Stuart’s GoldWing Blog

Overnight Stop in France

Why on earth would anyone want to tow a GoldWing on a trailer? Surely the whole point of owning a GoldWing is to ride it?
Quite so – but when you want to ride your Wing on the biking roads you can only find in places which are far from home, like the Alps, and you also value sleeping in your own bed every night, towing the Wing behind a motorhome to make the transit journey to a decent biking area becomes an attractive option.

When I bought my first GoldWing, a 1984 GL1200 Interstate, I was coming back to biking after a break of quite a few years.  As I kitted myself out with riding gear, for I had long since disposed of the Belstaff jacket I had last used when riding a long gone 1961 Matchless 350, I suppose I had a fanciful notion of recovering a bit of lost youth. So as well as a riding jacket I also bought myself a little gas stove and a set of billycans.

I never quite got as far as buying a tent and the gas stove and the billycans are still languishing unused in a cupboard. Somewhere along the way my appetite for combining motorcycling with camping had evaporated – not least because Management, as she is referred to in our household, made it very clear when I bought the stove that there was no way she was going to sleep in a tent.  We had owned a motorhome for a few years by then, so her idea of touring was already very much geared to a comfortable motorhome, failing which it would have to be a hotel or at least a decent B&B. She was right too; it didn’t take too much further thought for me to realise that sleeping in a tent, however romantic the idea might be, even in ideal weather, was for younger and less corpulent people than me.

Box Van Trailer

We already had experience of combining two wheels with four, in that we also already owned a Honda C90 which we used to hang on the back of our motorhome to use as auxiliary transport. (Switching from riding a C90 to a GL1200 was quite a learning curve too, but that’s another story.)  Many people do hang scooters and small motorcycles on racks on the back of motorhomes and many modern motorhomes have “garages” under the back bedroom which will take one, but these arrangements are strictly for lightweight motorcycles.  Only in the US can you buy an RV, as they call their motorhomes, which is capable of carrying a big bike (or even two) on board.

With European motorhomes, even the big ones, carrying even a medium size motorcycle on the back presents serious weight limitation difficulties.  Even if the weight of the motorcycle is within the motorhome’s safe payload, the rearward weight transfer which hanging a bike on the very rear of the vehicle involves will almost inevitably overload the back axle – and might also reduce the front axle loading sufficiently to cause serious handling problems too.  Except for the larger US RV’s, hanging anything except a light motorcycle on the back, like a Honda C90 or a small scooter, is a non-starter.  Even if you could solve all the weight problems, a GoldWing is too long to be slung across the back of an RV in Europe because the maximum permissible width is 2.55 meters and a Wing is longer than this.  So hanging a GoldWing on the back of a motorhome is not a viable arrangement.  I therefore had to think in terms of towing the GoldWing on a trailer.

The practicalities of choosing and using a trailer are quite important, because I had quite a few hairy moments and I dropped the bike several times unloading from the trailer before I achieved a combination of trailer and method which I felt was both safe and reliable.

For our first venture I hired a box trailer which was big enough to hold the GL1200, hitched it to the back of the motorhome and loaded the bike by using a set of three skids, one for the bike’s wheels and one each for my feet.  I forgot all about the bike’s radio aerial, so that caught the roller rear door of the trailer with a big twang and barely escaped permanent damage.  Not knowing any better, I also put the bike on its centre stand and tied it to the trailer’s wall rails, because there were no tie down rings on the floor.  Off we went to Suffolk, to visit relatives and as luck would have it the bike stayed more or less in the same position in the trailer and suffered no damage.  We parked the motorhome in grassy side area of Shawsgate Vineyard, a small family business, and their very reasonable camping fee included freedom to wander around among the vines with no obligation to buy any wine, although of course we did, and very good it was too.

I unhitched the trailer in order to park both it and the motorhome more tidily, so we could use the space to best advantage.  I then unloaded the bike, carefully and having folded remembered to fold the aerial down, only to discover that as I rolled the bike down the skid the front of the trailer tipped up. Another learning curve item ticked off – if your trailer hasn’t got rear steadies, leave it attached to the motorhome to do your unloading.

Off we went on the bike to visit our relatives on the Wing; we got invited to stay for tea and so by the time we got back to our campsite it was dark, very dark in fact, because there was no lighting on the site at all.  A Wing’s headlight is very good of course, so we had plenty of illumination from that, so I was not deterred from putting the bike away in the trailer overnight.  I remembered the tipping up experience getting it out, so I asked Management to stand on the drawbar at the front of the trailer to weigh it down.  I was able to ride up the skid and into the trailer without difficulty and I even remembered to lower the aerial. As I switched the bike off it was suddenly pitch dark and I could hear plaintiff cries from the drawbar asking if it was safe to get down.  “Oh no, not yet” I said, as I crept up behind her in the dark to catch her unawares with an intimate gesture of affection.  “You can weigh your own blooming trailer down next time!” she said unappreciatively.

