How tight do you strap your scooter in the garage (1 Viewer)

[OldAgeTravellers]

Hi all,
We have just bought this cracking little Suzuki Address. Only a year old and just 385 km on the clock and less than half the new price from a French dealer with a years guarantee and free one year service because I don't think we will do 1,000 km in the year.
I made a nice little folding wooden ramp much lighter than the aluminium ones and have strapped the scooter into the garage.
I have two good ratchet straps pulling down from each side of the back rack going under the back box down to the eye bolts in the floor. Then I made two handlebar straps to pull down to the other eye bolts and a final single strap pulling it from the rear wheel into the wheel chock at the front.
In your experience is this enough to hold it while travelling normally with the pitching and rolling and bumps and also under braking or worse a crash! (100kg of scooter travelling through the van at 70mph I think would be a bit alarming).
I thought about putting another strap from the front rail in the Hymer garage across the seat to the rear rail but that might rub and damage the seat.
I compressed the springs about an inch at the back and just a little at the front so as not to put too much force on the twist grip and it seems not to slacken off if I pull down hard on the rack.
Any suggestions based upon your own experience of travelling with a scooter in the back?.
Oh, I have put it on a weighbridge and it is under the rear wheel limit but I will need to do quite a bit of careful packing.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Steve

 

[TheTwoOfUs]

Try bouncing on the suspension and see if the strap hooks come out of the eye. This will simulate what is likely to happen when on the road. I use 6 straps on mine to build in some redundancy just in case one strap fails. I also use a strap through the front wheel and round the "shoe" to prevent any tendency for the scooter to roll backwards. I know it's over the top but the outcome in the event of something going wrong doesn't bear thinking about.

 

[tacr2man]

I would think what you have done is more than adequate , I carry a 250kg Burgman on the back rack and only use four straps , and it hasnt moved yet , and thats after several thousand miles with it on there . The sort of impact that will move your scooter , will be far more serious up the front end , than to worry about it . Just ensure that the straps are tight enough to partially compress the suspension .

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[tonyidle]

Bungees to hold the brakes on are as good as a chock.

 

[TheDogMan]

I put a short U shaped alloy metal channel screwed down and covered with thin carpet, the back wheel sits in this and keeps the rear wheel of the bike in place when I go over a bump in the road, I did this after the first trip when I noted that the rear wheel slipped a bit sidways whilst still being secured by the straps. the front wheel is secured in a bike stand as is yours

 

[funflair]

I fasten ours down in a similar way but a bit more angle on the straps and it doesn’t go anywhere.

No chock on rear wheel as the front is in a rock n roll stand.

Martin

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[pappajohn]

I secured my 400 burgman to the trailer with a pair of straps from trailer to handlebars and a pair from the rear rack mounts.
Half way across the Pennines a glance in the rear view monitor showed a pair of straps had come off when the bike 'bounced' on the suspension.
Bike was laid at 45° with both wheels jammed in the wheel channel.
After that I strapped to unsprung components...top of rear wheel and lower part of fork tubes.
That allowed the bike to 'bounce' on the suspension without fear of the straps coming off.
I always secured cars on flatbed recovery trucks the same way...as does every recovery driver, never via the towing/lashing rings

 

[Kevinthecat]

Sorry , got to say it , when I saw the title thread , I thought ooh err missus

 

[Nasher]

I would be concerned that the rocking of the scooter may cause a handlebar strap to unhook, especially as the tie down points are quite narrow & close to the scooter.

It might be worth looking at a handlebar strap that would prevent that:

https://www.bikermart.co.uk/BikeIt-Motorcycle-Handlebar-Support-Straps

As regards how much to ratchet them down, rather than a measurement, I ratchet down until the bike hardly rocks at all. I also check after about 10 miles of driving

I have found that by using a secured wheel chock, this strap is all that is required to secure my bikes

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MOTRAX-M...E-TIE-PACK-STRAPS-RATCHETS-PACK-/221554766796

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[obanvanman]

Handle bar support straps from demon tweets, or the like. Make life a lot easier.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Thanks for all the comments. Looking at Martin's @funflair setup, I will try moving the eye bolt back a bit into the blanked off hole. Only about six inches but a bit more leverage. I can understand strapping the wheels when the bike is facing the direction of travel as @Nasher picture above but I think it would be too much leverage when travelling sideways with fairly small wheels but it would help if other straps come lose like @pappajohn so I will make up a loop strap for the rear wheel like the transporters use this will also stop the wheel sliding as happened to @TheDogMan . But overall happy that nobody has trouble carrying their scooters sideways in the garage. Thanks again to all.
Steve

 

[Freespirit1]

I fasten ours down in a similar way but a bit more angle on the straps and it doesn’t go anywhere.

View attachment 226540

No chock on rear wheel as the front is in a rock n roll stand.

Martin

Yep - puurfect set up - same as I do without a front choke - just pull it with the front straps to the side wall of the garage

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[Northernraider]

I've just 3 straps on mine one from each side of the rear rack and one that goes over the step through section secured to two eyelets one either side. ...no wheel chock

Have done over 6000 miles in the van with it like that now and it's never moved

So id imagine yours will be fine

You don't need to overdo it .....you want to be able to load and unload it quickly

 

[Spriddler]

I've trailered my motorbikes for 30 years (several trips!) over many thousands of miles and to stop it bouncing at bumps and the tie down hooks jumping out of the floor plates I put a block under the frame (as they do on ferries) and pull the ratchet straps down tight so the bike sits hard onto the block and cannot bounce. My current tie-down hooks are of the Karabiner type which close completely.
From your photo I can see that you don't have to use the eyes in the floor but could route the strap through the eyes and back to the ratchet without using the hooks
If the h/bars are adjustable for height make sure they can't rotate downwards, loosening the tie-downs. (Don't ask how I know this ).