Trailers

[hobo]

Considering purchasing a trailer for when the bike arrives as I intend to do a few track days & suspect it would be better to trailer it over than ride it.

There seems to be loads around at prices ranging from £100 to £1000, but don't want to buy something crap which will only last 2 minutes, or worse, not hold the bike properly.

Wouldn't mind a 2 bike stand as I suspect at times I'll be taking someone else with me.

Anyone advise of a decent one ? Cheers.

[bennyboysvuk]

The trailer centre in Guildford were extremely helpful when I purchased a Trelgo 3 ramp trailer from them a few years back. The trailer towed beautifully and never felt unsafe even at quite high speed.

Incidentally, I found that the most important thing was to get hold of a handlebar strap and 4 good quality ratchet straps to tie the bike down. Friction straps don't cut it when you're lugging bikes about no matter what people might think.

[s2ooz]

I use a erde 3 bike trailer. it only carries 2 bikes, but what most forget with a 2 biker, you can't carry only 1.. the weight is all one sided and you will tip over. With a 3 slot trailer you can do both combinations. Its very well made, and £750 new.

You will find a few on ebay for much less.

straps are V. important. I can send you the actual straps manafactures use to ship the bikes in crates from Japan, twice the power of most straps. £15 a strap.

[Andy Oh]

Like Stooz says the Erde bike trailer mate is the one to go for, I've had mine (a three bike trailer) for over a year now and its very well made and takes a lot of punishment.

Andy.

>> Edited by Andy Oh on Tuesday 21st February 14:22

[fergus]

try www.pistonheads.com/sales/63390.htm if you only need a single bike trailer. Also, becauase it's small and light, you can tip it on its' side and stuff it in the garage.

I use Andy_OH's Erde 3 bike trailer and it is OK, however, you need to note the following. It is only a 3 bike trailer when you are towing off road bikes. When you have two road bikes on, the tie down locations for the outside edge of the trailer are really poor. Ideally, you need some small outriggers welding on. We have modified Andy's by bolting small exhaust U bolts into the base of the mudguards to give something to put a tie down through.

If you occasionally tow 1 bike and occasionally 2, you need to mess around moving one of the loading ramps - this is a pain with the Erde trailer.

Don't tie the bike down by the handle bars, this tends to pop fork seals, or at least make them weep. Far better to use the frame. I only use 1 tie down on each rearset and so far everything has been fine. Remember that a bike only weighs around 170kgs, and you never need to support this much weight, so almost ANY ratchet straps will do. However, if you do like 6 1000kg breaking strain straps for peace of mind then I guess that's a personal preference.

Make sure the trailer is legal, and remember that the towing limit is 60 on dual carriage ways and M/ways (although you are not allowed in lane 3 on a M/way) and only 50mph on single carriageways!!!

The trailer will not tip over if the bike is put on one side only - you just need to drive carefully!

[telecat]

Try Stuart at Autowbars. I know him via the Trials scene here in Yorkshire and what he doesn't know about Motorcycle carrying isn't worth knowing!!

Trailers

>> Edited by telecat on Tuesday 21st February 15:58

[Robbo SPS]

No idea where you are in the world, but blendworth trailers sell them, near Portsmouth, Hants and have a website using their name....

I have hired from them. Best for me is that they use car wheels on the axles, which prevents those horrid 8 inch little wheels blowing up.