Hey all,
In preparation for my mistress's first trailering next month, I did a lot of reading. What I read in a post on the old site worked for me this morning (yes... I did a test run), so I thought I would post my method. I drove on the roughest roads around here and now have full confidence, as opposed to when I first started...
I bought a wheel chock at Harbor Freight, and installed it on my 5x8 utility trailer (3/4 inch plywood floor). It is the chock with the back part that flips up and grabs the tire when you drive your bike in. It holds the bike upright with no signs of flexing at all, and allowed me to really take my time and study where to tie her down.
Opinions on how far to compress the forks were varied, so I went with about 3/4 compressed. After removing the four quick rivets on the cover under the headlight, I was able to wrap an 18" tie extender around each fork leg at the tree. Down at 45 and out 45 degrees from there allows contact free strapping. No tie touching paint anywhere. I use the ratcheting type ties btw.
One tie on each side at the midpoint attached with 12" extenders at the frame(?) just above the pegs. My straps are long, so I ran the hook through the extender and back to the trailer. Ratchet enough to get her straight upright.
The last set of straps went on the "arms" that the luggage rack is mounted to. These went basically straight out to the sides of the back end, and down to the outside edge of the trailer. I brought the rear end down about two inches using the ratchets. Rechecked the other straps and made an adjustment or two.
A Hail Mary and off I went. I stopped after the first ten feet or so (couldnt stand the suspense) and all was well so went another five miles). No loosening of straps anywhere. Drove her around with me on all my errands with no issues at all other than a couple of Hog riders asking what was wrong with my bike...
Hope this helps someone.
