BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

Has anyone had experience tieing down the R12R on a trailer or in the bed of a pickup? Where are the best points? Is there anything I should especially look out for?

As much as I hate to admit it I brought mine home in the back of a pickup instead of riding it. It worked out that way because I bought it at a dealer 3 hours away west of home at the time I was working a project another two hours west of the dealer so I bought it on the way home. (my rationalization for putting a street bike on a trailer for the first time in 30+ years)

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the bike as tied down in the shipping crate from the motherland. Pre-delivery excitement had me ask the dealer for uncrating shots as it was in the box the day I pulled the trigger.





When we loaded it in the truck we just hooked the tie downs at the bend in the bars just outside of the clamps/triple tree, and duplicated the tie point on the foot peg bracket. I drove 80+ mph for 3 hours home and had no issues with the bike moving around.

I have had much experience hauling dirt bikes and kayaks around in trucks and on them and I will give you one piece of advice to take to the bank-use quality tie downs. Ankra are the best, period, no questions asked. There is no need to use the racheting type either just the pull clamp style pulling down from the bars, not up from the tie down point in the truck. The white poly ones that the bike was shipped with held the rear down just fine. If you don't want to put the tiedown hooks on your bars you can make tie down loops using high quality tubular webbing or spectra cord tied in a loop secured with a prusik loop knot the loop it around the bars.

If you are interested I found somewhere a 1999 PDF document file from the BMW Aftersales group on how to tie down a bike. I don't know how to attach/imbed it here, I'll be happy to forward it if you pm me your e-mail address if you would like. FWIW is shows the tie downs secured to a prusik loop around the fork tube snugged against the fender brace, and a loop to the trailer secrured by a cinch type tie down. The bike in the photo's is a R1200C, and they have the tie down oposite of how I explained to use it above.

If I used channel s a runner ( I don't know what else to call it )on a trailer, how wide would it need to be to accept the stock size tires that come on an R1200R?
Mark

celticus wrote:If I used channel s a runner ( I don't know what else to call it )on a trailer, how wide would it need to be to accept the stock size tires that come on an R1200R?
Mark

Since the rear tire is a 180, it is 180mm wide (7.086593 inches), so a channel that has an inside width of 7.5 inches should be fine.
Does that answer your question, or did I totally misunderstand it?

Thanks Oliver , You did understand what I was asking. I just bought a home made trailer and I think that the channel is a 6 inch. One thing maybe to think about is , at what point up on the tire does the tire get to be 7.086 inches wide? If it is properly inflated and the side flanges on the channel flare out, might I get away with and have a tighter fit with a 6 inch runner? There is also quite a bit of steel on that trailer I would like to replace with aluminum. I guess I just want something to fiddle with as I have only trailered once in a fairly long motorcycling career.
Mark

Twice a year I do this:



Once when I put it in storage, once when I take it out. Hard to tell in this photo, but it's about 25 degrees out. That's when I've had enough and I put the ol' girl to bed.

For anchoring points I used the trellis by the rear foot pegs and the and the big cast aluminum thingy on the telelever suspension....sorry....vocabulary gone. Too. Much. Tequila.

Outta here....hey you guys know it's a full lunar eclipse tonight, right? I'm off to take a peek. Hopefully I don't fall down the stairs...

e.

famousperson wrote:Has anyone had experience tieing down the R12R on a trailer or in the bed of a pickup? Where are the best points? Is there anything I should especially look out for?

Along these same lines... eventually I'd like to buy a pickup truck with a bed that's big enough for my R1200R.
Any suggestions for good pickup trucks that can accommodate our bike?
Thanks,
Jeff

I've got one of the fold-up trailers (Harbor Freight carries them now) and put one of the Harbor Freight $39 motorcycle chocks to secure the front wheel and then tied it down as described above. My only recommendation is to use some kind of tape underneath the straps on the handlebars and frame so you don't wear through the finish.

papasong wrote:

famousperson wrote:Has anyone had experience tieing down the R12R on a trailer or in the bed of a pickup? Where are the best points? Is there anything I should especially look out for?

