1150RT comes stock with great bicycle rack

[JcbKarl]

When I bought my 04 R1150RT one of the first things I thought about was how I'd have to make a bicycle rack for it like I had made for my Honda Shadow. Well, I never got around to it and then one day I was far from home and found a deal I couldn't pass up in a bicycle store. After a little on-the-spot high pressure thinking, I just hung the top horizontal tube of the bicycle frame right on the RT's top rack that would hold your top case. The bicycle was hanging in a vertical position, but crossways across the back of the motorcycle. I removed the wheels and tied them flat on the back seat with a towel for padding. With one 5-6 foot long piece of rope, you can secure the Top Tube of the bike frame to the motorcycle rack and then have enough rope left over to tie the handlebars down. I postitioned the cranks of the bicycle so they wouldn't hit the rear tire. The bicycle never touches the side cases. I was a little nervous at first, but It worked great - hardly new it was there. On my shadow I had a rack that held the bike vertically in-line behind me and I noticed it more up there with a higher center of gravity. This RT method works so well, I use it all the time. I keep wondering when I'll corner hard enough to drag the dropouts of the bicycle frame, but I ride fairly conservatively with the bike, so it hasn't happened yet. The way I tie the bike, it can just rotate back a little and I'll just get a little abrasion on the bike. I'll try that with an old bike first.

 

Karl

[Albert]

Now Karl, are you using this bicycle like a lifboat, kind of like a yacht towing a dingy. Or do you take it to actually ride it?

[JcbKarl]

I guess I could put a little sign on the bicycle that says "use in case of spline failure". Just kidding. After reading posts on this group I have decided not to worry about oil use, splines and just ride. I really like my RT - I've come from a all Honda backround of sportbikes and a Shadow Spirit 1100 and I thought I was going to get a ST1300, but liked the BMW better. It's the most fun to ride of any motorcycle I have owned. It's the first one I would actually ride just to ride instead of using it for necessary transportation.

 

It used to be my personal philosophy that I couldn't use a car to get to the start of a group bicycle ride, but some bicycle rides are too far from my house and hey, I'm still not using a car!

[SCOTTinNJ]

photo?

[TandemGeek]

Ok, this is clearly a Zombie thread, but it's the only one of two related to carrying bicycles on bimmers and the other one was in the Ride Tails sub-forum.

 

Anway, I though I'd share a bit of my own questionable sanity with y'all. After looking at various different approaches, I was able to find a Yakima bicycle carrier that could be modified to fit up quite nicely to my '04 RT. The only modification to the RT was adding two tie-downs to the back rear corners of the side cases.

 

 

Some additional details can be found on my Blog:

http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com/2010/04/04/the-motorcycle-bike-carrier-part-2/

[ECS]

Bingo! Well done and a worthwhile resurrection of the thread.

 

I've been thinking about how to get a bike on with a fork-mount, leaving the rear wheel on. In the cyclocross season, I usually take two bicycles to the race, and I'd thought about how to haul them with a couple fork mounts on a plank across the rear seat, or across the rear rack, a bit farther back to keep the handlebars off my head. Bikes would be kind of high, but they're less than 40 lbs for two.

 

Methinks this might be the trick. Perhaps two bikes and wheelsets on a Yakima or similar made for two or three bikes? Again, shift of COG wouldn't be too bad, and surely less than with a 120-lb passenger.

 

I'd been planning on doing this with the RT, but come to think of it, it'd probably be on a F650GS in the iffy Oct-Jan 'cross season.

 

Good job and thanks for the idea.

 

Eric

[bmw_rider]

You don't think a LEO might decide you are obscuring to much of the the liscense and lights in the rear?

[TandemGeek]

You don't think a LEO might decide you are obscuring to much of the the liscense and lights in the rear?

 

While this had occured to me as someone who was a LEO early in my life, I don't believe the tail lights once illuminated lose their effectiveness and just about every other rear vehicle mounted bicycle rack obscures license plates to some extent. Again, in real-life and 3D, the license tag is easily visible through the wheel spokes from most angles the the tail light which uses one of those flashing LED kits is quite brilliant even in full day light.

 

Frankly, all of that said, I don't think I've seen a LEO pull anyone over for anything other than speeding in the past 10 years unless they're doing something suspicious or there's a BOLO notice out for a certain type of vehicle. They certainly don't enforce the use of turn signals, illegal turns, peeps running fresh red lights, gridlocking intersections or illegal modification of headlights, tailights, or exhaust systems. So, unless I decide to run 15-over the limit or someone commits a crime on a silver motorcycle with a bicycle on the back, I'm thinking I'll be OK.

 

But, then again, a LEO can pretty much pull anyone over for anything... they just need a reason and having a bicycle on the back of a motorcycle certain fits that criteria.