Has Anyone One Ever???

I'm probably going out on a limb with this one and exposing my Darwinian mentality, but.....

Has anyone ever tried to trailer a sport bike to some favorite remote location using a Goldwing as their tow vehicle???? If so, is there a company that produces such a trailer or was it a custom made trailer???

All comments ignorant and intelligent are welcome

Man, I'm interested in answer for this one also. Tongue weight would be the major issue I would think.

I can imagine takin' my F4 to the track pulled by the Goldwing, man what a great day!

Originally Posted by briflight

Man, I'm interested in answer for this one also. Tongue weight would be the major issue I would think.

I can imagine takin' my F4 to the track pulled by the Goldwing, man what a great day!

Well, I think you just answered my question for me

Back in south africa here is a guy that does funeral services with a gold wing that tow your coffin (funny) but true and very busy

Funny but true. In Japan they tow cars(no ****) with Honda Goldwings. If I can find the site I will link it.
Anyhow with knowing that Im sure someone out there makes a trailer, as they do make pop up campers for Motorcycles. Heres a good start:
Motorcycle Trailers | Motorcycle Towing - WhyBike.com

The only problem with using a bike to tow a racebike to the track is if you crash the racebike, you may or may not be able to ride home...

Originally Posted by asujosh1

The only problem with using a bike to tow a racebike to the track is if you crash the racebike, you may or may not be able to ride home...

Yeah, but my wife can. Which is the point to the thought. We like taking the bike to her parents(Asheville, NC), but she get in park mode once she is there. I, on the other hand, am non-stop and thought I would be nice to go blazin' around while she sits at the house and smokes her life away. I've said too much.....

There's one guy who does that in vintage racing here: I don't know what bike he's towing though or what the trailer looks like.

that is the goldwing rated to haul?

My real concern with this would be getting caught in a side wind and what the trailer behind me blowing around would do. Most behind bike trailers fold down pretty low minimizing their movement in side winds ... putting a bike up there just creates a big sail.

Tongue weight is an easy one if you pay attention to where the load is relative to the axle, and just test it by lifting up on the tongue of the trailer. This is a factor towing behind a car too.

The Goldwing tow car is pretty cool, but I'm sure he doesn't go very fast or very far. http://cache.jalopnik.com/images/200...ldwing_tow.jpg

Originally Posted by gt702

My real concern with this would be getting caught in a side wind and what the trailer behind me blowing around would do. Most behind bike trailers fold down pretty low minimizing their movement in side winds ... putting a bike up there just creates a big sail.

Tongue weight is an easy one if you pay attention to where the load is relative to the axle, and just test it by lifting up on the tongue of the trailer. This is a factor towing behind a car too.

Yeah, I gotta believe a good cross wind would play havoc on the tracking. As far as tongue weight, moving the bike on the trailer to adjust the weight bias is a good idea, but like pulling with anything you need a little more tongue weight than axle weight or you get the "wobbles" at speed. That might be worse than a big gust of cross wind be it from nature or while passing a big rig. I guess it all depends how far, how fast you need to go.

Originally Posted by briflight

As far as tongue weight, moving the bike on the trailer to adjust the weight bias is a good idea, but like pulling with anything you need a little more tongue weight than axle weight or you get the "wobbles" at speed.

What do you mean? Most everything I've ever done with the car has been in the 100-150lb range, the truck up to around 200 when towing a race car. Much either side of that and you get into troubles. You want just enough weight on the tongue to keep it from bouncing (porpoising) and pulling back when you go over bumps. The lower the weight in the trailer, or longer the tongue, the less weight you should need to have on the tongue due to leverage ratios. Longer trailers are also better for the wobble for the same reason.

With 2 VFR's in the trailer, resulting in 1200lb on top of the trailer weight, I know I don't have 600lb plus on the rear bumper of my little Contour ... or the bumper would be on the ground Rock solid there. And my little one bike trailer has less than 100lb on the tongue with a VFR in it and you could never tell the trailer is behind the car.

Originally Posted by gt702

The Goldwing tow car is pretty cool, but I'm sure he doesn't go very fast or very far. http://cache.jalopnik.com/images/200...ldwing_tow.jpg

People tow in the snow too:

http://www.dattaway.org/bike-snow-2.jpg

i say get an alumnium trailer and let her roll

Originally Posted by gt702

What do you mean? Most everything I've ever done with the car has been in the 100-150lb range, the truck up to around 200 when towing a race car. Much either side of that and you get into troubles. You want just enough weight on the tongue to keep it from bouncing (porpoising) and pulling back when you go over bumps. The lower the weight in the trailer, or longer the tongue, the less weight you should need to have on the tongue due to leverage ratios. Longer trailers are also better for the wobble for the same reason.

With 2 VFR's in the trailer, resulting in 1200lb on top of the trailer weight, I know I don't have 600lb plus on the rear bumper of my little Contour ... or the bumper would be on the ground Rock solid there. And my little one bike trailer has less than 100lb on the tongue with a VFR in it and you could never tell the trailer is behind the car.

I'm not advocating half your total gross trailer weight be on the tongue of your tow vehicle, just needs to be slightly more than perfectly balanced for the sway and porpoising. I'm sure there's a ratio, but I don't know it.

You ever see a guy pulling an empty homemade trailer down the interstate and it's weaving all over the place? Thats the result of not enough tongue weight. Imagine what will happen if he loads the trailer perfectly so there is little if no weight on the tongue of the pull vehicle? A well designed trailer already has weight bias built in.

If it didn't matter how much tongue weight was on the rear of the pull vehicle, then we could use any car, to pull whatever the transmission would support with out failing to get you down the road. It's not only the towing capacity you have to worry about. That's why there are no half ton pickups that will tow 15,000lbs. Longer trailers also just have a longer weave in the pattern when towing, so you don't notice it as much. The faster you want to travel, the more tongue weight and longer trailer ou need.

Originally Posted by briflight

I'm not advocating half your total gross trailer weight be on the tongue of your tow vehicle, just needs to be slightly more than perfectly balanced for the sway and porpoising. I'm sure there's a ratio, but I don't know it.


The faster you want to travel, the more tongue weight and longer trailer ou need.

So I shouldn't be able to run my single rail at 85+mph because it is only about 5' from the hitch to the axle and I run about 75lb tongue weight with a 600 lb load (850 including trailer)?

I do and it is rock solid

I think you have some of your cause and effect connections mixed up.

Tongue weight isn't necessarily a ratio, but can be used to over come some other issues. Distance from tow vehicle axle (or CG), to hitch, to trailer axle (or CG) is a factor . As is distance of trailer center of gravity to trailer axle versus trailer axle to hitch point. All of these have to deal with moment arms and how much leverage the moving force of the load can exert on the tow vehicle. You want to minimize these force transfers, and that includes the verticle load on the back of the car which affects the attitude of the car and the force on it's front wheels. Good discussion

Considering some of the fat ass women you see being pillioned on Goldwings ( not to mention the luggage) I'm pretty sure its more than capable of a 2-300 pound dowward force as long as the hitch is constructed properly.

If you pull this off, I wanna see pictures!

I'd put it up right next to the one I have of the old 911 going to the track with the track tires tied to the roof. Looked like a Paris-Dakkar wannabe!