started dumping a bunch of anti-
skid material into a cheap stain
and painting it onto the ramp, re-
ducing the tendency of the tires to
skid during unloading.
Something to hold the front
wheel is important. You can run it
against the front of a pickup truck
bed, but a chock that holds the
bike up all by itself—i.e., the Bax-
ley Sport Chock—makes the pro-
cess easier. That's because once
the bike is in place, it stays there
while you strap it down securely.
And if you need one, make
sure you have something sturdy
to use as a step while pushing
the bike into and out of the trans-
port vehicle. Toolboxes may work,
if the top is study enough to not
cave in. Don't use something light-
weight that can move at precisely
the worst possible moment. Using
an empty, upside-down fi ve-gal-
lon paint bucket can turn into a
very, very bad idea. MotoConcepts
makes a nifty little gadget called the
MotoStep, which is a secure two-
step platform that makes it easier
to step up into your van or pickup
truck or trailer as you load your
bike, and just looks totally factory.
Next, do a little recon on the
transport vehicle. Make sure it's
long enough that the rear wheel
is safely supported when the front
wheel is pushed forward as far as
it's going to go. Make sure you've
got somewhere solid to hook
the tie straps. I've had very good
luck with hefty eyebolts sunk into
the metal base of a van's seats.
Black+Gray makes a line of bolt-in tie-down rings, and the metal
loops inside some truck beds are
ideal for this as well. And if you've
got a van, make sure the handle-bars clear the doors and the wind-
shield (or mirrors) of the bike
clear(s) the top of the rear opening.
You don't want to fi nd out halfway
up the ramp that it's not gonna fi t.
Place the ramp where you
need it and secure it with a tie-
strap to the bumper or something
else solid. Put the tie straps into
the loops or hooks, buckle-end
down, and put them where you
can reach them once the bike is in
the transport vehicle.
Grab the bike by the bars,
keep one hand covering the front
brake lever, and push it up the
ramp in a controlled manner.
Don't use the engine to power the
bike up the ramp. Use a friend for
that. It doesn't take a lot of imag-
ination to conceive of ways that
trying to use the engine to power
the bike up the ramp can get real-
ly ugly, as in, visit-the-emergency-
room ugly.
Stick the front wheel in the
chock, grab a tie-down and secure
it to the motorcycle. Best practice
is to attach the tie-down to a soft
tie positioned around the upper
fork tube, above the lower triple
clamp, or to the handlebars. If the
bike has tubular bars or clip-on
bars with risers (versus straight
tube clip-ons), don’t use a Bar
Harness or attach the soft tires
to the ends of the bars, because
the additional leverage they pro-
vide can actually bend the bars.
And make sure the tie-downs (or
harness) don't rub on bodywork or
press against a switch. It is no fun
to break the starter button on the
way to the track. Don't ask...
Use the straps to compress
the forks about one-third of the
way down; don't bottom the forks,
instead use just enough pressure
on the fork springs to keep the
bike from pitching forward and
releasing the tension on the tie-
downs. Once they are taut, tie off
the straps at the buckle. It's cheap(Above, Left) From top, Canyon Dancer Bar Harness, Canyon Dancer
heavy-duty tie-down straps, and generic soft ties. (Above, Right) A
Black+Gray aluminum front wheel chock being used with the company’s
locking-buckle heavy-duty tie-down straps, attached to the clip-on bars.The Pit Bull Trailer Restraint System
holds a bike up without straps, us-
ing pins that fi t into the rear axle.Chris Ulrich pushes a GSX-R1000 into his Sprinter van using a folding aluminum ramp; a step bumper helps.
26—Roadracing World, Trackday Directory 2019