Bringing a bike along

Purplewillie · December 14, 2014, 10:50:57 AM

After owning 21 different motorcycles,
Mostly Japanese sport bikes, I am considering buying a softail slim.
(Char is shaking her head at me)
I am curious as to how to bring it with?
What are my options?
Trailer ? Not a big fan of behind a Gmc
In the lower bay ? Can it fit?
700 lbs
opinions

Thanks Mark

mung · December 14, 2014, 10:54:56 AM

I was wanting to put a scooter under my 4104 but I am concerned about tipping it on the side during travel and what that might do to the motor.

bevans6 · December 14, 2014, 11:11:04 AM

I have a car dolly that I am thinking of modifying to carry one or two bikes. Very light, almost no tongue weight, but don't back up very far.

Brian

lvmci · December 14, 2014, 12:03:56 PM

Hi Mark, I bought a Motorcycle Caddy, it's a J shaped receiver mounted jack up device that you crank down to the road, then drive the front wheel on, strap it in place, bike in neutral and the bike rides on it s own rear wheel. I could store it in a bay easily. It was designed for a Harley/cruiser, but I had a sport touring Honda 1100, front wheel much to thin, leaned too much, idea good, didnt work on my application, lvmci...

HB of CJ · December 14, 2014, 01:54:40 PM

Anyway you could engineer, fabricate and install some sort of "nautical type davits" from the transom or rear end of your Bus Conversion ... that could take the weight of that cool aforementioned big bike you want? Or would that be kinda like "Mission Impossible" to do? Bicycles maybe; a big motorcycle; probably not doable. HB of CJ (old coot)

Beesme · December 14, 2014, 02:46:45 PM

I tried hitch that tows bike with front wheel off ground . Omg no no no I towed my road glide 1 mile and it was all over place side to side . It was rated 900lb and bike 850 lb no way Jose haha I'm gonna use endure with rack on back jus few hundred pounds bike and rack thru harbor freight ... Hitch looked real good till I tried towing I think small bike be good but not full dress jmo

lostagain · December 14, 2014, 04:41:27 PM

I tow our bikes, dirt or street, in a enclosed cargo trailer. They stay clean and out of sight.

JC

PP · December 14, 2014, 05:13:11 PM

I met a guy a few years back that carried a Harley on one of those ramps that ride in the hitch receiver. Not sure what he did to reinforce it. Plus it was a Newell so I'm not sure what he had going on underneath bracketwise. I always thought it was something I would look into if I decided to bring a bike along instead of a toad.
Will

pabusnut · December 14, 2014, 05:40:42 PM

Mark,

I am considering the same thing. I have basically two open bays to "haul junk around", but the bays are too low to put a bike straight in w/o removing the front wheel, which would be a royal pain. I plan to tow a car(the breakdown backup plan), so towing a trailer is out. I am thinking of putting a removable ramp on the front, using two receivers mounted in/under the spare tire bay, so I can at least haul one bike. I guess another option is to get a truck as a toad, and put the bikes in the bed of the truck.

Steve Toomey

gumpy · December 15, 2014, 06:13:43 AM

If your bays are tall enough for the bike to sit upright (unlikely), you could easily install a wheel chalk and some tie down points. 4 corner tie downs, one over the front wheel.

I would not recommend putting a hitch mounted bike rack on without significant work to beef up the engine cradle. Most buses were not designed to pull heavy tongued
trailers, and putting 800 lbs on the hitch is going to exceed the engineering design in most cases. Not to say it can't be done with time and $$$.

I've considered building a rack that I could raise the bike up to the rear cap area. That way, my engine doors would still be accessible. If I had owned motorcycles
when I did my re-framing, I would probably have accommodated that in the design.

I've even considered a steerable or freewheel trailer attachment which would mount rigidly to the bus using 2 receivers. That way, the weight of the bikes is primarily on the
attachment axle, not on the hitch. Technically, this would become part of the vehicle and I could still tow a pickup behind if desired (watching length restrictions). It should
be legal in states that do not allow triples.

But, instead, we haul our bikes in an enclosed trailer with ramp. Single axle. I think it's 14 ft long. Tongue weight is probably less than 300 lbs. I don't even know it's behind the bus.

A flat trailer will work, too. This past summer, I built a flat trailer using a frame from a pop up camper. We loaded our two bikes on it and hauled it to AL from MN behind my
friend's MC9 which we were delivering to him. It worked great. I didn't build it specifically for bikes, but it wouldn't take much to finish it to be a great bike hauler. I even
considered using my old roof caps to enclose part of it to keep oil and road spray off the bikes (yes, I still have my old caps because it seems a shame to just trash them!)

The trailer is currently for sale in north-eastern AL if anyone is interested. $800. Or, if anyone is coming north and has an open 2" hitch and would be willing to pull it back to MN
or close, let me know.

uncle ned · December 15, 2014, 07:04:00 AM

I believe he has a 4905 gm. if so he has big enough bays to haul most bikes in the bays.

A friend has one and he hauls atv's and dirt bikes in the bay. He has to pull the suspension down to load the tall dirt bikes but they fit right in.

uncle ned

lvmci · December 15, 2014, 07:31:40 AM

Hi All, I also have considered the flat rigid trailer, with the free wheeling tire, but building a full size permanently mounted ramp. just before getting the 102C3, I was looking at a couple MCIs with wheel chair lift, mid body, they could handle the 700lb bike with some modification, lvmci...

gumpy · December 15, 2014, 10:17:31 AM

Quote from: lvmci on December 15, 2014, 07:31:40 AM
Hi All, I also have considered the flat rigid trailer, with the free wheeling tire, but building a full size permanently mounted ramp. just before getting the 102C3, I was looking at a couple MCIs with wheel chair lift, mid body, they could handle the 700lb bike with some modification, lvmci...

Yes. The downside is you lose some living space to the bikes. May not be a problem. I know guys who take better care of their bikes than they do their women. Maybe that's why their bikes last longer than their women

MightyThor · December 15, 2014, 01:46:05 PM

Ok, we all know you can't add much more than a feather pillow to the back of a GM bus without splitting the coach in half. So what about the front? Back in the old days.... 4 bikes in the back of the truck and one on the front bumper in the wheel racks that attached to the bumper. So will the front of a bus hold a bike if a rack system was made to hang off the front bumper? Gives the extra advantage of being able to see the bike at all times.

bevans6 · December 15, 2014, 03:47:48 PM

The problem is that bikes are so heavy these days. I was bike shopping in the fall, and the new bikes are 800 - 900 lbs plus. I'm storing a full dress BMW for a guy, I can't even push it around, if I need to move it I need to sit on it and paddle with my feet. You can't put more that one of those in a pickup truck bed, it's damn near three feet wide. I bought light weight sport tourer - Honda ST1300 - and it's 650 lbs. When bikes were 350 - 450 lbs you could plan on a front lift or a rear lift, but not when a Harley is closer to half a ton.

Brian