A comfortable way to make the long haul South

However we had satisfied ourselves that the idea of towing a GoldWing behind a motorhome in a trailer works in principle, because apart from slowing us down on hills and having to change gear a bit more often, towing the box trailer was completely painless and the bike was undamaged in transit, even if the tie down arrangements were far from ideal.  As things turned out we decided to sell the motorhome not long after this, because I was still working full time we were not getting enough use out of it.  So we had a phase of doing hotel-based touring for two or three years (with Elite Wings) including a couple of European tours on the GL1800 we had acquired by then.

By 2005 however Management had lost the appetite for long trips on the bike and I was getting keen on doing more adventurous European tours, having sampled the Alps on a guided tour I did in 2004, so I did a few more one week tours riding solo while Management spent time visiting granddaughter and getting retail therapy, which worked out quite well despite the potential costs of letting her loose in this way.  And I gained valuable riding experience, so it suited us both.

It's not all hard work!

But over the winter of 2005-2006 we talked about the likelihood that we would want to go back to motorhoming sooner or later, because we had both enjoyed it and I would not be biking forever.  We came to the view that we could combine the two hobbies for a few years, even if doing so meant we would be extracting maximum benefit from either.  So we bought another motorhome and I started researching and shopping around for a suitable trailer.

Most of the advice available on the internet was of North American origin but some of it translated to UK and European application – for example the clear warnings that you should never risk putting a cover on a motorcycle while towing it, because the inevitable flapping of the cover against the bike would do serious damage to the paintwork, especially in dry conditions when any dust which got on inside the cover would turn it into the equivalent of sandpaper, taking the paint off in no time.

I came across what seemed to be a strongly built, purpose made Kliponoff bike trailer which could handle a Wing; it was second hand and probably six or seven years old (so were the tyres) and I paid £900 for it.  It had an all up weight limit if 750kg (which avoids driving licence limitations if you passed your test after 1997 and don’t have the “+E” endorsement which is necessary for towing heavier trailers) yet it had enough payload to carry a GoldWing.  Incidentally if you ever need to discover the actual weight of a vehicle: your Wing, your motorhome or an unloaded or loaded trailer, you can find a weighbridge near you on the internet or from the local Council, ring up to check when they’re open and drive over there.  It cost me less than £5 to find out everything I needed to know.

The Kliponoff trailer had only one axle, which makes a trailer much easier to manoeuvre by hand, and it had a long loading skid, which helped to ensure the Wing would not ground on the hump at the top of the skid during loading.  It also had a shorter but useful rear ramp made of heavy grade wire mesh, so strong enough to put your foot down on to if necessary during loading and unloading, but not so much wind resistance as a solid one while towing.  I used this trailer for over a year and took it to the French Alps and back; it towed extremely well and the bike was always very securely held in place.

Tying a GoldWing down for transportation can be done in various ways and there are conflicting views on the subject.  Sometimes you will be limited in what you can do by where tie-downs can be attached to the trailer.  One secure method is to use a bike chock (i.e. a specially made device which is bolted to the trailer floor and which holds the front wheel firmly) coupled with a ratchet tie-down over each side of the lower fork brace to pull the front suspension down and secure the front wheel into the chock, then further tie downs to stop the back end wandering sideways.  Providing you ensure that the tie downs are clear of any paintwork (which they will otherwise rub off) this method is reliable.  Ideally you should budget for a tie-down working lose by adding extra restraint as a safeguard; I use a special sling on the handlebars which allows an extra pair of tie-downs to be attached to the handlebar ends – but I only take up the slack on these, to avoid bending the handlebars.

But a Wing on an open trailer gets absolutely filthy when it rains, especially from the spray on UK motorways which gets everywhere on and under the bike, far filthier than the bike would get riding it in the same conditions.  I also found the long skid too hazardous during unloading.  Unloading on flat ground and in dry conditions wasn’t bad at all but I dropped the bike twice when unloading on sloping ground.  The skid was a ten foot length of eight inches wide steel channel with two inch upstanding sides; the bike’s front brake does not work well when rolling backwards down a slope, especially on a damp steel surface.  Relying on the back brake and therefore having to balance the bike in order to be able to use it was quite a challenge because there was a point on the descent when your legs weren’t quite long enough to touch down if necessary, so it was a question of balancing the bike at that point and then letting it roll off all in one go.