Along these same lines... eventually I'd like to buy a pickup truck with a bed that's big enough for my R1200R.
Any suggestions for good pickup trucks that can accommodate our bike?
Thanks,
Jeff

Being a country boy from Indiana my genetic make up immediately kneejerks "full size 4wd Ford extended cab". Having said that I've been driving a 2000 Chevey Silverado 4wd extended cab for the last 10 years, and have had minimal issues with it.

The reality these days is unless you just get unlucky and get a lemon, most any major brand produces a good quality truck. I know guys that have them all-Dodge-Chevy-Ford( I've personally owned 8 of them)-Nissan-Toyota, full size-mid size and minis (not many of those left on the new market), and unless they just got unlucky they are all happy with what they have.

If your worried about payload don't be, you're talking about a motorcycle not a 30 foot ceneter console fishing boat. Any of them can handle the load, weight wise. However, unlike our friend above with his rear tire on the tail gate, I'd have to say think twice about that Most modern trucks use a plastic coated steel cable on each sided to support it and one would think no worries, you could lift a tank with that. Case in point Chevy did a recall on a ton of trucks including my 2000 for cable failure.

I say buy what you like for features and money and be pretty confident that the quality/payload will be there.

BigEasy wrote:However, unlike our friend above with his rear tire on the tail gate, I'd have to say think twice about that Most modern trucks use a plastic coated steel cable on each sided to support it and one would think no worries, you could lift a tank with that. Case in point Chevy did a recall on a ton of trucks including my 2000 for cable failure.

I say buy what you like for features and money and be pretty confident that the quality/payload will be there.

Second the worry about the cables; I never did like riding with my rear wheel on the tailgate. In fact, my first truck was a '98 Dakota long-bed that I didn't have to do that with.

There are a couple of ways to avoid doing that, few of them not involving mods to the bed of the truck. A bad one is to put the bike catty-corner in the bed. Fortunately *knock on chrome* I've not had to put my bike in my new truck (2004 Dakota club cab, and dang it they stopped making the long-bed version!).

Personally, going forward I'm leaning towards something like a relatively simple, kit-built trailer. Having both gone with bikes in the bed of the truck, and trailered, I find the latter to be generally less stressful. In particular, you don't have to worry about loading the bike up a three- or four-foot steep slope, and you don't have to worry about the front wheel slipping sideways after you tie the front down. (They can "hunt" on the truck bed ribs.) There are no problems with hard bed covers having to be removed before installing the bike. And, as above, there are no concerns re tailgate support.

Downsides are additional maintenance costs, insurance and registration, and storage space. Fold-up trailers help with the latter.

Good roads,

- Lewellen

Thanks, guys. Yeah, the rear wheel hanging off scares me...
I guess I just need to make sure I get an extended cab, regardless of make/model.
Thanks,
Jeff

BigEasy wrote: Being a country boy from Indiana my genetic make up immediately kneejerks "full size 4wd Ford extended cab". Having said that I've been driving a 2000 Chevey Silverado 4wd extended cab for the last 10 years, and have had minimal issues with it.

The reality these days is unless you just get unlucky and get a lemon, most any major brand produces a good quality truck. I know guys that have them all-Dodge-Chevy-Ford( I've personally owned 8 of them)-Nissan-Toyota, full size-mid size and minis (not many of those left on the new market), and unless they just got unlucky they are all happy with what they have.

If your worried about payload don't be, you're talking about a motorcycle not a 30 foot ceneter console fishing boat. Any of them can handle the load, weight wise. However, unlike our friend above with his rear tire on the tail gate, I'd have to say think twice about that Most modern trucks use a plastic coated steel cable on each sided to support it and one would think no worries, you could lift a tank with that. Case in point Chevy did a recall on a ton of trucks including my 2000 for cable failure.

