Sport bikes in pickups

[ramminghard]

I am thinking of loading up my bike to go to BC this weekend. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for safely loading and unloading, tie down positions etc. Can a sport bike be put in at an angle like people do with dirt bikes? What is a good ramp I could get for a sportbike? Any other advice would be great!

My truck is a sierra denali so it has a shortbox and I will be trying to get a k6 GSXR 1000 into the back of it.

[Graham_A_M]

Definitely, definitely use at least two people. The wider the ramp the better, as with skinny ramps (designed for the width of an ATV wheel) it can be quite scary trying to keep the wheels between the confines of the ramp, leave alone tipping issues since you cant balance it at all, especially at the very low speeds. Id have one person on each side ready to hold the bike up, then just take it really easy. I think you'll have to put the bike sideways unless you want the rear tire sitting on the tailgate. I've always put my bikes in the center of the box, and used the tie down hooks (4 of them) to properly secure it. But mind you I've never had a shortbox so....

You may want to see if Princess auto still has the folding ATV ramps. You can get one for about $100-150, but at least their as wide as your truck, so that takes a ton of scare out of having the bike want to lean off the ramp, since at least you can secure it using your own legs. With that, you can almost get away loading & unloading it yourself, but if you can have two people just to be safe then do that.

If you do put it sideways you should check to see if you have hooks mid way down the box, since that would be ideal.

EDIT: holy shit this was my 4000th post, lol :D

[RedlineMS]

Yeah two people is a good idea. The curved ramps work better as they give you less of an angle to scrape your lower bodywork. I like to use two ramps side by side. One to walk on and one for the bike. Secure the ramps to the truck while loading, I've seen a few ramps slip and that's not pretty. Putting the bike on an angle is fine as long as the front wheel is against the front of the box. The best way to tie down is by using a canyon dancer that goes on the bars, it keeps the straps off your bodywork, don't wreck your grips, will also be way more secure and cut your tie down time to a couple of minutes. They cost about $40 and are worth every penny. Don't compress the forks all the way, or you might have leaking forks when you arrive at your distination. 2/3's is far enough. Put the bike in 1st gear and maybe even put a zip tie on the front brake if the front tire isn't jammed up against the box. Two straps on the front and one on the back wheel will do it. The one on the back just keeps the back from bouncing and changing the angle of the bike. Ratchet straps are better because they shouldn't loosen off. Once you are one your way, check your straps after about 1km and you will be good for the rest of your trip. Enjoy!

[Supa Dexta]

You can cheat using a handle bar strap if you take your ratchet strap and lay it over your handle bar (possibly do one wrap around it) and leave the hook dangling 10-12". I try and get them just inside the grips, right on the bar itself.

Then take the strap and do a couple of wraps around the hook itself, its kid of hard to explain, but if you can picture it, the hook is about a foot away from your bike and only strap is touching the bars, so your not scuffing anything.

Ill put one on each side of the bars and then usually one on each rear footpeg that pulls the bike towards the front slightly. Then if a handle bar strap comes loose the bike will still stand. I've hauled many bikes, thousands of miles this way over the years.

[littledan]

LOL... last year i recruited my buddy to help me grab my little 125r and bring her back to Edmonton from stony plain. He had a little mazda truck with some ramps so i thought we were good to go. get out there and turns out my buddy had only brought one ratchet strap and one rope... also had no wood or anything to brace the wheels, and his truck was lowered with chopped springs... basically mazda truck rice edition... :facepalm:

so we rigged it up diagonally and managed to strap it down fairly snug, but the wheels were not braced at all.. well on the way home going over the shitty Edmonton roads in a lowered truck... of course the tires slips out and the bike lands on its side. Luckily there was no damage at all but it must have been pure comedy for the people driving behind us. SO make sure you secure those wheels with some kind of bracing! Even a couple 2x4 chopped up and placed horizontally in the bed should do it.

[SJW]

I just used 2 ramps and then start the bike, light clutching and throttle. Use a canyon dancer to tie it down. Don't need 2 people. Look on youtube for loading bike into pickup.