Using reverse gear to roll the bike down the steel skid didn’t work either, partly for the same reason but the bike would also too quickly in reverse on a steeply sloping skid.  The final straw was when on one occasion I lost the straight path down the centreline and the front wheel caught the side wall of the skid and threw me off balance, resulting in quite a spectacular fall which cost me a replacement mirror. I really did not feel confident about continuing to use this trailer because of that.  So I sold it to a friend.

In retrospect my own unloading technique was probably the main culprit (the friend who took this trailer over from me did a few modifications and has found it perfectly satisfactory and other friends have bought similar trailers since) but the bike was getting filthy on an open trailer anyway, so I wanted something enclosed. My friend Bill Squires, with whom we went to the French Alps, had a box trailer and it was useful to carry all sorts of things as well as the bike.  A wide loading ramp makes for much easier and safer unloading too; I now roll the bike down the ramp very slowly, controlling movement with the back brake alone, leaning the bike to the left slightly and using my left leg to control balance.  I feel safe and in control doing it that way, even when I have to make a steep descent because of sloping ground.

The 2006 British Treffen at Wincanton provided an excellent opportunity to see how other people towed a Wing and there was quite a range of ideas, including several variants on the Kliponoff design of an open trailer using skids.  There were two very elegant, purpose-built enclosed bike trailers each costing £5,000 or more. There was also a neat adaptation of a box van trailer with an extra side door to allow access and a very clever folding trailer which was nevertheless strong enough to carry a Wing.  It became clear that apart from home made bike trailers or cheap adaptations of old car trailers, it would be necessary to pay at least £1,200 for a new open trailer to carry a Wing and well over £3,000 for any new enclosed trailer – and as much as £6,000 for the most elegant solution.

So I experimented, in partnership with the owner of Kliponoff, with a beaver tail trailer design, which would therefore have a loading ramp rather than a skid, and would also be fitted with a folding cover.  As a prototype it had potential but it was never quite finished off, and I also discovered that making a one-off trailer was very expensive.  Trailer components (towing hitch and suspension units) are not cheap, even if steel fabrication and galvanising are less costly.  It became clear that buying a standard production line trailer was a far more cost-effective solution. The owner of the Ifor Williams trailer factory is reputed to have said that he doesn’t mind anyone trying to copy his designs, because he knows that the scale and efficiency of his manufacturing process and his bulk buying power for components makes it impossible for anyone else to match his trailers for the money.

In the end I decided that elegance was not required and I settled for a used Ifor Williams BV105 Box Trailer, similar to the one I had originally hired, but this time with opening rear doors which could also be dropped down together to form a large and strong loading ramp.  The price of new ones had just jumped to well over £4,000 but I found a good used one for £2,200.  Bill helped me to fit it out with a front wheel chock and tie down rings recessed into the floor and, apart from drilling a spectacularly deep hole into his thigh in the process when his drill suddenly slipped (missing his femoral artery by less than an inch!) it turned out to be a very successful project.

By the way I discovered that there is even more risk and skulduggery in buying used trailers than used cars, so there is a lot to be said for paying a little more and buying from a proper trailer dealer unless you really can be sure of what you are buying privately.  Ifor Williams trailers are made in huge numbers and in a wide range of types and sizes; even if you also wish to consider other manufacturers, studying the Ifor Williams range and specifications is a useful way to start your search.  If you are anywhere near the North West of England you could do no better than visit Barlow Trailers, at Ulnes Walton near Leyland – this is a family firm with a farming background who carry a huge stock of Ifor Williams and other trailers of all shapes and sizes.

And so the outfit on which we have settled and used for a couple of seasons very satisfactorily is an Ifor Williams BV105 box van trailer, which is 10 feet long internally plus about another 18 inches or so into the angled front end, and five feet wide – which is enough to allow even a fat guy like me to ride in, get off the Wing, reach all the tie downs and exit without difficulty.  There is plenty of spare room in the trailer to carry things like riding gear and motorhome accessories (e.g. a waste water carrier) and even a couple of gazebos.  A biggish box van trailer like this one is also an extremely useful general load carrier and ours has been used to carry all sorts of things.

