Moto rack attachments options

palebluewanders

Active member
Hi everyone! I hope I can get some honest opinions from those of you who have carried motorbikes for some time and have experienced the real forces/vibration/jolting that go into the support points while doing some hairy tracks. The bike will go on something like this:
180a66717359f6ebb0ba510524378f39.jpg

For the front wheel I found this good looking wheel clamp:

Does anyone know of better alternatives?

As for the motorcycle body, I've seen that most people use straps. I gather that the straps may very well be the most secure (if setup correctly), but they seem a bit cumbersome to strap and unstrap. Knowing myself, the easier it is to load/unload the bike the more I will use it. So I hoped to find a system that's faster than straps and ideally as secure. This one below with the clamping mechanism seems to me very quick and easy. Also lockable which is a plus. Doesn't involve compressing the suspension of the bike to tie it down. It locks the bike to prevent side-to-side and front-to-back rocking movement. And you can't really mess up, it's quite idiot proof. However I have no idea if this would be strong enough for long term real world off-road conditions.

Thoughts?

This other system also uses the foot pegs for the tie downs. Seems less cumbersome than the straps but perhaps not faster to tie and untie. With this one you also need to tie the bike down, compressing the suspensions like with the straps and still allows for the bike to move quite freely inside what's allowed by the remaining suspension travel. It's unclear to me whether this is better than the straps in any way but it's quite popular in Australia where roads can be rough.

Would folks here trust this?

Which would be your preferred option? And ultimately, those of you that trust the straps and nothing else, can you recommend me your favorite kit and why?

Sorry for the long post : ) Hope that this can become useful to other people too, and thanks a lot in advance for sharing your experience with those of us who are just starting!

Tracy & Toni
 

Zuber

Active member
I've been hauling all size of motorcycles for 51 years. Not just my own, but worked at M/C shops for a total of 23 years.

Those wheel clamps put a lot of unusual stress on the wheel bearings. Other clamps on the footpegs are expensive and fiddly.

The best set-up: four tie straps with the soft ties built-in are the best. The best of the best is Ancra brand. The front strap attached around the forks at the bottom triple clamp angled slightly forward. The rear straps high on the frame angled slightly forward. The front wheel dropped in a slot that keeps the bike from rolling front/back or the wheel from twisting side/side. The bike is sitting on it's suspension. It will wiggle a little on large bumps, but won't bail off.
 

Trestle

Active member
Do you have the bike picked out yet, or know which model you want? This may inform some decision making as well.
 

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