tie down points 1978 R100S

Can anyone suggest appropriate tie down points to transport an R 100S on a trailer? I'm thinking of using extensions above the sliders with ratchet straps but also want to tie down the rear of the bike.

Use "soft ties" on the bars making sure not to capture the wiring from the switch gear and then install ratchet straps from trailer tie downs to the soft ties. The soft ties will clear your S fairing provided the trailer tie points are not too close to the front wheel. At the rear, soft ties installed just behind the shocks around the sub-frame tubes then ratchet straps from trailer to those. The fork should be pushed down to increase overlap and stabilize the front of the bike. Not so tight on the rear but enough that when you give the rear of the bike shake, the trailer shakes instead. Tires aired up of course.

IMO I don't like the ties that grab onto the handlebar grips. The stability of this tie down assumes that the clamps on the bars at the steering stem are strong enough to take the bouncing and twisting. If they give up, then you've lost the major stability for the bike. Best would be to grab around the lower triple tree and pull down and forward.

Na Cl K9 said:

Use "soft ties" on the bars making sure not to capture the wiring from the switch gear and then install ratchet straps from trailer tie downs to the soft ties. The soft ties will clear your S fairing provided the trailer tie points are not too close to the front wheel. At the rear, soft ties installed just behind the shocks around the sub-frame tubes then ratchet straps from trailer to those. The fork should be pushed down to increase overlap and stabilize the front of the bike. Not so tight on the rear but enough that when you give the rear of the bike shake, the trailer shakes instead. Tires aired up of course.

Click to expand...

+ 1 on what Na Cl K9 said.

Use soft ties (for sale on the Airheads.org) on the handle bars, chrome part and not where the hand grips switches are, then install the ratchets. I used this method for hundreds of miles although always in a pick up truck bed and never in a trailer.

Proper trailering is a bit like what oil is best, etc., and there are definitely different camps.

I would strongly suggest that you never use handlebar straps on a BMW. They're fine for lightweight dirt bikes and for anything else if nothing goes wrong, but that is completely the wrong approach. You should use procedures that will help when/if things go wrong not ony if everything goes right. BMW themselves and most every other reputable manufacturer will warn against doing so for good reasson. For a 450+ pound, bike handlebar straps can place loads on the bars and steering head that the bike was not designed for, and if things go wrong you'll likely mess things up. Few people pay much attention to fork alignment anymore, but it is very important for a good handling bike, why compromise that?

Use a wheel-chock and tie-down straps below/before your suspension.

This video from A&S BMW Motorcycles (a respected and knowledgeable vendor) deals with a telelever front-end and is taken directly from BMW's offical documentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6v8dy5XwZg

BMW's offical documentation: https://www.ascycles.com/pdf/Tiedown2.pdf

While your R100RS, like my R90S and my Nortons don't have a telelever front-end, the principle is the same and you just place your straps around the fork legs at each mounting point for the fender brace. You don't want to tie down and compress your suspension, just tie the bike itself down to the trailer (below the suspension) and secure it side-to-side. Let your suspension do some of it's work.

The only exception that I would take with the video/PDF instructions is that you really don't want much pressure on your straps, just have them sufficiently snug so that there is no side-to-side play. Many have the mistaken idea that you should clamp down on the straps and compress the suspension. That method works against you not with you.

If you secure below/before your suspension then your bike can move up and down on the suspension as needed without lifting off the trailer surface. The only other issue you are working with is keeping the bike upright. This is fairly easy with the straps. Think of when you are sitting on your bike and have your feet on the ground. You require very little force to keep the bike upright unless it is leaned over significantly. The same is true with the straps. Take the slack out so there is no "excess" movement (there will almost always be a little from the straps stretching and that is fine). Think about what the straps are actually doing. The strap on the right fork is only keeping the bike from falling to the left, so why clamp down on it and try to pull the bike apart??? Just have it snug.

