transporting a kat on a truck

[stickygreen]

i was just wondering .. what's the proper way to strap a kat in the back of a pick-up ?
i'm bored with riding in flat, straight panhandle of florida so i'm going to go to visit a friend in north carolina
i may ride the bike there but i may also haul it in my truck .. hence the question

thanks !

[AMorgan]

I'm going to recommend a search, which was recommended to me when I asked the same question. It's really not difficult. Best advice, lots of ratcheting tiedowns, hope your truck has large openings for tie downs and always double strap. We ended up running a tie down across the bars one way, and then Xing a second strap across it to secure the bars (only want to compress the suspension about 1/3-1/2 of the way so it's secure but doesn't put too much pressure on the fork seals) Then we tied a strap under the seat (theres two little flat prongs about mid seat that we used as points) and used that to hold the butt down. Then I took one more across the tank support to the front tie down points and used that to hold the bike towards the front of the truck. www.motorcycleonline.com has a good how to as well if I remember correctly. Basically tie down the bars and the back end and then add straps until you're satisfied it's secure (i've gotten away with 2 straps across teh bars and a ton of bungees on a trailer... it made me nervous, btu it made it.)

[HS2020]

Get yourself a canyon dancer. It goes over the handler bars and has tie down points on it. You need at least 2 up front and 2 in the rear. They need to go off to the front of the bike at about a 45 degree angle to get the proper pull on it. You shold use 4 up front though just incase the other 2 come loose. It helps to have someone push down the front to compress the forks down. But leave enough so they can have some travel to absorb the bumps. Then just use the rear footpeg mounts to strap the rear down and have some one to push on the rear of the bike to compress the rear shock. There are pics of bikes in here that show how they are strapped and not to be strapped.

[Mojoe]

you are going to hear a dozen different answers and suggestions to this question....so I will make it plain and simple...

here are 2 basic facts that you should know.....

1) unless your bike is wedged at the front and back so it has no movement in either direction, angle your straps. This means the front straps head towards the back, and the rear straps head towards the front. This will eliminate any movement frontwards or backwards. Straight out from the bike to the side will not do this. Not extreme angles like in my pic. My bike is really wedged, so it isn't going snywhere.

2) crank the ho down so it doesn't move. without bottoming out your suspension.


here is a pic of how I just trailered this bike about 125 miles over some of the roughest roads in north america.....at an avg speed of 70-80mph.
it didn't move an inch. Just normal straps that cost me like $15 for a pack of 4, and no pushing down on the bike. I had it loaded and strapped in about 10 mins tops.

[StevieB]

Never tried this, or even thought if it till now, but I wonder if you could attach the straps to the lower part of the suspension, perhaps the wheel, so that the bike rode up and down on it's suspension as it normally would?

[The CyberPoet]

Never tried this, or even thought if it till now, but I wonder if you could attach the straps to the lower part of the suspension, perhaps the wheel, so that the bike rode up and down on it's suspension as it normally would?

TyreDown makes a product specifically for this. I've used 'em and they work.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[md86]

www.motorcycleonline.com has a good how to as well if I remember correctly.

Yup , they sure do . I post it ALL THE TIME .

http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/howto/safe_motorcycle_hauling/

[stickygreen]

thanks everyone
i appreciate it

[Mojoe]

Never tried this, or even thought if it till now, but I wonder if you could attach the straps to the lower part of the suspension, perhaps the wheel, so that the bike rode up and down on it's suspension as it normally would?

personally, it is my belief that if you secure it too low, it gives more chance that the bike will flop over....especially if you leave it's suspension to work fully.
This comes from personal experience. the 82 1100 I bought a while back flop over because of it....and it bent my flasher.

[tzortn]

You will find this thread interesting.

http://www.katriders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14500