K75S stock. How to strap it to a Kendon trailer

[alexg]

Dear all:
any ideas or suggestions about the subject? Need to transport it from Detroit to Philadelphia, so it needs to be secured properly.

Thanks for the wisdom.

Alex

[volador]

hardly ableson main transport should try asking on hdforum.com   

[frankenduck]

Run tie-downs over the fork brace on each side. That let's the bike ride on its suspension. Since it has a wheel chock you can probably get away with just front ones on each side pulling it forward into the wheel chock.  However, even on my trailer that has a wheel chock I also tie down the rear over the frame as a backup.  That way if one of the front one comes loose it will keep the bike vertical. I don't tie the rear ones down too much though because I don't want to blow the shock.




It's hard to see the front tie-downs in this pic because they are black:




For a real challenge try fitting two Ks on a 4x8 trailer. These had parts about 1/4" apart. It was a tight fit.




I usually stop after a few blocks to check the tie-downs and maybe tighten them a little if they need it once the bike has settled. Then I also check them at each gas stop.

[alexg]

Thanks a lot!

[The Mighty Gryphon]

All I can add is a warning to NOT use Harbor Freight tie downs.

I brought a bike about 350 miles from New Hampshire to Western New York and of the 8 Harbor Freight tie downs I started with only 3 of them did not wear through from chafe and those were not in the best of shape. 

A proper tie down is made of nylon which is strong, slightly elastic, and very abrasion resistant.  Unfortunately, Harbor Freight's tie downs are made of polyester which is cheaper, but will wear through with amazing speed.  As is typical of a lot of Harbor Freight stuff that comes from China, it might look good, but it's really crap.

I don't know where you can go to get good tie downs.  Just make sure they use nylon straps and don't try to save some money on them.

[frankenduck]

A couple of other things:

If you have never used a ratcheted tie-down before then learn how to use them properly from a friend or Youtube video. I once had a guy come by my house with his K75RT in a closed U-Haul trailer. He didn't know how to use a ratched tie-down correctly and by the time he got to my house the bike was loose and had fallen against the sidewall of the trailer. If he'd been using an open trailer and dumped the bike off of the trailer at speed then he would have had a much bigger disaster on his hands.

You'll probably have a lot of "leftover" loose strap on some of the tie-downs, especially the front. A good way to keep that from flapping around is to fold it over a bunch of times and then zip-tie it to the taut part of the strap.

[frankenduck]

You can get tie-downs at any hardware store, auto parts store, Walmart or Amazon. I've used Harbor Freight tie-downs many times without issue. You do need to make sure that the straps don't chafe (with any brand.)  If you think there's a place where they will rub and chafe then put a rag under that spot before tightening.  That's worked for me.

[volador]

Remove the side battery covers to prevent lose during the trip

[frankenduck]

Remove the side battery covers to prevent lose during the trip

For K75 standards, K75Cs and K75Ss. Side covers on the other models are pretty secure and not prone to escaping.

The other thing to remove before towing is K100RS/K1100RS mirrors.

I usually put any luggage in the towing vehicle as well.

[volador]

For K75 standards, K75Cs and K75Ss. Side covers on the other models are pretty secure and not prone to escaping.

High winds crossing a bridge can prove otherwise...

[alexg]

Great advice here. Taking the side covers would have never occurred to me.

For the chafing, I bought a set of Rhino soft loops to wrap around the bike fork and rear frame.

Thanks again you all. Will update when I get there, in a month or so.

[daveson]

Something else, when it's on the trailer, put a rag in the exhaust pipe, especially if some of the trip is dirt road, it only takes a few seconds.

The speed of the wind past the exhaust creates a vacuum in the exhaust, drawing dust in (and some of the valves will be open)

Those movies where a door flies off an aeroplane comes to mind. The movie where the blow up auto pilot needs help after deflating also comes to mind, please don't ask me why.

[alexg]

Interesting!

[frankenduck]

Something else, when it's on the trailer, put a rag in the exhaust pipe, especially if some of the trip is dirt road, it only takes a few seconds.

The speed of the wind past the exhaust creates a vacuum in the exhaust, drawing dust in (and some of the valves will be open)

Those movies where a door flies off an aeroplane comes to mind. The movie where the blow up auto pilot needs help after deflating also comes to mind, please don't ask me why.