Of course the motorhome has to be capable of towing the trailer safely (and legally) so a few words about UK trailer law, which is extremely complex, might be helpful.  A purpose-built motorhome has a maximum towing capacity determined by the manufacturer at the design stage and there is nothing much that can be done by an owner to change that, not least because it will often be limited by chassis strength.  Motorhomes often have a specially extended chassis to which even attaching a tow bar may be unsafe, so check before you buy.  Likewise a motorhome which has been adapted from a van or bus will also have a safe towing limit.  The vehicle’s towing capacity should be stated in the owner’s handbook if there is one, but failing that it can be deduced from the information on vehicle’s weight plate, which will be welded or riveted somewhere on the chassis.

This plate should have four figures on it and in descending order of magnitude they will be the Gross Train Weight (GTW, the maximum permitted weight of loaded vehicle plus trailer) the Maximum Allowable Mass (MAM, which means the heaviest the motorhome itself is allowed to be, fully loaded) and two other figures, which give the maximum permitted loading of the front and rear axles – and the sum of these should be the same as the MAM.  Subtracting the MAM from the GTW gives you the maximum loaded weight of trailer you can tow – which in my case is 1,600 kg.

Haynes - The Trailer Manual

Now an Ifor Williams BV105 box van trailer weighs about 800kg and can be loaded to a maximum weight of 2,700kg, so it has a potential payload of 1,900kg, which, if you could get them in, would be enough to carry four GoldWings plus spares, so no problem there.  But my motorhome can tow only 1,600kg, so in order to use it to tow the BV105, the trailer has to be re-plated to show a maximum permitted weight of 1,600kg.  This is simply a matter of altering the relevant figure on the trailer’s plate to 1,600kg, which you can do yourself.  I used a labelling machine to create a stick-on strip showing the new figure and stuck it over the old one, which I was told should be perfectly acceptable to a Traffic Officer if you get stopped.  Providing you can explain that you have done your homework and how you are operating within the safe limits for your towing vehicle and its trailer you should be OK.  Note that if a trailer is un-plated, which some smaller trailers are, a Traffic Officer is entitled to look at the weight limit which will be stamped on or moulded into key trailer components like the towing hitch.  These limits may be considerably higher than the those of the overall trailer – and could therefore trigger a prosecution.  (I told you towing law was complex; there is an excellent Haynes Book called The Trailer Manual which is well worth consulting and is essential reading if you are thinking of building or adapting a trailer yourself.)

Consulting my own trailer’s excellent user manual I discovered that when running lightly loaded (as I would be at less than 1,600 kg) I should reduce the trailer’s tyre pressure from 65 psi to 50 psi to reduce bouncing, which I did.  Since the trailer weighs about 800kg empty, a 1,600kg loaded limit still gives me 800kg payload which is more than enough for the Wing and the other stuff I wanted to carry in it.  (If I ever want to carry more in the trailer I can always remove the down-sizing label and pump the tyres up again, providing of course I have a vehicle which is capable of towing it.)

By the way it could easily be a mistake to buy an unnecessarily large trailer to tow a GoldWing, even if your motorhome could tow it safely.  For example the Ifor Williams BV106 model, which is six feet wide rather than five, is rated at 3,500kg and is equipped with more heavily rated and much stiffer suspension – which would bounce far too much running lightly loaded with only a GoldWing and a few accessories, even with reduced tyre pressures.

Treales Foldaway 500kg payload

At the other end of the trailer spectrum there is a folding bike trailer made in UK by Treales Trailers which is capable of carrying a GoldWing.  It would be capable of being towed by almost any motorhome, no matter how small and I have heard excellent reports of how well it tows with a GoldWing on board.  Although fairly expensive this is a very well engineered product and a perfectly safe way to load and transport a GoldWing for those who have either a small towing vehicle or very limited storage space for a trailer.  This design uses a front wheel chock on a sliding mechanism, so the bike is winched onto the trailer with the front wheel held firmly in the chock.

We have done two European holidays in motorhomes and towing the bikes; one in the French Alps and the other in Northern Italy.  Both were extremely enjoyable.  Bill and I rode the twisties to our hearts content and our ladies did some sunbathing and retail therapy – which worked out very well for all concerned.  The outfits have also been used on many weekend outings in UK, including exhibiting the bikes for charity at various Shows, where the motorhome provides a very comfortable way of spending a weekend in a field among friends.  My trailer has enough storage capacity for all sorts of extra equipment for camping/barbeque weekends such as extra seats and gazebos and has proved to be extremely useful.

Is all this cost and trouble worthwhile when the simpler alternative is to ride the Wing to where you want to go and then sleep in a hotel or B&B or a tent?  Well that is obviously a matter of personal choice.