hitch front wheel bike hauler

[chuck c]

I sold a Honda Rebel tonight and the guy used this to take it away. It was slicker that some I've seen, it will sit flat on the ground and has a lever to lift it once the bike is on. Still, I'm not sure I'd use it. For one thing, don't back up. If he hadn't had me spotting for him he would have folded the bike in half. Once he was rolling forward it looked ok but on his car it was very low. It's going to scrape. I cringed. :nea: The thing didn't come with any straps and regular ratchet straps were too long to work very well around the tire. It requires removing the chain so it's not a good idea for a shaft drive bike. This is the kind of thing that looks like it a great idea, but in practice----- not so much.

 

[Dadster]

I wonder what the wt. capacity is?

 

[dan filipi]

Safety chains are required on trailers here, I wonder if they'd be required on this rig.

 

[detdrbuzzard]

glad it isn't my bike being hauled around like that

 

[dan filipi]

There really isn't much rolling resistance or front tire weight on a motorcycle. Little bikes anyway. I think I would use it but I'd have to see it in person strapped down to see if allows for the bike to rotate on the steering bearing when turning the car. Maybe I'm over thinking it.

 

[dan filipi]

Duh, I see now it's strapped down at the handle bars.

Don't listen to me I'm trashed. Got up at 4 am to catch a flight to Vegas then drove my daughters car back 5 hours.

 

[Ansimp]

dan filipi » Fri Jun 03, 2016 12:25 pm[/url]":3g787zt0]
Duh, I see now it's strapped down at the handle bars.

Don't listen to me I'm trashed. Got up at 4 am to catch a flight to Vegas then drove my daughters car back 5 hours.

No wonder you are tired Dan as that was a pretty big effort. I had my crew up at 3.30am for the drive back from Vegas and they were all wrecked by lunchtime :hihihi:

 

[detdrbuzzard]

" Duh, I see now it's strapped down at the handle bars. "
one loose strap and you've got a parts bike

 

[joedrum]

i think its great...but for oldwings or any shaft drive bike ....it needs some kind of two wheel device so reat wheel dosnt spin .....it easy to take chain off of bike...so motor wnd trans parts are not spining on long trip.....wouldnt be hard to make w custom oldwing carrier....id like to have one made up to use.....

 

[brianinpa]

Back in my Navy days I had a room mate that had a HD Shovelhead that broke down... I'm not going there...

Rather than finding someone with a truck, paying a towing service (roll back trucks weren't very popular in 1984) or some other way of getting his bike back to the base, we decided to pull it back by removing the front wheel and fender and tying the bike into the trunk of a car. I thought there was no way we were going to drive the 10 miles without parts dragging the ground, but it worked, and we had no problems even with a big Shovelhead.

Would I do it again? Not with my bikes. Would I use this thing, maybe not with a fully dressed up Wing, but a Standard would probably be no problem as long as it doesn't exceed the weight limit and the shaft were removed.

 

[chuck c]

He got it home ok. With one strap on the front wheel and 4 more from bike to car it wasn't going to come loose. My concerns were it being too low and could drag on anything more than a few inches high and the radical leaning the bike did when the car turned. For ever 10 degrees between the car and bike, the bike leaned 20. At 45, the handlebar was almost touching the ground and all the stress on the fork and tree made me cringe.

What these need to do is pivot. A vertical hinge so the bike can turn side to side and stay fully upright. It would need 2 tubes sticking out at least 18" both sides to give you something to tie down the handlebars AND frame so the bike's forks can't turn. I can't figure out why someone hasn't thought of it yet. If I have a chain drive bike I'd make one but these are not much good for shafties. The only reason I might use one is to get a disabled bike home. It's just not worth it for me when a trailer can be had for a few hundred and the reg is $15 a year.

 

[chuck c]

There is such a thing as a single wheel trailer. They can be had for bicycles, motorcycles, and they even used to make them for cars. Got me noodling over a single wheel bike hauler. It would be crazy simple, just a length of C channel with an axle and wheel. The tricky bit would be the suspension. It's got to have something. Maybe and air bag?

But Chuck, why? :roll:

Think of how little space it would take up, vs. a standard MC trailer. The whole thing would be less than a foot wide. It might weight less than 100lbs. You could carry it in the bed of a pickup. Store it by hanging it from the garage roof, out of the way. Hmmm. I think I know what I'll be designing during lunch next week.

 

[dan filipi]

There was a discussion here about a single wheel trailer a while back. I don't remember if the poster made it or bought it, but it looked very simple and relatively light.

 

[dan filipi]

Found it viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6585&start=0

 

[chuck c]

Right, now picture that design scaled up and strong enough to carry a 700lb. motorcycle. Since the CG would be very high compared to those cargo loads, it would need 4 folding swing-out arms to give you something wide to strap the bike down to. The whole rig would be about 10 feet long.

I would have a plate for the kickstand to allow the bike to stand on its own while you rig the straps. Without it, you'd need one guy to hold the bike up while you strapped it. I'd want it to be safe for one person to do alone.

The only tricky bit I see is all those monowheel trailers have the wheel at the rear and in line with the hitch and bike, of course, and that's where you want to roll the bike on and off. Solution #1 is to place the wheel off-center which means the hitch point also has to be off by the same amount so it tracks straight. Possible, but I do not like this idea.

Solution #2 is use 2 wheels so the channel for the bike runs between them. It's balanced, safer if one tire goes flat, halves the load on each tire, solves a whole bunch of problems. You're thinking "that's just a regular trailer". Oh no, not if it's still only 18" wide. It's still using the universal joint hitch that doesn't allow it to twist relative to the towing vehicle. The stability comes from that, not by having the trailer's wheels 6 or 7 feet apart. It's still 1/4 the weight and width of a conventional trailer.

This makes it a trailer as far as the law is concerned, too. If your state doesn't regulate light utility trailers, no sweat. In mine (PA) it would need to be titled and have lights.

PS a quick check of trailer tire ratings finds me a single small trailer tire rated for 780lbs. that could carry the whole loaded rig with an average sized bike should one fail. That's a pretty good safety margin. Since the trailer can't twist you could remove the bad wheel and just keep going! Try that with a conventional trailer!