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Trailering to Rally

bluehole

Active member
I am planning to attend the rally in St Paul next year. I am going to meet a friend along the way and ride together. He will ride a K1600GTL and will ride an Oilhead. My friend has suggested the option trailering our /5s to the rally. I have mixed feelings about this. Part of the rally experience his the ride to and from the event. On the other hand, trailering does not preclude stopping along the way have getting in some decent rides in nice areas. I know trailering a bike to the rally is not considered good form, but I okay with it. Not sure Ol' Red (or I) and up for that long a ride.

Any thoughts on this? Anybody been in this quandary before?
 
Do what makes you happy.

I don't know anyone at a rally who would give you a hard time. They are too busy having fun. :D
 
I know trailering a bike to the rally is not considered good form,

By who? Probably by the same people who consider themselves the only true motorcyclists because they have completed multiple Iron Butt events and have a license plate frame that states accordingly.
I have trailered to all BMW MOA rallies except for the one in Vermont. My reason was, I always brought at least three bikes, my S, my K1 and my RT and I could not ride them all at the same time.
How do you think all these pristine condition /2s from Florida, for example, that you see in the Vintage Show get to the rallies?
 
On the outside looking in, "we" are not in a position to know why another rider is trailering their MC. Do what "you" like & what makes for the best trip & forget about the idea "we" are worried about "your" manhood ,reputation or other socially conscious concerns.:bow
 
I think it is a great idea. You could build in a few days to stop and ride your bike where the area is interesting, the weather is good and the riding is good. You can ride through the parts of the country where the roads are flat, straight, hot and boring in a nice air conditioned vehicle. Very few people cares how you get to a rally and most don't even ask. I have been to several rallys and never moved my bike until I started home.
 
I am planning to attend the rally in St Paul next year. I am going to meet a friend along the way and ride together. He will ride a K1600GTL and will ride an Oilhead. My friend has suggested the option trailering our /5s to the rally. I have mixed feelings about this. Part of the rally experience his the ride to and from the event. On the other hand, trailering does not preclude stopping along the way have getting in some decent rides in nice areas. I know trailering a bike to the rally is not considered good form, but I okay with it. Not sure Ol' Red (or I) and up for that long a ride.

Any thoughts on this? Anybody been in this quandary before?

I am probably one of those guys you are worried about, and I hereby give you permission to trailer your bikes any time you want. Just because I have never trailered my bike anywhere, and just because I might be heard over a cup of coffee uttering a comment about "trailer queens" does not mean you should listen to a word of it. I'm a jerk, and more than a little jealous that you have a trailer and a place to store it when not using it in a sensible fashion, like trailering your bike to a rally.
 
Trailer and wave :wave at those riders getting soaked and so tense they cannot be having any fun as the cars and trucks roar by at 75 mph, making their ride more dangerous, or the ones with mental altered status because of Hyper-thermia and dehydration in the 100+ degree temps, while you sip water and turn the AC, while stopped in the traffic jam around a construction area.

Then unload when you get to the fun and interested stuff, fresh, alert, and ready to explore, without checking the weather every hour to see if you can make it home with out running into the tornado's and severe hail and lightning storms forecast to be in your path on the way home.

You have my permission too,

Signed Pffog (AKA trailer queen)
 
I wouldn't give a hoot, trailer or not....but you are correct, for me, and it sounds like for you, riding to and from the rally is a major (perhaps primary) part of going. Don't believe the question is what others will think, but what you'll think...ride your bike, sounds like that would make you happier. And I bet your partner also.
 
There is a reasonable possibility I will arrive at the rally riding my K75 which is currently stashed in reserve in Kansas. There is an equal chance I might arrive riding an R1150R currently parked outside the door here in Texas. But it is just as likely I might show up driving a pickup truck, towing a teardrop camper hauling my (gasp) Japanese manufactured KL250 Super Sherpa and Voni's Japanese made TW200.

And I am one of those multiple Iron Butt Rally guys (1999 and 2003) that Mike Simon criticized. He got it wrong of course because at the real Iron Butt Rally lots of riders bring their bikes on trailers but probably snuck them in when he wasn't watching.

I have been to a couple of hundred rallies and have heard all sorts of comments made in jest. Teasing seems to be a human condition. New bike riders say older bikes are outdated. Airhead riders say the new bikes are unreliable. Classic K riders say Airheads are too slow (the bikes, not the thinkers). BMW riders say American cruisers are loud and crude (the bikes, not the riders usually). Folks who ride-in tease folks who trailer (but help them unload their bikes). Tenters say RVers are sissies, and they both might say hotel campers are the true wimps.

But wandering the rally site, sitting in seminars, or at the vendors or beer garden nobody cares.

The bravest questioner I ever saw at one of my Tech seminars asked a question about the wheel bearings on his trailer - and it wasn't a trailer he towed with his motorcycle. (And by the way, some folks say those folks are nuts).

If you look closely at the vendor area you might find the guy selling greasing caps for trailer axles.

Do what you want. It is your bike, your vacation, and your trip. If anybody really cares it is their problem, not yours.
 
