Warning from the Future !!!   (from after the fact)


This towing your bike out of your open trunk idea isn't a very good one.   As a matter of fact, it sucks big time ....


The issues focus around the high center of gravity of the towed bike and the fact that going around a turn causes the bike to tilt.   In the trunk position the center of gravity is so high that the bike tilts over and tries to hit the bumper when making a simple 90 degree turn.

This roll over from the trunk position is so severe the bike doesn't always manage to straighten back up all the way once the turn is over.

Lastly, the Harbor Freight bike chock isn't tight enough on the front tire to support this roll over shite.  There is room for the tire to slide over in the chock and when this happens any compression on the front forks wants to relieve itself and the result is a strong sideways binding condition between bike, car, chock and the front wheel assembly.

The front wheel assembly is what loses out in this scenario, you can/will warp your front wheel some during a turn/tilt over episode.   This results in time spent spoke truing your front tire and whapping your rotor with a BFH and a block of wood  to remove the run out of rotor and rim.   And all this damage was done at barely moving speeds, I shudder to think of what road speeds would do to a front wheel (rip the sucker apart, most likely).

If you wish to pursue these sorts of ideas, try using Verslagen's trick of removing the front wheel and hard mounting the front axle --- and try to keep the center of gravity as low as possible to keep the tilt monster at bay.





Idea is rated Dumb, Dubious and Dangerous ....  don't do it unless you like fiddling with spokes, truing wheels etc




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Before I spend any real effort or $$$ money chasing down this idea, I thought I'd let the brain trust here on the list poke holes in the basic concepts (if there are holes are available to poke).


General Concept:


Open your trunk on your normal family sedan all the way ....


Slip an inverted wooden "U" shaped channel over the bottom lip of the trunk ....  


(bolt it down with a couple of bolts to make sure it can't jump up and go anywhere when you hit a bump, etc.)


On top of that inverted "U" firmly mount a Harbor Freight motorcycle chock ....


Now, get a buddy to help you lift the front wheel of your Savage into the chock, tie it down to the chock and the car such that the front wheel isn't going anywhere and restrain the handle bars so they can't tilt or rotate (compress the front shocks at least half way).  Front wheel is restrained, handle bars are held true to the front wheel, mobile part of the front end is fixed relative to the trunk but body of the bike is completely free to rotate and tilt as road conditions require it to move.


The bike is held front wheel high at about a 35 degree angle, the oil in the sump has shifted backwards and the clutch/small pulley output shaft and associated gear clusters (which spins on large ball bearings BTW on all shafts) is under water in an oil bath.   Bike is in neutral, real wheel is free spinning but will be turning the same rpm it would if ridden at the same speed it is being towed, as will the belt and small pulley.

Throw a rolled up sleeping bag over the front fender and tie down the trunk good so it won't be flopping around at highway speeds.

Make the trip up to the Dragon driving 80+ mph on the interstates sitting in complete luxury & comfort in an AC'd automobile.


Have a car up there in case we need a beer run (or a bleeder run).





So far,  DON'T HIT POT HOLES, DON'T BACK UP and DON'T TURN SUPER SHARP is the only flies in the ointment I've come up with.

So why not just make a hitch and weld it to the frame of the car, buy or make a 'hitch hiker'  and mount it on the hitch??

I'd rather do this



Than do this....because you may end up pinching the bike  with the car.

And a wheel chock is $39.99 less 20% coupon and steel cost whatever per pound at the scrap yard. I have nuts, bolts or welders, rods.....or get a truck and make a ramp.....

I spent about $100 to buy a hitch for my Wrangler because I figured it would come in handy anyway.  Then I got a variation on a hitch-hauler on Ebay for around $100.  Very handy.   Most of those dirt bike carriers that get the whole bike off the ground are rated up to at least 400 pounds so the LS650 should be ok on one those too.

$100 for this, $100 for that -- heck, eventually it adds up to some money

Go buy a truck ?    I jest love these people who have lots & lots of money -- I can remember being one of them back in the day when America had manufacturing plants making power tools and such like stuff right here in the USA ....


Today's reality sez ....

$31 for the chock
$12 for a 16 foot 2x6
$25 for misc hardware, nuts, screws, & stuff

(and that includes a $4 tube of new Loctite brand, 4x stronger than liquid nails super duper polyurethane based construction adhesive -- the tube glue stuff has gotten a lot better since the last time you looked)

Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 05/17/11 at 21:17:17:

nothing to do with lots and lots of money.....I don't own a car. I own a 67 Falcon van. Most folks that I know that have a bike also have a truck. And it cost me less than $100 to build a 'hitch hiker' to tow the bike behind the van. 4'x8' trailers are less than $200 without the floor.
And you must also understand that in some places, the police will stop you because they are clueless on what you have done and it may lead to an 'improper towing/transport' ticket. No different then when we used to tow cars with a strap or chain.....Good ole 'Redneck Engineering' isn't always appreciated!

Imagination ??

Never had any .... always been stopped short of all my goals by a stone lack of imagination.  

Shame about that lack of imagination, I always wished I had some.

Some folks don't have friendly junkyards that let them walk around inside them lookin' and thinkin' -- I surely do miss being able to stroll around letting solutions come to me from the available bits and pieces.

Some folks don't have a welder.  Some people don't have a solid bumper to work with.   Some folks have a unibody sedan which it seems has nothing solid to it at all.

But everybody has a Lowes near by that has 2x6" lumber and they do have a circular saw or a hand saw that they can cut wood with.

Drywall screws & this newfangled polywuppie 4x stronger than wood Loctite construction adhesive means you can assemble a complex structural framework that you can attach to the lip of your trunk (the one place the car's unibody always goes in a fairly strong double wall configuration in a place where you can get to it and use it)












Being a wee little bit of an "overkill" nature, I've got 4 each 3/8-16 bolts tapped into the unibody using a tapered punched hole that was tapped and 2 each 3/8" lag bolts 8" long coming from the inside 2x6 piece, piercing and threading through both sides of the steel unibody trunk lip and stopping jest short of breaking through the outermost 2x6 piece.

She's in there for the duration, but can be unbolted and removed inside of 3 minutes.

As for North Carolina cops, the rules state that for unlighted daytime towage or for items protruding from the rear of your vehicle, you have to have a red flag flapping in the wind from the end of things.  

And the bike has a tag on it already and if it made a cop happy I could turn the lights on for a little bit until he went his way and I went mine.

The bike does not block the standard turn and brake lights on the car, BTW.


       


 Total cost of the chock, the wood and all the hardware stuff was less than $65, construction time was about 6 hours spread out over several days (drying time for the adhesive mostly).    

Only change to the car is six small holes going through the carpeting -- no biggie at all since the closed trunk lid covers all of them from sight and that means no noticeable change to the car's appearance.   Put in and take out times are about 3 minutes, so it qualifies as a "quick change" system.

Have you test-fitted the bike in it yet?