Holy Sliders Skyway!

I like to take it all when I go camping.. Big camper with hi def TV, fridge full of steak and beer, firewood, easy chairs... AND my FJR. So, occasionally, 'Crzy8' gets trailered. Previously, I've used soft ties around the fork seal area as the tie down point. It works well, but is a RPITA and takes time to install. Additionally, the soft ties rubbed against the lower tupperware.

After discussing the feasability of this idea with Ian, we decided to give this a try; drilling a hole in the Skyway 06 slider, placing the hole on the bottom side, then using that as the tie down point.

As you can see from the pix, I need to weld some hooks lower on the front stop in order to have downward force applied to the bike. No big deal, will crank up the welder this weekend.

Even as mocked up for the pix however, using soft-ties down low, the bike is very stable. I call this a resounding success.

Up close view of installed slider from back side



Left Side



Right side

Works for me. Short of the Canyon Dancer, there isn't any place on the front to hook into. My straps hooked into the fairing support at the neck were cut through by the bug shields on my Superbrace in a hunnert miles on my way to WooFoo. Way tight up there, and not all trailers accomodate that angle of connection anyways. I had considered removing the sliders and rigging a hook or loop there to hook into, but was on the way and didn't want to screw up my schedule shopping unfamiliar hardware stores whilst onroute. Good thinkin'...

Never had a canyon dancer system fail in 50 years of towing bikes.

rontoride said:

Never had a canyon dancer system fail in 50 years of towing bikes.

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Good point. I may start using my Canyon Dancers and just one tie down from each side of the Holy Sliders. I forgot I had the CD's in the trailer.

Not sure I'd trust the CD's by themselves, but I would trust using the slider tie down point alone. As always, YMMV

I like redundancy, period.

With just the sliders as a tie point you would need a front wheel chock, right? How about with a canyon dancer and the sliders, could you get away with out the chock? Is 'chock' the correct spelling?

Oh yeah, brilliant idea sir, thank you.

Yes, 'chock' is the right spelling.

While a chock is still suggested, doing something as simple as attaching a couple 2x4s to the floor of the trailer (the front wheel would sit between the 2x4s), you want to have something that will keep the front wheel from jumping/sliding sideways.

Can't remember where, but, I saw frame sliders somewhere that have a removeable extension that attaches to the end of the slider (I think with a set screw) that provides a hook which can be used as a tie-down point.

Now if we could only get some highway pegs in those holes, we'd be set!

temp357 said:

Now if we could only get some highway pegs in those holes, we'd be set!

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NOW you are talking my languge! I've been bugging SkyWay, along with others, for weeks/months now. What's up wid' 'dat? Doesn't SW know that his sole purpose in life is to create farkles for us, the FJR crowd? :yahoo: OTOH, he has a real biz to run.. but I did promise, in a true ODOT moment, to reveal my secret design to SW for free... Seriously, I think it just might work. I got to get to my buddies house where I have access to some (simple) machining tools and see what can be done. I want nothing of this for me.. too much work... but maybe... SW could make it work on a larger scale. Then again, Ian may just laugh at the idea... . Then again, sometimes the best effort is the one that gets that talented folks over TDC...

radman said:

Short of the Canyon Dancer, there isn't any place on the front to hook into.

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I've used soft straps with end loops around the triple clamp and then hook the lower loop. Solid, easy, and no problems. :thumbsup:

Bruno

Montreal, Canada

https://pages.videotron.com/mcrides

I dunno how much I would try and side load the sliders like that for tiedowns..... It is probably not going to hurt anything but in the event of an accident there is going to be a huge amount of load put into that one bolt trying to bend it....see the other thread about the broken frame and the slider like that. The nylon straps are probably going to give enough to prevent the severe shock loading of the slider sideways but it is still going to have a tremendous bending moment on that bolt given the side load, the distance from the pivot point the tiedowns are hooked and the small base section where the slider contacts the frame.

I guess another way of expressing my concern would be to envision a 12 mm bolt that is 4 inches or so long sticking out of the frame at that point with the tie downs tugging sideways on it. Pretty much everyone would get nervous about a bolt that skinny and long bending. You don't have much more lateral strength than that with the small base of the slider so think of it like that.

I have a dumb question:

Is it better to tow the FJR on the wheel (I think yes) or the centerstand (I think not)?

-BD

On the wheels....

On the centerstand would put a lot more of the impact loads into the frame and cause a tendency for it to chatter around much easier than on the tires.

If you did tie it down on the centerstand you would want to brace or tie the centerstand so that it cannot fold up if the bike moved a little.

radman said:

Short of the Canyon Dancer, there isn't any place on the front to hook into.

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Sure there is. Soft ties to the front triple tree.

VS. drilling holes in the shop or from Skyway, just clove hitch the slider on the inside and hook or clip whatever tie-down you wish.

I'm sure you can google the clove hitch knot.

This should avoid any leverage effects from bending the bolt under extreme loading.

YMMV.

GZ

rontoride said:

Never had a canyon dancer system fail in 50 years of towing bikes.

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Shit, I'm just amazed that the Canyon Dancer has been around for 50 years!

jestal said:

On the wheels....
On the centerstand would put a lot more of the impact loads into the frame and cause a tendency for it to chatter around much easier than on the tires.

If you did tie it down on the centerstand you would want to brace or tie the centerstand so that it cannot fold up if the bike moved a little.

Click to expand...

+2

Absolutely on the wheels/sidestand.

Both methods, center or side, give you a triangle contact point, i.e. front tire/back tire/sidestand or front tire/left leg of center stand/right leg of center stand. But the sidestand combo gives you a much larger spread of contact area, that is, the "triangle" is MUCH larger. Heck, on the sidestand, 2 points of the support triangle are only about 4 inches apart.

Go on the sidestand, leave it in gear and bungee/tape the front brake to keep fore/aft motion to the minimum.

Hey Radiohowie are you some kind of love child? Wonder who could it be???