I did mean to seem preoccupied with what people might think about trailering to the rally. It is in the back of my mind, but I can handle it.

As Motodan mentioned, I wonder if I miss out on a certain aspect of the rally experience by trailering instead of riding. I guess it is all trade offs. If I trailer, I get to experience riding my Airhead in a new environment (the rally) and locations along the way that I would not normally get to ride on the Airhead. If I do not find it as enjoyable as riding to the rally, I will ride in the future.

Obviously, my buddy and I have plenty of time to think this over.
 
I don't normally travel trailering a road bike. But I have traveled with our teardrop and street-legal dirt bikes.

If you plan to travel with a road bike, to a rally or otherwise, and plan to stop and ride along the way, then make sure the bikes are easy to load and unload on a whim. Otherwise, the hassle of loading and unloading over rides the urge to go riding.

One winter we did travel in a motorhome with an enclosed drop ramp trailer. I had good ride-in wheel chocks and a drop down rear door/ramp. Loading and tying, or untying and unloading took five minutes max. So we did stop and ride locally quite a bit.
 
with an enclosed drop ramp trailer. I had good ride-in wheel chocks and a drop down rear door/ramp. Loading and tying, or untying and unloading took five minutes max. So we did stop and ride locally quite a bit.

Sorry, Paul, but this sounds funny to a guy who owns a trailer that was built to haul motorcycles....:) Like the advice to use a GPS to a guy riding a GS across country would sound ....:brow
 

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I think this thread is hilarious.

I haven't met one Harley owner that has actually ridden to Sturgis. A few years ago, just before Sturgis, I couldn't get a hotel room in Rapid City because every room was taken and every parking lot was full of trailers.

One of the past presidents of the HOG group here was an absolute Harley freak. Biggest, best, shiniest, most chrome, louder every year. He bought a new bike every year. His trailer was a toy hauler just for his bike. His trailer also had an equipped shop. It was 30' long. His trailer had more miles on it than any bike he ever owned. Sturgis to Winnipeg is 12 hours on a good day.

He also rode without a brain bucket and was very vocal how a skid lid would break your neck. He died of road rash but ironically, never regained consciousness to realize he was dead anyway.

I love the guys that have the "Been to Sturgis" shirts and they don't know how to ride.

I've never been to a Beemer Rally owing to distance and time and I have never done a formal Iron Butt. Now that I have time and Minneapolis is pretty close I am considering it but I realize that the body is my next hurdle. Stuff hurts in the morning that I didn't know could hurt.

If somebody is going to pass judgement on me because I choose to take care of myself before fitting some arbitrary social expectation, they better have had walked the life I have.

You do the best for yourself first. It's the only way you can take care of the ones you love.
 
Sorry, Paul, but this sounds funny to a guy who owns a trailer that was built to haul motorcycles....:) Like the advice to use a GPS to a guy riding a GS across country would sound ....:brow

In St. Paul, take a look at some of the rigs that arrive with bikes in tow. After that it won't sound so funny to you. I'm sure you have the right rig. My observation would be a lot of folks don't.
 
I haven't met one Harley owner that has actually ridden to Sturgis. A few years ago, just before Sturgis, I couldn't get a hotel room in Rapid City because every room was taken and every parking lot was full of trailers.

.

I used to go to Sturgis. Did it in the 90s for 8 years in a row. Among Harley riders there is as big a resentment against trailering as in any other motorcycle community. In the greater Sturgis area are about 50,000 hotel rooms. The "Sturgis Bike Week" is visited by approx 350,000 people. You had to put up with only a small portion of those. Usually, more people who trailer stay in hotel rooms. And how many trailer rigs does it take to fill a hotel parking lot?
I bet, if you would have camped in the Buffalo Chip campground, you would have not met a single Harley owner who trailered his bike to Sturgis.
 
I wasn't on a bike.

I used to go to Sturgis. Did it in the 90s for 8 years in a row. Among Harley riders there is as big a resentment against trailering as in any other motorcycle community. In the greater Sturgis area are about 50,000 hotel rooms. The "Sturgis Bike Week" is visited by approx 350,000 people. You had to put up with only a small portion of those. Usually, more people who trailer stay in hotel rooms. And how many trailer rigs does it take to fill a hotel parking lot?
I bet, if you would have camped in the Buffalo Chip campground, you would have not met a single Harley owner who trailered his bike to Sturgis.

I was hauling a loader we sent for the Louisiana clean-up of Katrina. I expressed MY experiences.

If you want to trailer to an event because of any reason you might have, including hurting yourself or the bike, I won't think twice.

It stops when you brag about how far you can ride and all the stuff you've done. Then I think twice.
 
Do whatever works. If you're short of time, it's a lot easier on the mind and body to be inside of 4 wheels that on top of 2.

As for Paul, I can just see him and Voni bombing around the fairgrounds on their 200/250's. Practical and fun.

I'll be riding to the rally, but then again I think the fairgrounds are less than 10 miles from my house, so...I think I can handle it.
 
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