As the trailer turns....

        First of all, we rode yesterday. It was in the lower 60's when the sun was out, So we rode up to Boulder. Put about 70 miles on the bike and don't feel nearly as couped up right now. Anyhow.......

         In the last episode of the continuing story of How am I going to pack that, we talked about why I wasn't about to pay $1500 for a trailer that I was maybe going to use only a handful of times a year. But I really want one. Not only can we use it for traveling, but why not hook it up to go to the grocery store. No more wondering if we can fit all this in the saddlebags. So what do I do, spend the big money for a fancy one, buy a used one from the internet that has who knows what problems? No... I will build one from scratch, sort off.

         Now I have to think about this. Yes, I am pretty handy with the socket set. I change the oil and brake pads on the car and bike. I even replaced a transmission once on our old Dodge minivan. But building a trailer for the bike, madness I tell you, Or is it?

         So back to the forums I go, of which I have now become a supporting member. 

(I felt bad squeezing them for free info, plus some new cool people to ride with.) Much to my surprise, I am not the first one to think about doing a project like this. As a matter of fact, it is the choice way of trailering for motorcyclists. Or, we are just a bunch of cheap people. Oh, I mean frugal.

         How does one go about building a trailer? With a kit of course. You didn't actually think I was going to get out the welder now did you? Especially since I have no clue how to weld. Well, there was this one time....... Oh never mind. Anyway, the place to go is the frugal mechanics friend, Harbor Freight. Now before you go all that's just Chinese junk tools, well, some of them are. But their trailer kits are made by a company called Haul Master. And yes I believe these are Chinese as well but for many years, Sears sold these trailers as well. And you have to trust Sears, the Brady Bunch goes there. So off to the website to see what they have to offer. 

        And much to my surprise, it is right there on the internet. In all it's glory......

That is what I want, simple, light and inexpensive with a fair amount of storage space. But They want me to spend $400 for it. Now I admit, $400 is a lot cheaper than $1500, but lets see if the frugal in me can make it for less.

        OK, so what is it made of? A trailer base and a car topper. Pretty sturdy, waterproof and rather nice looking. Let's see what else Harbor Freight has to offer. A few more pages in and I find this...

Same base as the above trailer only red. Hmm... red, easier to see than black,  and only $179 with a coupon. This is a keeper. Except it is still Chinese made. Well apparently the only bad thing about it are the wheel bearings. So I just repack the bearings and we are good to go. ow I have to figure out what to put on top. Everyone has seen these things go by on the cars.

That looks suspiciously like the one in the first picture as well. And look it's white. Easy to see and matches the bike. These go for a couple hundred dollars new, but lets get frugal again. I mentioned not wanting to buy a used trailer because you really don't know what your getting. How old is it? Has it been sitting outside in the weather for ever rusting away??? Well, apparently, these car toppers are a dime a dozen on craigslist. People are getting bigger cars, they don't need them anymore, for whatever reason, they are selling and they are in pretty good shape. 50 bucks. Sold.

          Now for the cool part. I am going to build the trailer, add a piece of treated plywood on the base to mount the car topper and wa la. A motorcycle pull behind trailer for 250 bucks. That's a good savings of 150 dollars. But wait there's more. The car topper will be able to be removed rather simply and now you have a flat bed cargo trailer. But wait that's not all. We will also be able to pull the trailer behind the car for those trips to Home Depot, when the station wagon is not quit big enough. It's a win win situation. 

          Well, that's the plan. It is not quite happening yet, but for sure before late summer. I am hoping for a nice trip to South Dakota and the trailer would work perfectly. But after I build it, I have to spend a little time pulling it to get the feel of a trailer behind the bike. I hope you enjoyed my little saga and will continue to read what I have to write. As the weather gets warmer, the rides will begin and I will be posting some trips and photos. I am really looking forward to that.

Until next time,

Namaste

Dave

         

Trunk or Trailer

Chapter 3.
         Well, It's January 9th. Still snow on the ground, and still not able to take the bike out of the shed due to all the snow and ice in the back yard, I continue to dream and make plans for the upcoming riding season. As you can see at the top of my blog, I have added a new picture. Thanks to my son Geoff and his many talents with Photoshop. It is a picture of Zoey. Oh yea, we decided to name her. Anyhow, you see two bikes up there. They are indeed the same bike. Yamaha calls our bike a Touring/Cruiser. When you go for the long rides you have the windscreen and backrest for comfort ability and in just a few seconds, the windscreen and backrest can come off making it a cool cruiser for around town. We keep the backrest on but the windscreen comes off on the warm evenings. In the last episode, I mentioned that our Tour Deluxe had a sister bike.

             The Venture, with all the bells and whistles one needs for total comfort on long trips. Well not necessarily. Other than the fairing and trunk it is the same bike. And again, I don't like the fairing in front. I mean, it comes with a cassette deck. I would have to transfer all my mp3's to cassette. LOL. But herein lies the small problem. Our RSTD is very comfortable to ride even though we haven't had the long trip yet. The issue is storage. As you can see above, the saddlebags on the side are the same on both bikes, but there is a rather large trunk on the back that we don't have. On a 1 or 2 day trip, the 3 bags are a decent enough size to pretty much put everything you need in it. I thought about looking on ebay for a used trunk and bracket from someone who was parting out a bike. There were a few out there for WAY more than I wanted to pay. So I began reading the motorcycle forums for other ideas.
        I have seen numerous bikes on the road pulling trailers and thought a little about it. But with the Suzuki being only an 800cc there was no way I was pulling anything. But now I have the luxury of driving a 1300cc V4 with power to spare and an overdrive. I began to search the motorcycle trailer websites. There are a ton of cool bike trailers out there if you have the money.
       Motorcycle trailers come in 2 forms, a 2 wheel traditional style trailer and a single wheel style.

          I did some research on both styles. I really liked the single wheel style. Very cool looking and a few companies made a very retro style to match the retro of our bike. One brand even boasted removing the trailer from the bike and pushing it right into the hotel room. No need to unpack in the parking lot. But after talking to many riders who have towed pretty much everything, I found that the single wheel had issues. 

          You see, there is this thing called tongue weight. the heavier the weight, the lighter the front end of the bike, hence bad steering. And that's bad. With the wheel in the back like in the photo, all the weight in the trailer will add to the tongue weight. But with the traditional 2 wheel trailer, you can balance the load across the axle to make for a much lighter tongue. Hence, better control of the bike. So reluctantly, I decided to go with the 2 wheel version. 

            I began to narrow my search a bit, kind off like the cars.com commercial, picking the different things I liked abut this trailer and that trailer. Until I came to the conclusion that no matter which one I picked, 1500 dollars was just a bit too much to spend on a storage device that was to replace the trunk that I could get for 800 dollars. 

            So, what did I decide to do? Tune in next time to read the exciting conclusion of to trailer or not to trailer....... or something like that.

Namaste

Dave