After you have the bike secure, drive the trailer for a couple of blocks and stop and inspect your straps just to make sure you have everything correct and nothing is loosening for some reason. If everything is is good, than don't worry and motor on.

I've towed motorcycles thousands of miles and never had an issue or damage following BMW recommendations. It can be disconcerting at first to see the motorcycle moving up and down on its suspension as it is being trailered, but just so long as there isn't any appreciable side-to-side movenment everything is as it should be.

way to go Alan
Wait for it...

We do the same basically as the bike/trailer is finding road surfaces that it does not tied down in a crate. A locking wheel chock is a plus in securing. Every trailer we have has multiple tie down spots to allow some adjustment for fairings and size.

Whatever works on particular bikes, but I have always avoided handlebar/canyon dancer style tie downs unless its a MX reinforced w/crossbar handlebar small bike. Have seen several pinched electrical bundles, pinched brake lines and a broken switch/lever assy from tow truck operators and a few folks who just didn't notice an issue when strapping.

I had a “disagreement” with an AMA tow program responder last year, when he wanted to tie down my R100 at the handlebars and I refused to allow it. He made me run the straps myself, that was fine with me.

I've trailered various airheads for a couple thousand miles at least -- and others, dirt and street, many times over that. Most techniques work fine if you're careful and double check the straps after five or ten miles. My father's mantra was to check them at 1, 10 and 100 miles but he used rope back in the day. I'd use the passenger peg carriers for the rear and soft ties just above the bottom triple clamp or around the handlebar clamp mounts depending on which lets the straps clear everything.

I’ve also trailered my bikes for years and use the same tie down places. Up front I use the bottom triple clamp with soft straps, and soft straps around the frame under the seat near the top shock mounts. I pull the front down about 3/4 of the way, and about 1/2 of the way in the back. This even works with RTs and RS bikes by popping out the rubber gathers and running the tie down straps up through the holes.

i go through the triple tree too with just a hair compression. This is also in a wheel chock secured to my trailer. Rear, I just wrap one around the wheel to each corner of the rear of the trailer. Nothing crazy tight, but just enough to keep it from shifting around. Never had an issue. Also, i agree with checking after a few miles, then every gas/pee/coffee stop.

And PLEASE get some good straps with a little meat to them and have a decent load rating.

I go around the top of the fork sliders with a soft tie, and then use ratchet straps from them to the front stake pockets, pulling the bike forward into the simple steel-tube wheel chock bolted to my truck's bed. On the back, I use soft ties around the main frame hoop and the lower leg of the rear sub-frame where they meet (threaded under the wiring harness run to the rear brake switch, etc.), and then use ratchet straps to the rear stake pockets. The weight of the bike is free to bounce on its suspension, but the wheels don't move forward or back, or side-to-side. It's been good enough that the route to my Chicago mechanic, which includes a stretch of "road hockey" on the Dan Ryan Expressway, is no big deal. I use straps and soft-ties that have working load limits of >1000 lbs. each, on the assumption that those limits may be for fairly static applications, rather than more dynamic loads.

In addition to the periodic "rigging checks" that all have suggested, I've also found it prudent to recheck the tension on the straps if/when they get wet from rain or road spray. Wet straps seem to stretch when dampened (I don't know what percentage of their length) and need to be tightened to maintain tension.

From Riders Manual

Granted this is for a Cam Head RT but this is how the manual says to transport. Note it says "compressed as greatly as possible" which is how we transported bikes for 10s of thousands of miles years ago when still young and racing. Only transported the RT once, to home when purchased, and this technique worked with no damage to plastic and such.

Just another method to consider.