I say buy what you like for features and money and be pretty confident that the quality/payload will be there.

Well I live in the Big City, and I have a 2001 Chevy full size 4x4 too. It has been a great truck, but the problem with all full size 4x4s is the bed is too darned high! U-haul rents motorcycle trailers very cheap and it may be the best bet when you need one for the day.

Scott

papasong wrote:Thanks, guys. Yeah, the rear wheel hanging off scares me...
I guess I just need to make sure I get an extended cab, regardless of make/model.
Thanks,
Jeff

Hold up a sec, Jeff...

It's not the extended cab you want, it's the long bed. If anything, the extended cab - on the same truck frame - results in a shorter bed.

On the other hand, you have to ask yourself how often your bike rides in the back of your pickup, versus how often you carry groceries, luggage, pets, etc. On balance, while I will bitch and moan and complain about the lack of a long-bed, the simple truth is the extended-cab, short-bed is more useful to me 99%+ of the time.

As was pointed out above, small utility trailers - that you own or that you rent - are excellent options ... and for short distances, having the rear wheel on the tailgate isn't a disaster. After all ... the whole weight of the bike rides up and over it anyway, right?

Good roads,

- Lewellen

There is a great chock for using in a trailer or in a pick-up bed. It's called a Sport Chock and is made and sold by Baxley, if you want to google it. I've seen them in use on BMW off-road bikes--am not sure if they'd fit our front tire. It's also a little pricey--$250 or thereabouts. I had 10' ramps to use for hauling my bike in the bed of my extended cab, long bed (yes, they make them--it's the Mega Cab that only comes with a short bed) Dodge RAM 3500. They, the ramps, were also pricey, although probably not for what they were--$500. I needed the 10'ers because my truck is a 4x4 and pretty far off the ground.

The fact is, I never used the set-up. It seemed like such a hassle getting it on and off and storing the ramps in transit (I wasn't even sure I could fit them in if I was hauling two bikes), that I ended up using the motorcycle trailer I had, anyway. It was great. The truck didn't even notice that the trailer was there, yet I could see the bike in my rear view mirror. There was the single problem that I couldn't see the empty trailer so needed a spotter when backing when the bike wasn't on it.

I'm the OP for this thread. Somebody, on some other forum where I posed the same question, posted a URL that showed exactly how to tie an R down to a trailer. Like the fool I am, I neglected to post it here, and no longer remember where it was. I also have only a very dim memory as to what the instructions were, or precisely what I did. It turns out it's pretty intuitive, though, once you take a good look at the geometry of the bike with respect to the available tie-down spots. You want to tighten the straps so that the suspension is compressed somewhat (the suspension will compress when you go over a bump, and the straps will momentarily loosen, so you need a preload). You want one set of straps to go forward, to keep the bike from shifting back, and one set to tend backwards, to keep the bike from going forwards. You don't want to go directly from anywhere near the end of the handlebars because of the danger of bending them. I used 1" ratcheting straps attached to short, sheepskin tie downs (don't remember where I got them but they're made especially for motorcycles). Make sure, as already mentioned, to protect your paint where the straps go over body work (the sheepskin protects at the tie-down points.

Sorry for being so vague, but having now hauled two different bikes on this trailer, I discovered that there is nothing to fear if you use common sense. I worry, anyway, and always check the rigging after an hour and then every couple of hours after that.

famousperson wrote:There is a great chock for using in a trailer or in a pick-up bed. It's called a Sport Chock and is made and sold by Baxley, if you want to google it. I've seen them in use on BMW off-road bikes--am not sure if they'd fit our front tire.

Although I bought it for my Buell, the Baxley sport chock works well with the R12R.

lewellen wrote: Hold up a sec, Jeff...

It's not the extended cab you want, it's the long bed. If anything, the extended cab - on the same truck frame - results in a shorter bed.

Oops, yeah, that's what I meant. Thanks for clarifying.