I don't buy this for a second. Think about it. When the bike is not running the throttle body butterfly valves are closed. A little dust may eddy into the very tip of the exhaust (that will just blow out the next time that you start the bike) but the notion that dust can travel all the way up to the headers and then, being heavier than air, magically get sucked straight up into an open exhaust valve is just silly. You'd need a fairly constant pretty darned high vacuum/reverse air flow for that and that simply does not occur.

[daveson]

"I don't buy this for a second. Think about it"
It deserves more than one second to thinks about it.

Your speculating that the vacuum would be less than pretty darned high, I'm speculating that it could be an issue even if it is less than pretty darned high, which it might not be. We need to know that before we say it's silly.

True dust is heavier than air but if you tow a trailer down a dusty road at 100km/h for an hour you'll see dust in the mirror cause of the turbulence, and there will be dust in nooks and crannies all over, I wouldn't hazard a guess about the vacuum level.

Just something I've heard of and do, could be crap for all l know, but only takes a few seconds to do, and no harm in doing.

I also put an oily rag in if in storage for a while to stop condensation and critters.

[frankenduck]

Let's go further back up the system:

If air is reverse flowing at a high enough velocity to suck suspended dirt/dust particles all of the way through the exhaust can + headers and then up past open exhaust valve(s) then that air has to go somewhere, right?

It would need to then go:

a) up through closed throttle body butterfly valves
b) up through the plenum
c) backwards through the flap of the mass airflow sensor which would essentially act as a check-valve for air flowing the "wrong" way
d) backwards through the air filter
e) forwards out of the front end of the snorkel at the right front of the radiator

Does that seem at all realistic to you?

[Laitch]

Those movies where a door flies off an aeroplane comes to mind, please don't ask me why.

Is that the one where the blowup doll named Lola held captive by latex traffickers in a porn shop was rescued by a white Tesla named Marlon?

[daveson]

Let's go further back up the system:

If air is reverse flowing at a high enough velocity to suck suspended dust particles all of the way through the exhaust can + headers and then up past open exhaust valve(s) then that air has to go somewhere, right?

It would need to then go:

a) up through closed throttle body butterfly valves
b) up through the plenum
c) backwards through the flap of the mass airflow sensor which would essentially act as a check-valve for air flowing the "wrong" way
d) backwards through the air filter
e) forwards out of the front end of the snorkel at the right front of the radiator

Does that seem at all realistic to you?

No it doesn't seem realistic to me.
The air doesn't need to go somewhere, it doesn't have to keep going upstream, it can just continually circulate through the exhaust system, I'll guess two exhaust valves won't be fully closed so some could enter cylinders, maybe even if the vacuum is less than darned high.
Again, I'm just speculating, it's only a few seconds to do.

[daveson]

Is that the one where the blowup doll named Lola held captive by latex traffickers in a porn shop was rescued by a white Tesla named Marlon?

That's the paragraph I was hoping someone would ask about, where I said please don't ask. Can you post a YouTube clip of the one your referring to so I can verify it? If you show me yours, I'll show you mine.

[Laitch]

Can you post a YouTube clip of the one your referring to so I can verify it?

That's only available on the Murky Web. Accessing it is a labyrinthine process involving password mirroring and votive candles so you'll just need to show me yours as an act of faith.

[daveson]

Ok, only cause I'm feeling generous.

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[daveson]

.

http://

[volador]

Is that the one where the blowup doll named Lola held captive by latex traffickers in a porn shop was rescued by a white Tesla named Marlon?

Ok, only cause I'm feeling generous.
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.

http://

this place is f'n whackd   

[frankenduck]

No it doesn't seem realistic to me.
The air doesn't need to go somewhere, it doesn't have to keep going upstream, it can just continually circulate through the exhaust system, I'll guess two exhaust valves won't be fully closed so some could enter cylinders, maybe even if the vacuum is less than darned high.
Again, I'm just speculating, it's only a few seconds to do.

Please tell me you're just trolling. The notion that air "circulates" in the exhaust system somehow is a even more absurd than thinking trailering a bike makes air flow backwards through the exhaust.

If you really want to protect your exhaust valves then you'd be better off just installing a gremlin bell.

[daveson]

Yes vacuum could cause dust to travel backward and circulate in the exhaust, why not? Open the rear window in your car going down a dirt road, eventually dust will be everywhere inside, so some of it will go backwards to the front dash cause of turbulence. I've already said it could be crap for all I know, that should be good enough, it's only a second to do, and there's no harm doing it. Saves getting dust in the exhaust which sometimes turns to mud. Probably good to do if it's raining too.