loading your motorcycle

[slow mo]

http://youtu.be/z2EfBPgwi8E

[xs11jack]

Not one of those idiots thought about the angle of the ramps and the truck bed. I guess they do teach geometry in school anymore. As for the rest, just a congenital lack of brain cells.
Ole Jack

[tarzan]

Well, at least one of them was wearing a helmet.

[CRXSi90]

So seriously, what's the best way to load a motorcycle into a truck? Any tips or tricks?

[DGXSER]

Best way to load a bike into a truck is put a hitch ball on it, and go to U-Haul. For $15-20 a day you can rent a trailer designed to haul a bike.

I have loaded a bike into and out of a truck once, when I broke down and a guy with a truck was kind enough to stop and help me load the bike into his truck and take me to the house. Many moons ago, before the days of cell phones. That was strictly lifting by hand no ramps.

The biggest mistake you see in those videos is using a very narrow ramp, no where to put your foot down if you need to stop part way, that and to short of a ramp for the height so the bike bottoms out on the frame. If you can, locate a ditch to put the back of the truck in, making the bed closer to level with the ground the bike is on. And use a long ramp that has the width to let you put a foot down as needed.

Thats the best advice I can give.

[slow mo]

proper way to load

http://youtu.be/E0BSoV_Kltg

[CRXSi90]

LOL, I don't think I'll be using the method in that last video anytime soon!

Yeah, I hear where you're coming from on the trailer thing. Unfortunately u-haul charges on the order of $100 for a one-way trip, and pushing on $60 if it's returned at the same location but 4 days later. Those are the realistic options for me, but it's tangential to this discussion, so I'll leave it at that.

One redeeming thing about the 2wd mini trucks like the S10 and such is that they do have low beds. Unfortunately, they're not very long, though.

[tarzan]

I have hauled lots of bikes in the back of a PU truck. I try and get the rear wheels in the low spot in front of the driveway apron.Then use a ramp or 2X6 off the tailgate onto the driveway. That usually gets the bed low enough to safely load a bike. I have never ridden one into the back. I always push it in, usually with at least one helper.
You can always let a bunch of air out of the rear tires to get it even lower, provided you have access to air to refill the tires once loaded.

[crazy steve]

One thing to remember about pickups is on most you can get the taillgate even lower by disconnecting the 'open' stays that hold it level. This will allow the gate to drop even lower and sometimes that will make the difference. The downside is the gate will usually contact the bumper and bang it up a bit if you have a nice truck, but it works great on my 'beater'....

[ViperRon]

Now I see why the guy who did my motorcycle test at the DMV give me such hell when I rode the bike up a 2X8 board into the truck bed after my drivers test ride. He must have observed someone like these idiots. I guess when the angle of the dangle exceeds the mental capacity of operator pain is observed.

[fredintoon]

So seriously, what's the best way to load a motorcycle into a truck? Any tips or tricks?

Hi Kevin,
the local school had a wheelchair ramp that a truck could back up to the other side of and drive the bike straight onto.
Then the wheelchair kid graduated, they tore the ramp down and I moved to another town.
Absent a loading dock, 3 burly friends and a long enough, wide enough ramp should do it.
Once the bike is in the truck box, put the front wheel in one corner, the back wheel kitty-corner, and strap her down so as to half-compress the suspension to keep the straps tight.
Me, I don't have a truck so I built a bike trailer instead.

[Schming]

In my teens our neighbor hood gang shared a '71 Kaw 125:



which the owners dad, the actual owner, hauled to the trails with his Plymouth Fury III



with this type of trailer:



and after every corner we would all jump out and pick the bike up straighten it out and proceed to the next corner and promptly repeat.

Half my life ago I thought nothing of riding my dirt bikes up a 12' 2x10 into the bed of my truck...slid off the ramp once...wet ramp mud on tires...no big deal...so I started to carry two planks walk up one and use the engine to power the bike up the other.



Today I use an all purpose modified trailer with a removable wheel chock that I built over the last two years as time allowed, only to have my stepson buy a Honda VT1100, last summer, that required him to take the BIKE TRAILER as part of the deal and geuss who has room to store it.

[CRXSi90]

Thanks for the bike loading tips.

Schming, good story about the Kawasaki. I have a bike which is a distant relative of that one.

[DGXSER]

My brother had the 'VIP' version of that Fury. You could park that bike in the back seat with three of your friends!

Talk about a land yacht aircraft carrier of a vehicle

[Schming]

Thanks for the bike loading tips.

Schming, good story about the Kawasaki. I have a bike which is a distant relative of that one.

Nice! The rich kids, in high school, that had bikes but didn't know how to work on'em employed a few of us to fix'em, so we would ride the school bus to their house and half ride and push their bike to my buddy's garage, estimate the problem, add a little extra for fuel fix 'em, ride'em for a week or so and give 'em back hopefully without bustin' anything
That's how I learned to trail ride as there was still fields and woods around, not anymore

My brother had the 'VIP' version of that Fury. You could park that bike in the back seat with three of your friends!

Talk about a land yacht aircraft carrier of a vehicle

When my buddy turned 16 he was able to "get the car" and we would go pick up 2 other guys and 4 girls in that Fury III It had a 383 and the touchiest brakes I've ever seen. First stop, where we would turn the top of the air filter over, was the parts store for the left motor mount, cost 5 bucks, that he would bust just about every time I didn't have to chip in for gas if I changed it at the end of the night Got it down to about 15 min. That engine would blow freeze plugs on the left side a lot too, same one every time but his old man took care of that, too complicated fer us youngins'