You become more interesting every day Paul. First you say your other bike is a Honda Shadow Spirit 1100 and now you say you graduated from UT. Cool. I also graduated from UT back in 1980. Yep, no longer a spring chicken. Well, let me rethink that. If I claim to be a scaredy cat and live in spring ... maybe I am a spring chicken.

Yeah, old man humor!!!

ThumperPaul wrote on 01/19/24 at 12:42:44:


The problem with commercial made toy haulers, is they make the floor really high so that folks with quads and dirt bikes can access the remote locations without dragging and scraping off the underside plumbing.  For those of us who ride street bikes and keep our trailers on pavement the high ground clearance is not needed.  If you shop around you may be able to find one with a low floor height - I just wanted to make you aware that a floor height more than about 16" starts to become a challenge for loading/unloading easily....when the floor get up to 27" it becomes downright dangerous.

When I take trips without the wife, I am fine with using the campground bathroom and sleeping in my trailer.  For about 10 years my trailer was a small 4x8 trailer that was only 4 feet tall.  My Pontiac Vibe could pull it well and I likely have 30,000 miles of pulling that trailer!  I had a foam mattress that I stood up against the wall while the bike was inside, and once I got to the destination I pulled the bike out and parked it under a pop up canopy, then put the mattress on the floor and made my bed.  I had a small battery stick up light, and there were 3 windows for ventilation.  It was a great little camper - the only issue was the low height and a Savage fit fine with the mirrors removed, the F800 required I remove the windshield....my larger bike would not fit as the bodywork was too high.

What you might consider doing is convert a cargo trailer into a simple camper so you can have the low floor height.  You can keep it simple if you want - or get fancier.  There are plenty of videos on YouTube with camper to cargo conversions - just be careful not to make it too heavy (a lot of builders on YouTube have made incredibly heavy trailers.....commercial builders use lightweight materials for a reason).

Traveling in an enclosed trailer works out really well for me.  My bike is secure and out of the weather while I travel, sleeping in a trailer is far more comfortable (and drier) than a tent, with a car and small trailer I can get a pretty cheap rate for camping as I don't need an RV site.....at some of the motorcycle campgrounds I just sleep in the car parking area parked between the other cars/trucks/trailers and it is very quiet at night (it is nice to be able to avoid the more costly RV sites).

Recently I upgraded and sold the 4x8 trailer and bought a 5x10 so that I can put my bikes in without removing the windshield - however my Vibe is no longer the designated tow vehicle.  The attached photo is from 2012 when I drove to Long Island from Kentucky to pick up my Savage - a 2007 with only 262 miles on it!

That’s a nice little trailer right there!  I’m the one that wants a 20’ trailer.  My wife wants something smaller that’s mostly just to sleep in and store an outdoor kitchen.

What I like best about your comment is you traveling from Virginia to NY to get a low milage bike. Makes me feel more normal when I find bikes I want that are several hundred miles away.  For whatever reason, Dallas has more bikes for sale that I like than Houston does.

As I continue to research bikes to find the “perfect” match for me, the more I realize how I ended up buying my first Savage about two years ago!  I wish Suzuki would reintroduce the bike with a handful of changes.  Wish list includes - slightly less rake, rear disc brake, drilled rotors, bigger front disc brake, cast wheels, 6 gears, fuel injected with better head porting, and do anything with the whole battery box set-up!!  I do like the big wide flat torque curve that hits about 85% of peak torque down around 2k rpms and stays above 85% until around 5k rpms.  Don’t screw that up, but a bit more HP and torque would be welcome.  Don’t turn it into a short stroker that needs 8k rpms to do anything!  

Ok, I meandered off course and off topic far enough now!  Back to 2024 Rides!!

You have an awesome bike, Dave!  Aside from wanting to meet folks, I also want to see y'alls cool rides - like yours!!  I'm not into doing a bunch of tinkering and mods myself.  Lack of skill, tools, and equipment - and I really just don't want to do it (lazy, unmotivated, and I just wanna ride).

Why is MM's bike the only one with muddy tires?

ThumperPaul wrote on 01/20/24 at 07:13:09:


I would love to bring my Savage down some year - but it doesn't have room for Deb on the back!

For me the time in the garage is my winter therapy.  We got 4" of snow on Thursday night, and temps have been down in the single digits for a week now.  The garage is warm and cozy, and I can while away the winter hiding in my garage and make stuff.  I just finished a set of DragBikeMike's oil pump overdrive.....that took me days!

The one without the windshield is my bike. Funny, I don't remember cleaning the tires.

That yellow Savage with flames was a cool looking bike.

I never finished my grad studies, but I did a few grad hours at UH. Most of the money I gave to UH though will have been for my kids. The fourth one should be graduating from UH this year. That Spirit 750 I understand is a pretty good bike also.

Not from me buddy !  

I can easily bring a 8'x10' x 72" tent to put in the yard (if need be) and we'll have cot's anyway .

Ten to Twelve is OK with me.    When our column get longer than a 18 wheeler or some won't keep it tight in town is where I've seen problems come from.