Loading a motorcycle onto a trailer or into the bed of a pickup is not complicated, but it does have an order. Most of the scares on the road do not come from a strap that snaps: they come from a bike that shifts three centimetres under the first hard braking and never stops moving after that.
This is how to do it properly, step by step.
Before you load the bike
Check the floor of the trailer or the bed. If it is wet or muddy, the tyre will slip on the way up the ramp. A rag and thirty seconds will save you a scare.
Find the anchor points on the vehicle. They must be points designed for the job: rings, eye bolts or rails. Never use the bumper, a leaf spring, the exhaust or anything belonging to the braking system.
Then find the points on the bike where you will hook up. The usual and safe choice is the lower part of the handlebars or the triple clamps, not the bars above the controls and not the indicators.
Step 1 — Load the bike and stand it straight
With the ramp properly supported and secured, push the bike up rather than riding it. If you can, have someone steady it from behind.
Position it as far forward as possible and perfectly straight. If the trailer has a wheel chock, push the front wheel all the way in: that is what stops the bike moving forward or sideways even before you strap it down.
Step 2 — The two front straps
This is 80% of the job. Hook one strap to each side of the handlebars, low down, and run them forward and outward, on the diagonal. Not vertically.
That angle is what holds the bike in three directions at once: down, forward and laterally. With vertical straps the bike is compressed but still free to move side to side.
Tension alternately: a little on the left, a little on the right, a little more on the left. If you fully tension one side first, the bike will lean over and you will have to start again.
Step 3 — Compress the forks, but not fully
The front forks should end up compressed roughly halfway through their travel. That compression is what keeps the tension constant when the trailer bounces.
Without compression, every bump loosens the straps. With the forks fully compressed for hours, you punish the seals. Halfway is the balance.
Step 4 — The rear straps
Two more straps from the swingarm or the subframe, running backwards, again on the diagonal. They do not need as much tension as the front ones: their job is to stop the bike moving backwards under acceleration or on a hill.
Step 5 — Deal with the excess webbing
This is the step everyone skips and the one that causes the most trouble.
Loose webbing left hanging flaps about at 120 km/h, hits the bodywork, scuffs the paint and, if it is long enough, can end up caught in a wheel. If your straps are conventional, roll the excess up and tie it off. If they are retractable, the webbing is drawn back into the housing on its own and this step disappears.
And the most important thing: stop after ten minutes
Drive for ten minutes and pull over somewhere safe. Check all four straps.
There will almost always be one to re-tension. The first few kilometres are what settle the load: the bike beds in, the webbing gives a little and what was firm no longer is. It is the most worthwhile stop of the journey.
Mistakes that keep coming up
- Two straps instead of four. With two, the bike pivots.
- Hooking onto the bars above the controls. It bends the levers and damages the cables.
- Vertical straps. They hold downwards and nothing else.
- Fully tensioning one side before the other. The bike leans over.
- Leaving the excess webbing loose. The most common mistake and the easiest one to avoid.
A note on load figures
Every strap states a load figure. Do not exceed it, and check the condition of the webbing and the hooks before each use: webbing that is cut, frayed or clearly faded by the sun should be taken out of service, not used again.
Bear in mind as well that responsibility for a properly secured load always lies with the driver, and that transport conditions may vary depending on the country you are driving through.
At STRAPTOR we make retractable tie-down straps: you tension them by hand with the ratchet, as always, and when you release them the webbing is drawn back into the housing on its own. No loose webbing, no tangles.