Loading you bike

[tsmall]

Don't try to do it by yourself and try to "drive it up" standing to the side and using the throttle and clutch. Shut it off and get a helper to push the thing up. And damn sure don't have teenage flash backs that you can drive it up the ramp. Unless you're 15 years old with a YZ 80!

[Water Warrior 2]

15 years old ! I was even more silly. 30 something and tried to ride my bike up into the side door of my van. Made it in but had tire marks on a nice mahogany interior that I slaved over. The carpet cushioned me so the bike could land on me.

[tsmall]

WW, Great! Hahaha Yeah, I have some grass that helped the bike land nice and soft on me!

[Water Warrior 2]

Years ago I had a custom trailer made up.. Everything but the flooring and electrical. I finished it at home and set it up for 1, 2 or 3 bikes. Were talking dirt/off road bikes. Maybe 2 street bikes. It was the typical 8 ft long but I went with a 7 ft width rather than 6 or 6.5. Made a world of difference for mobility when tying down the bikes or whatever else I carried.
Fate stepped in and I carried more lumber, drums of gas and riding lawn mowers than bikes.

[greatmaul]

Ouch. How is your leg doing? Hope you're healing well.

[riningr]

My first time unloading a bike out of the back of my truck was my biggest failure... it was my Kawasaki KZ750 and I didn't have ramps yet so I backed my truck into a ditch to be able to push the bike straight into the back, and put it in backwards, so then I got it where I was going and I backed my truck up and had a 2x6 plank that I used to unload it and was afraid the 2x6 would slide out so I took the tailgate off and put the 2x6 on the back bumper then put the other end up against a curb and thought I would just ride the bike down the plank... which was OK until the front tire of the bike hit the curb and stopped and I couldn't put a foot down on either side so dumped the bike over on top of myself... luckily the back tire stayed up on the rear bumper of my truck so not all of the weight came down on me, but I was still sore for a while... then get out from under the bike and have to gather the strength to pick the bike up and get it back on the board to finish taking it down out of the truck...

I load my XS1100 by running it and clutch/brake/gasing on the way up because it is HEAVY, but I have a nice set of ramps now and always put the bike on my right ramp which feels natural grip to me since I always get on the bike with it on my right and I can walk up the left ramp, my ramps are nice aluminum ramps that have bars going across about every 4" or so and are arched in the middle so the 4" spacing and the arch helps support the bike from rolling backwards a little. My GZ250 is a LOT lighter though, so I don't need to power load it, I can push it up the ramps into the back of my truck by myself without power loading. My ramps also have straps that wrap around the tailgate to keep them from sliding off which makes a big difference too =)

[Rionna]

Wow, I hope you're not in too much pain and heal quickly.

[mole2]

My first time unloading a bike out of the back of my truck was my biggest failure... it was my Kawasaki KZ750 and I didn't have ramps yet so I backed my truck into a ditch to be able to push the bike straight into the back, and put it in backwards, so then I got it where I was going and I backed my truck up and had a 2x6 plank that I used to unload it and was afraid the 2x6 would slide out so I took the tailgate off and put the 2x6 on the back bumper then put the other end up against a curb and thought I would just ride the bike down the plank... which was OK until the front tire of the bike hit the curb and stopped and I couldn't put a foot down on either side so dumped the bike over on top of myself... luckily the back tire stayed up on the rear bumper of my truck so not all of the weight came down on me, but I was still sore for a while... then get out from under the bike and have to gather the strength to pick the bike up and get it back on the board to finish taking it down out of the truck...

I load my XS1100 by running it and clutch/brake/gasing on the way up because it is HEAVY, but I have a nice set of ramps now and always put the bike on my right ramp which feels natural grip to me since I always get on the bike with it on my right and I can walk up the left ramp, my ramps are nice aluminum ramps that have bars going across about every 4" or so and are arched in the middle so the 4" spacing and the arch helps support the bike from rolling backwards a little. My GZ250 is a LOT lighter though, so I don't need to power load it, I can push it up the ramps into the back of my truck by myself without power loading. My ramps also have straps that wrap around the tailgate to keep them from sliding off which makes a big difference too =)

[youtube:25x9gcfv]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrzpKCAtTDY[/youtube:25x9gcfv]


:)

[Water Warrior 2]

That was 51 seconds of silly. How many able bodied men were available to safely push the bike up a good ramp. The rider of the bike knew nothing about slipping the clutch to keep the RPM up and being a bit aggressive when starting up a hill. Something we all learn if we take a riding course.

[riningr]

ouch poor bike =)... well my 750 wasn't nearly that big, and I didn't have nearly as many people there to witness it (was just me around) and that was trying to ride it down out of my pickup truck, I've never wanted/attempted to ride it up into the truck... that was my first and only attempt to ride it out of the truck... like I said above I'll walk it up using the gas/brake to load it, but unloading I walk it down with the front brake

[riningr]

not to mention my incident was the first time I ever transported a motorcycle in the back of my truck... so I knew nothing about transporting it... I learned quickly though =)

[tsmall]

If anyone learned from my stupidness, it was well worth the post. And it hurt like hell and screwed me out out 2 months of riding. Be careful out there!