information and products here

I have a pair of these that I'm happy with.

STranger said:

Make some loop slings to give the hard parts of the straps from rubbing on the bike. Make sure you have enough downward pull. We use some cheap harbor freight wheel chocks makes loading much easier.

They are on sale!!!!!

I hate to trailer but when I do it's in the back of an rv to make base camp.

Click to expand...

Be careful with those Harbor Freight wheel chocks. The cheap gray one bent a rotor carrier on the front wheel of my BMW. The black T stand that they sell is much better. I still had to reverse the tilting chock that grabs the back of the front wheel. I was afraid it would catch the chin spoiler on my ST1300
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The best chalk in the world is a Baxley from Alabama. I have used their bike chalk for towing over 6 yrs. When you ride the bike into the chalk, it "locks" in the tire and there is no movement. It will hold the bike upright with NO tie downs. But, obviously for safety, I tied two loops to the rear passenger footpeg mounts. I have done over 6000 mi. this way. The chalk is also good when you do not want to mess with that horrible ST centerstand. You'll never regret buying one. THE BEST! Not a piece of tin-angle iron!

I'll throw in my two cents here since I just trailered my bike 2600 miles. Pull off the front tip over bar covers and tie down there. Do not use the handlebars..they are aluminum and have very little flex. You can tie down from the rear tip over bars if you have them or use the seat handles but make sure you put something between the straps and the handles to prevent chafing. Remove saddle bags, lower windshield, try and use up as much gas as possible to save load weight. I try to get down to two bars. I use the HARBOR FREIGHT tip up motorcycle chock for the front wheel..works very well and you can get off the bike and leave it standing in the chock if necessary. I put a cable lock through the wheel and the chock to prevent theft. I also compress the suspension a bit to keep the bouncing to a minimum.

Any questions will be glad to answer. Have a safe trip.

Thanks Guys a lot of great information.

Great thread!

I used the tip-over wing bars with two ratchet straps per side, one set leading forward and one set leading aft. I compressed the forks about 2 inches. This particular borrowed trailer had hard points located where straps led around the forks lower triple clamp would allow the soft loops to run across the painted front fender. I was leery of rubbing the paint even with towels stuffed under the strap. The tip-over bars allow no chafing whatsoever, your trailer may vary.

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This is how I transported my ST back to Colorado last year. I used an eight point system. It was not going to move.

Baxley chock is by far the best on the market. I concur with Doug. I have used them for years and wouldn't be without them. As he said, you can ride the bike into it and get off and walk away. 2 ties front and rear just to keep it from tipping under stressful cornering and you are set to go anywhere. They are a great company to work with and have great trailers too with the trailer chock built right into the trailer. Check them out, you will be happy you did if you get one.

Lynn and I purchased a toyhauler earlier this year. I picked up a couple stand/wheel chocks from Harbor Freight. Right now they are on sale for $59.99. That was the price we paid for them in April when we got the trailer. This chock helps when I need to stand Lynn's C50 upright to do anything with it since it can be used pretty much anywhere. It is also a similar design to the Baxley.

When I tie the ST down I use the tip over bars for the front tie downs and the rear from the little triangular openings just above the driver pegs.

Guys you did not go to my gallery and look, there is a lot more going on with this system than you realize:

1. one can place the wheel chocks anywhere in the E track allowing the bike or bikes to be loaded to maximize space and weight distribution.

2. The e track allows one to move the tiedown point fore or aft, which means you can usually position everything so the straps do not rub.

3. Tying down the rear wheel keeps the bike from shifting right to left and up and down. If the bike cannot move around it is much less likely to tip over.

4. By tying a bike down by the pegs one can back off the tension on the front forks, saving fork seals.

Sorry I cannot post to this forum but if you will go here and then click on the trailering gallery you will really see something quite different than you have seen before. Kieth http://www.kieth.smugmug.com

+1 for Baxley Wheel Chocks.

ms

Baxley wheel chocks are great, but they are $150.00--200.00, the ones at Harbor freight that are large are only $59.00 and the ones for a trailer are only 29.00 when on sale. That is a large price difference........I have 12 trailer chocks, and 2 in shop large wheel chocks, I think in this case I will stick with the Harbor freight ones. The gap is a little too large in this case.
someone else mentioned interfering with a brake rotor, I just place a 2x6 under the front tire if any interferance is problem. Kieth

ps I have used both brands.................

I have trailered my a number of times and found a few things that make it a one man load-n-go or one man unload-n-ride:

If you have a small Harbor Freight trailer, mine is 4'X8', a HF wheel chock (best one they sell) and a W-I-D-E motorcycle ramp to be able to walk the bike up or ride it down. Once up, the wheel chock gives me the time I need to get off the bike and strap it down without worring about it tipping over!

Strapping it down on the tip overbars and then around the back of the bike works best that I found.

Bob,
Thanks for the pictures, I am a neophyte in the motorcycle arena and a picture tells a thousand words as they say. I have yet to get my ST, I should see it at the house within the next 3 weeks so it is hard to visualize so of this stuff. Do the tip-over bar covers simply clip off? Where are the front red straps attached? I am of course anxious to have the bike securely tied down but want to protect the paint and aluminum finish.

Tony

737Captain said:

Bob,
Thanks for the pictures, I am a neophyte in the motorcycle arena and a picture tells a thousand words as they say. I have yet to get my ST, I should see it at the house within the next 3 weeks so it is hard to visualize so of this stuff. Do the tip-over bar covers simply clip off? Where are the front red straps attached? I am of course anxious to have the bike securely tied down but want to protect the paint and aluminum finish.

Tony

Click to expand...

There is one hex screw on the underneath side of the tip over covers. undo them then squeeze, push and pull and they come right off.

I have all straps running to large eye-hooks (3/8" I think...)

As for the red straps, I was using them to keep the yellow one from flapping in the wind. I have found, just wrapping the yellow ones back through the strap holes and tie off work just as well...if not better since it gives more thickness to them.

Easy setup.:clap2: