Tying down a bike for transport

Dellortoman

Hero member
Congratulations on the new purchase Rob. It's a beauty and appears to be in excellent condition. I hope the bike arrives looking as good as it does now. But I have some doubts about that.

Sorry to put a negative spin on your happy news Rob, and the last thing I want to do is cause you any worry, but that's one of the worst jobs of tying a bike down in a transporter that I've seen.

I'm quite OCD about tying bikes down for transport, so it really galls me to see a bike tied down so sloppily when it's just as easy to do it right. Especially when it's a naked bike that has no fairing to get in the way of the tie-down straps.

I could go into detail about what's wrong with the tie-down system. But let's hope I'm worrying about nothing, and the bike arrives in perfect condition.
 
You certainly do not want to hook the straps to the ends of the handlebars and ratchet them down tight while the front tire is against a chock. That is a guaranteed way to twist the fork assembly.

Start at the rear and use the straps to compress the rear suspension, this will pull the front tire off the chock and hold the bike firmly in place. Now using straps on the fork tubes between the upper and lower triple clamps or on the handlebars, ratchet them evenly down compressing the forks. If you have done it correctly the bike will be perfectly vertical and floating on the straps with the front tire not touching anything.

Attaching the straps as high as possible on the bike gives more leverage to hold it upright than if strapped down lower. You want the suspension compressed so that even the most severe bump will not cause the suspension to move and this will keep the bike from moving even under the most extreme braking.

Avoid using the type of straps that use a knurled alligator clamp to hold the strap tight since they can chafe the nylon and break on long journeys.
 
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I have never considered soft straps around the fork seal section on the forks especially pulling it laterally like in the pic. Dont like the way that looks. I always go off the triple trees. I tried one of those Canyon Dancer gadgets that have pouches that go up the handlebar grips but didn't like that idea. At one point we were using a Ratchet strap used on military Hercules Aircraft, over the seats of multiple Dirtbikes but that was crazy powerful, it would bend the trailer like a Banana. That was overkill for sure. I have had a few arguments on the net regarding Blowing fork seals tying down bikes. We always used an empty 4l plastic oil container between the tyre and front guard, bit hard to do on road bikes though. It's nice and snug without too much fork compression, Learned that early on with no oil container and hard pulling down resulted in fork oil everywhere from an XT 500 blowing seals at the end of a couple of hundred ks on rough roads in a trailer. Apparently, it's impossible till it happens to you.
 
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Good way to blow a fork seal..
Perhaps, but I used this method for years to deliver dozens of customers race and street bikes with no problems, as well as my own. Maybe long travel off-road bikes are different?
Compressing coil suspension springs has no negative effect as there are always valve springs compressed whenever an engine is not running with no long term ill effects.
 
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In the days when I did track days, I used one of these (the photo isn't of my bike). Quick to fit, secure, effective.

With the back held down, all that was needed in addition was couple of lightweight ratchet straps on the front.
 

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Good way to blow a fork seal..
In that case, you must blow fork seals every time you go over a bump.

We’ll I would be interested as to why you think that there is some issue with the way the bike is tied down
Has four points of contact, tick

Unless the tying mechanism is not to your liking I see no issue

I however would have ties down around the axles, less stress on the suspension…

I agree with Alzero that tie downs need to be attached as high as possible to provide maximum stability. It's simple geometry. Tent guy ropes go to the top of the pole, not half way up. Tying to the axles Cosi? I assume you're having a laugh. :)


I used to do a lot of bike transporting for members of the club I was with (my membership has now lapsed, but I still get called for an occasional bike pick-up).
For what it's worth, here's my method: I'm not saying it's the only way or the best way to do things, but in 50 years of shifting bikes on a purpose-built bike trailer I've never had a tie-down detach, a bike come loose, or even shift so much as a millimeter. Others will have their own preferred methods.

I park the bike with the front wheel against a stop. Could be the front of a box trailer, front of a ute tray, a purpose-built bike trailer or one of those wheel-lock gadgets.

I use proper bike tie-downs with a soft loop that goes over the handlebars, or fork leg above the triple clamp, or maybe a crash bar or some other solid anchor point towards the front. The bottom ends of the tie downs should be as far out from the side of the bike as the transport conveyance will allow. Take them out to the edge of the trailer or ute if possible. 45° is good. You don't want to get much closer than an angle of about 30° from vertical. Pull them down tight enough to compress the front suspension a little way. You don't have to wrench it down so the forks are bottomed out n. Around 30% - 50% fork compression is heaps. You just want to pre-load the straps so they don't flop around if they loosen or stretch a bit during transit. The straps should also be angled to pull the bike forward into the front wheel stop. You want to prevent the bike rolling backwards and forwards. I always tie the front of the wheel to its stop as well.

As for blowing fork seals, it's a myth. I've never had that happen, nor have I heard of it happening to anyone using a similar method. Forks are designed to compress. That's what they do in service. The seals are capable of holding against quite high pressure. They won't pop out because they're held in by circlips. Seals almost never fail from over-pressure. I'm not saying a fork seal won't leak when the suspension is pulled down with tie-down straps, but if it does, you can be 100% sure the seal was buggered beforehand and needed replacing anyway.

I also use another set of tie-downs at the rear end of the bike, the soft loop bike type if possible. They should be attached as high as possible to a strong point such as upper frame tubes, luggage rack or pannier rack, or maybe upper shock mounts. Sometimes space is limited for a webbing strap to loop through a small gap, so a loop of thin strong (kevlar or spectra) rope can be handy. The rear tie downs should also pulled down to compress the rear suspension enough to keep them under tension.

The loose ends of the tie down straps should be taped and/or tied so they don't flap around.

Finally, if the bike is on a flat tray like a box trailer or ute that doesn't have tracks to lock the bike's wheels into, I'll tie the wheels at the bottom to each side of the tray to stop them slipping sideways (I carry a shit-load of tie-downs and lengths of rope). As you could imagine, if the driver of the vehicle hurtles around a corner, the bike's wheels could slide sideways out from under the upper attachment points. It would be like kicking the bottom of a tent pole out. The tent will collapse. Similarly, the bike could collapse against the side of the trailer or ute if the tyres slide sideways. I've seen a bike arrive at its destination in exactly that condition (not one of my transport jobs).

You might consider my methods overkill, but I'd rather use a belt and braces approach and be confident that the bike will never shift, than be sorry if it does.

The photo below is a good example. It shows the front (soft loop) tie downs attached around the forks above the lower triple clamp and the rear tie downs to the upper shock mounts. The front wheel is tied to the bar across the front of the trailer to prevent any fore-aft movement. It differs from the description above only in that the rear tie downs aren't soft loop bike type because the plastic-coated hook type just happened to fit nicely on the upper shock mounts.
The trailer has had some alterations since then too. I put a mesh floor in it, welded on some more tie-down points, and gave it a new set of tyres.

RGS on trailer.jpg
 
Well said Dellortoman.
In the 45 years of transportation of Motorcycles with my business and private I have never had a problem using the same method as you.
The tie downs have changed over the years but the method has stayed the same.
 
All good and effective methods of securing a bike and essentially the method I have used for years. However I stand by my belief that bracing the front tire against a chock will promote misalignment in the fork assembly. It is surprisingly easy to twist the fork tubes in the triple clamps as the coefficient of friction between polished chrome and machined alloy is not very high.
 
One extra thing I did was replace the open metal hooks with spring-loaded Carabeenas that attach via the soft loop. Open hooks can pop off. I once had an issue trying to avoid fairing damage on an SFC replica. I forget how we avoided that issue, I think I used the lower triple tree instead of my preferred upper. I also have a bag with multiple tie-downs and that white 10mm thick sailing rope, truckies hitches come in handy. Better too much than not enough.
 
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Good point Vince. I also use bike tie downs with the spring-loaded carabiner type fasteners. Occasionally (as in the above photo) I'll use the hook type if there's nowhere to connect a carabiner. That's why I welded more attachment loops to my trailer.

Perhaps one of the Admin guys could move this discussion about transporting bikes into a separate thread rather than clog up Rob7's thread about his new bike. It's an interesting topic that'll probably generate more discussion, but Rob's exciting news has got buried in all this crap, for which I take full responsibility. My apologies Rob.
 
I had one moved by a pro transporter once, both loops low as possible to the front axle, tie downs forward from there. I questioned it, he explained, no fork bounce, no fork sag, no blown seals, can tighten straps as tight as you like.

Mind you, I’ve never seen them done like Robs though

Makes sense to me
 
I started with 2 wheels on dirt bikes - always transported of course, never ridden to the fun zone. The golden rule was always to use the suspension to push 'up' against the tie-downs. Simple on dirt bikes of course, but the principle still remains true IMHEBO (in my humble engineering based opinion). Using this principle it's vital the tie-downs will not dislodge or loosen though.

I think 'blowing a seal' is bollocks, in this scenario.
 
I started with 2 wheels on dirt bikes - always transported of course, never ridden to the fun zone. The golden rule was always to use the suspension to push 'up' against the tie-downs. Simple on dirt bikes of course, but the principle still remains true IMHEBO (in my humble engineering based opinion). Using this principle it's vital the tie-downs will not dislodge or loosen though.

I think 'blowing a seal' is bollocks, in this scenario.
If you travel far enough on bumpy roads at speed, even when tied down on the trailer, the bike's bouncing on it's own suspension, especially when largely compressed, will cause seals to blow. I've done a few this way in the last six months alone on T140s, T150/160s when trailering them from Townsville to Adelaide (or vise versa). Given the bikes were all imports undergoing final delivery I wasn't too bothered as I expected/intended to strip the forks down for inspection anyway (4500 miles from new in mid 70s tells me there's likely to be more rust on the inside than the outside..): no biggie..
 
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