Endo

So I bought my truck to mainly do hauling of my motorcycle to track days but the anchor points on the sidewall that came with it are too far apart. I was wondering if there are some eye bolts out there that could take the place of the bed screws since those are in the perfect spot to be anchor points. Or, do they make an eye bolt like anchor that could slip under the factory truck bed bolts?

Any ideas? I'm just not trying to deal with drilling through my bed if I don't have to.

Mod (Ret.)

Use the ones in the lower bed corners....they are excellent for tie downs for motorcycles.

'08f150stx

Excellent tie downs. Never hauled a bike though.

Endo

just worried they are too far apart. I should probably just buy a canyon dancer strap and stop worrying.

I'll try loading it up this weekend with regular straps there and see how it goes.

maxpat82

No need of canyon dancer.
I personnaly hate those thing (only good to mess your throttle tube and grip)
just get soft loop and attach then to the top tripple clamp and then strap to the lower bed corner anchor.

I don't even put soft loop on mine, cause esthetics is not on my #1 list, directly put the hook on the tripple

lolosuzuki

definately get a canyon dancer for the bars cheap and well worth it.

Ive not hauled my sportbike in the back yet(im a trackday guy too) but have already hauld trials and dirtbikes with no problem!

nagata

I'm kinda confused as to why you say the factory anchors are too far apart? In my experience, unless you have a good wheel chock, you want your tie-down points to be relatively spread out, so that the straps will prevent the bike from moving laterally. If the tie-down points are too close, I've seen a bike virtually tip over after being strapped down. Just my experience.

I've trailered my various sportbikes quite a bit, and my best advice is to get a small utility trailer with a ramp and put a good wheel chock on it, one that holds the bike upright on its own. Best thing I ever did for hauling my bikes around; loading is SOOO much easier, just walk the bike up, put it on the chock, leave it there, start putting the straps on...it's literally an easy one-person job.

nagata

Here's a couple pics of my set up, so you can see what I'm talking about. These were taken in April of 2010, with my beloved 06 Kawi Z1000 that's no longer around (RIP...a damn deer killed it and f'd me up pretty badly back in August of 2010 ). I've hauled bikes a couple thousand miles with the set up, not a single issue, the chock even held the Z1000 upright after a set of crappy straps loosened up and fell off as I was driving through the WV Turnpike. I did plenty of hauling before I got this trailer and chock, a couple thousand miles using truck beds or other trailers without a wheel chock, and the difference is night and day.

A great part about this set up is the the chock can be removed and put back on in minutes, so I leave the chock off most of the time and use the trailer for all sort of other tasks, then put the chock on when I need it.

nagata

One more, shamelessly showing off my 150

Endo

Well just as someone was saying earlier, you usually want to use softloops on the triple clamp and strap it down...if the anchor points are too wide the straps will start pulling on the plastics. Whoever owned the truck before me put in some anchors but they are on the sides of the bed not bottom, which just seems way to wide to go up under the plastics and strap down on the triple. I used to trailer when I had my 4runner and just got tired of it honestly. I live in an apartment right now and don't have room to own a trailer and got tired of renting one.

Part of why I bought the truck...just roll it up in the bed, toss in the gas cans, stands, tools, and tent and I'm good to go. The track I go to has tiny little winding roads with big ditches on the side so I got real tired of hauling a 2 or 4 bike trailer behind me.