Should you trailer your bike somewhere to ride? I had to face this question lately as we just came back from a trip thru the southwest. Now, this was a difficult decision for me. My friend Ron Napier, who also rode with me on this trip, likes to do high-mileage days. After all, you bought your bike to ride, right? So why wouldn’t you try to ride it as much as possible? I always thought so. I firmly believed that if you didn’t ride your bike to where you were going for vacation, that you were a wussie. I had my mind changed a few years ago on a quick trip with a friend.

Tom Geisken called and said he was going to ride in the mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee. Would I like to go? (Silly question!) He was going down to ride Deals Gap (318 curves in 11 miles!) and as he had only a few days, he would be
A trailer also allows trips around and through winter weather to warm sunny rides! hauling down with a trailer. "Ok", I said, "Let’s go!" That trip changed my mind about trailering. We loaded the bikes up, jumped into the pickup truck and were there in about 12 hours. Unloaded, had a nice meal, and even went for a ride that evening.

We completely enjoyed the four days that we had there, loaded back up and came home. I realized that had I done it my way, (riding down), we would have had a lot less time there to enjoy. A couple of days of our time would have been used just to get there and get back. And we probably would have been beat from pounding down miles on the expressway. I don’t know about you, but I don’t ride a motorcycle just to make miles on the expressway. I prefer to ride on the two-lanes, taking a relaxed pace and enjoying the scenery.

So with that in mind, Ron and I decided to trailer to Amarillo for this trip. The first leg was all expressway; a get there quick kind of dash. Joined by my son Mickey and Jim Hadley, we rotated the sleeping and driving and got to Amarillo in 24 hrs. We got a good nights rest at a hotel, and started our motorcycle ride fresh. Then we unloaded, and made a wonderful relaxed loop through New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, returning thru New Mexico to Texas again.

Since the object of this trip was to have maximum time riding our loop, this worked very well. We have another trip planned where we plan to take highway 2 in the U.P. and follow it west. This trip will be entirely by motorcycle, no trailer involved.

You can see my views have changed, depending on the purpose of the trip. Another reason that trailering may work for someone, is health. If I could not trailer my bike, my wife would not get to ride much. Her health does not allow her to take long trips by bike. But we can trailer somewhere, and she can enjoy short trips from there on the motorcycle.

Here is a suggestion on securing your bike. Everyone seems to know to roll the front wheel into a chock and use tie-down straps to hold it firmly into the chock. With the straps pulling down and forward, the fork spring pressure keeps a balance and everything is secure. The trouble comes for a lot of people when they strap down the rear of the bike. You have to do this, or road bumps will cause the rear wheel to "walk" around the trailer. The rear straps should be placed so they also pull forward on the bike. I see many people fasten them pulling to the rear. Now this looks like a good way to do it as the bike is hooked into a “four point harness”, but it can get you into real trouble. With the rear straps pulling backwards, it decreases the pressure of the front wheel into the wheel chock. This allows the motorcycle to "shuck" back and fourth. If you have a removable chock, it can move enough to jump out of it’s fasteners. When this happens, your bike is free to move about the trailer. This is not a good thing; so always fasten those rear straps with some forward pull. Also, check the bike occasionally to see how it is riding and carry an extra set of straps with you. You don’t want to arrive at your destination and find one of your straps was defective and the faring of your dresser has been grinding against the side of the trailer for the last hundred miles!

Using a trailer can be a good thing when properly done. It can also extend your "enjoyment" time on your motorcycle.

Ride safe.

-LC