I Finally Bought A Trailer

After many years of begging and borrowing every year when I take my bike on holiday to Cape Town, this year I decided enough was enough and bought a trailer. A friend and I went half each on it and we got it about a week ago.

This morning I put the bike on it just to check there would be no problems and I'm glad I did! The headers caught on the top of the ramp because the back of the trailer was a little high. Moving the ball on the tow hitch up to the top holes solved that problem.

In addition, the front mounting eyes are a little far apart, when I hook the loops over the bottom triple clamp and fit the tie downs, the straps are touching the inside of the fairing which could cause problems on a long trip. I will either fit eyelets along the front trailer bar or take it back and get them to weld a couple of loops on for me. I have the straps that fit over the handlebars but when I fitted them and pulled them tight I could see the rubber on my grips being twisted so they came off pretty quickly!

The trailer is light, 195kg (430lb) so I know towing it will be a breeze with my diesel Beemer. My friend I bought it with has 2 BMW 1200GS and they made the trailer slightly wider than standard so that they will fit comfortably.

Very nice, I like trailers with taller tires to avoid bearing and ground clearence problems. Looks nice and light too-sweet!

Nice trailer. What did that set you back over there?

It cost ZAR 8,000 new, which is ...
EUR 845
USD 1,117
GBP 716
AUD 1,158

A set of "Canyon Dancer" straps might help with strapping her down and they are esay on the paint:thumbup:

galen said:

A set of "Canyon Dancer" straps might help with strapping her down and they are easy on the paint:thumbup:

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Those are sorta what I was referring to but they twisted the rubber on my nice Rizomas, I used them many times when I had the stock grips.

That is a great looking trailer. :thumbup: I used to use my dirt bike trailer but now just load my FZ6 in the back of my truck.

Looks real good, My only suggestion would be to move those rear straps to behind the bike. In my opinion you dont want both sets of straps pulling the bike forward. I always run one set from front of the bike forward, and one set from rear of bike backwards...
Looks good!
Heres how i rig mine...

I just got back from the pub and my trailer partner was there, we are going to fit aluminium tread plate to the floor surface to make it more solid and reduce the chance of road debris coming through and damaging the bikes :thumbup:

YamahaMAXdRPMs said:

Looks real good, My only suggestion would be to move those rear straps to behind the bike. In my opinion you dont want both sets of straps pulling the bike forward. I always run one set from front of the bike forward, and one set from rear of bike backwards...
Looks good!
Heres how i rig mine...

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You must have posted while I was writing my previous post! My feeling on the forward rear straps is, it provides additional forward force on the front wheel into the chock. If a front strap breaks and your other straps are pulling backwards....

Andz said:

You must have posted while I was writing my previous post! My feeling on the forward rear straps is, it provides additional forward force on the front wheel into the chock. If a front strap breaks and your other straps are pulling backwards....

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Get good straps like Ancra brand and they will not break, with the cheap brands all bets are off. All will stretch when wet too, Ancra stretchs much less. I recommend using two forward, and two back; it helps keep the bike centered on the trailer while on rough roads.

Andz said:

You must have posted while I was writing my previous post! My feeling on the forward rear straps is, it provides additional forward force on the front wheel into the chock. If a front strap breaks and your other straps are pulling backwards....

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Yes, but take a look at the side profile of your pic, now picture you having to jam your breaks really hard to avoid a crash, which way is your bike going to go? there is nothing holding the back tire down.

YamahaMAXdRPMs said:

Yes, but take a look at the side profile of your pic, now picture you having to jam your breaks really hard to avoid a crash, which way is your bike going to go? there is nothing holding the back tire down.

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Good point. I have 2 more straps

Andz said:

It cost ZAR 8,000 new, which is ...
EUR 845
USD 1,117
GBP 716
AUD 1,158

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That's quite expensive for Aus.

Same trailer, but solid bottom and sides with gate at back, 7x4, brand new with rego, $700.

Kazza said:

That's quite expensive for Aus.

Same trailer, but solid bottom and sides with gate at back, 7x4, brand new with rego, $700.

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Relevance?

Andz said:

Relevance?

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No relevance. Just comparing prices.

Wont bother again


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Well this time the bike is on the trailer for a journey, tomorrow morning around 3am we're off on the trip to Cape Town. I had a couple of additional mounting points fitted which improve the securing of the Fazer as well as when it is used to transport 2 bikes.

The two additional loops on the front bar prevent the triple clamp loops touching the fairing.



Extra loops on the floor allow me to tie the back wheel down now to eliminate the scenario suggested by YamahaMAXdRPMs.



I still have the two extra straps at the back pulling forward. The front wheel is tied to the trailer so I am sure she is secure