GD

I did forget to mention that I use heavy tape wrapped around the open ends of the hooks on the tie down straps when everything is in place and tight effectively closing the loop. That keeps bumps from momentarily loading the bikes remaining suspension enough to slacken the tie downs and loosen the hooks in their moorings causing them to detach themselves. I watched an R60/2 being trailered literally bounce right out of a trailer on to its top (rubber side up) because it wasn't tied in tight and the hooks got loose as it bounced along on the trailer in a parking lot ... "bounced on the trailer while tied down" doesn't really sound like tied down does it?. If you plan to let the suspension do its job in the back of your truck or trailer, tape the tie down hooks - top and bottom. Heck, do it anyway. Your suspension works for you on the road and against you in the trailer... One of my friends who also uses soft ties - to the handle bars - has replaced the hooks on his ratchet straps with carabiners which eliminates the sticky tape mess when unloading the bike. Those things do not get loose.

Tie downs

If you have the front tire in a tie down chock, or use a couple of 2 x 4 ‘s fastened on each side of the tires it’s no trouble hauling a bike the tire chocks keep wheels from slipping or bouncing out from under the bike the tie downs on opposite sides of bike front and back hooked to bike pulling against each other keep bike balanced and up right you don’t need to compress the suspension. On the R100/7 ride the bike onto the trailer and in to the wheel chock, step off and while holding bike fasten back straps usually to top of schocks snug up straps go to front fasten straps to fork tubes above lower cross bar thing these straps pull forward and out about 45 degree angle.
Important thing something other than weight of bike or weight of bike and downward force of tie downs to keep wheels under bike

Good thread here- https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?88430-U-Haul-motorycle-trailer
OM

How many people posting to this topic have taken a brand new /6 or /7 BMW out of its original factory crate direct from the distributer? This is important because if you had, you would never worry about drawing the forks down as far as they will go - because that’s the way they came in the crate from the factory in Germany. Tie downs on the bars too. So the factory is like “do as I say not as I do”? Not likely.

wherever you tie it down...use good straps!!

do not use "cam buckle" straps. they loosen up. use ratchet straps!

do not use straps with open hooks on the ends. they can bounce out of the rings you put them through. use carabiner style or hooks that close.

these are a good example, they even have a built in soft tie.

https://www.amazon.com/PowerTye-Erg...=UTF8&qid=1542675516&sr=1-6&keywords=powertye

Na Cl K9 said:

How many people posting to this topic have taken a brand new /6 or /7 BMW out of its original factory crate direct from the distributer? This is important because if you had, you would never worry about drawing the forks down as far as they will go - because that’s the way they came in the crate from the factory in Germany. Tie downs on the bars too. So the factory is like “do as I say not as I do”? Not likely.

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And cheap straps too. I have a pile of them cadged from dealers over the years.

These are my straps. I like the locking ends. https://www.amazon.com/Motorcycle-C...4&sr=8-28&keywords=motorcycle+tie+down+straps

AlanColes said:

BMW's offical documentation: https://www.ascycles.com/pdf/Tiedown2.pdf

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I can assure that is NOT BMW's official documentation. This is a procedure created by a dealer, not BMW ... and it's not a good one.

The photo shows use of a BMW MultiTrailer WITHOUT the motorcycle wheel chock.

I have a MultiTrailer with the official manuals and it of course specifies use of the wheel chock.

The most relevant instruction provided by BMW is that the motorcycle suspension be completely bottomed where possible. This means you have achieved lowest center of gravity and it's also relatively obvious that if the motorcycle suspension can still compress, the motorcycle is not firmly tied down. When I tie my RT to my trailer the only motion achievable by pushing on the motorcycle is motion in the trailer suspension ... the bike might as well be a rock. Owners manuals for later bikes contain tie down instructions and for the most part specify the fully compressed suspension notion. There is frankly no valid engineering reason for wanting the bike's suspension to work while on a trailer.

I agree it's a bit difficult to achieve best results with, for example, an Airhead RS or RT ... at least without removing some of the fairing panels around the forks. I'd also agree you can do pretty good wrapping around the lower triple clamp--if you have upside down forks, that will compress them, for conventional it will press the wheel pretty strongly to the trailer.

As an FYI, the tiedown straps provided with the MultiTrailer are the ratchet type ... sure seems lots more safe than the friction type. Any strap best run just either side of handlebar center.