Advice Needed: Securing a load

Returning from an overnight trip, I had my tailbag secured to the rear seat of my bike...tooling down the road.

My bike has a firm suspension, and tailbags typically do not stay put....they want to shift forward, or off the sides and I have been struggling to find a means of securing a tailbag satisfactorily. I THOUGHT I had a good solution using a light-duty 200lb-rated tiedown looped through the D rings of my bag and to the rear pegs and subframe of my bike.

I was mistaken...in a big way.

I had been cruising at highway speed for some miles and had noticed that the bag has shifted more into my RHS mirror and not the LHS mirror. from time to time i'd reach back and adjust the load to get it centered....no biggie. MISTAKE NUMBER ONE: if something doesn't feel right...FIX IT!!!!

after about 20 miles...i note that the bag has again shifted right. dammit i had cinched it down with the tiedown and it had behaved perfectly the day before. this time...i note the bag has moved....i turn my head to inspect it...and the hooks have become undone from the rear right peg:eek1 ...BIG EMERGENCY!!!!!! i am in the left lane and already moving to the shoulder...on I-495...in heavy but fast traffic when i hear a BANG!! that felt like i had blown the rear tire, thankfully i wasn't decelerating, [but thankfully no jolt or locking of the rear wheel [foremost in my mind]...after feeling/hearing the bang, reassuring myself that the rear wasn't locked, i turn my head right to observe my tailbag departing my bike onto the roadway...and tumbling.:eek1 :eek1 :eek1 :eek1 FUCK!!!! my pistol is in there!!!!

remembering to "FLY THE PLANE" i briefly forget about the bag and concentrate on getting stopped on the shoulder safely...kickstand down...shut off bike...dismount...and turn to observe traffic swerving onto the shoulder 200ft behind me to get around my fallen bag that thankfully has not shit the contents all over the roadway.

i take off in a dead run back up the shoulder being careful not to get in the way of the swerving cars...when a kind van driver stops and blocks the lane for me to retrieve my bag. initially i was looking back 8 cars behind him hoping that people would get stopped and not smash into each other...and despite a few late-brakers...they do. i get my bag...backpedal to my bike...and inspect the swingarm, rear wheel, caliper, tiedown [what's left] and the bag itself. I find exactly one hook, but not the cam-lock and hook which has evidently departed the works. I find that a section of tiedown has wrapped itself around my axle on the RIGHT side and thankfully not my chain-side.

i remove/unravel the tattered tiedown and stow it...police up the remaining tiedown...and switch my tailbag to backpack duty for the remainder of the trip.

apparently, two D rings were lost from my tailbag and the cam-lock/hook end of the tiedown also departed and shredded the tiedown as it was ripped along by the rotating rear wheel.

so now i need to figure out how to affix a tail-bag to my bike securely.

suggestions?

abe

As my speed reading scan caught "FUCK!!!! my pistol is in there!!!!" and later on the word "police" ... I thought we were in for a juicier tale than that. :eek1

Abe,
I always use a pair of Rok straps to secure tail bag type luggage. Adjustable, they don't use hooks but rather loop around things and the tension from the elastic portion really helps when you have a load that compresses or wants to shift under the straps.

http://www.rokstraps.com/

When I have my big BMW waterproof duffel strapped across the seat, I find I need just a bit more so the Rok straps are cross strapped over the top, if you have a handle make it under the handle, and then I use a pair of bungee cords crossed in the front and through the D-rings to stabilize.

Another good supplier is Helen 2 Wheels. Same thing on the no hooks deal, everything secures with loops. She used double D-rings like your helmet. A little more of a PITA to remove but a very secure system.

www.helen2wheels.com/

I never trust the little D-rings sewn on most motorcycle luggage. Always strap over top in a cross pattern. Yeah, it's a PITA when it comes to accessing contents but, as you well know, it's also a PITA to go back and get the bag.

I use a pair of straps sort of like these:


I loop them through the D-links on my luggage and around my rack. I use one on each side; not criss-crossed. I find that holds the luggage better than crossing and allows me to tighten everything up better. Unfortunately, my rack is pretty small and doesn't provide enough leverage to constrain the bag from tilting forwards and back. To fix that, I cross some bungee cords from my rear turn signals, through the carry handles on the bag, and to a clipping point to the side of the passenger seat. Then, because I'm paranoid, I cover the whole shebang with a bungee net. It sits pretty tight at that point.

Here's what it looks like:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/uthor/2516724199/" title="P1020245 by Uthor, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2010/2516724199_52ff4757d1.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1020245" /></a>
All the extra red stuff tied in the middle is just the loose ends of the straps tied out of the way so they don't get caught up in anything.

The other bag on there is my tail bag. That mounts with just bungee cords and has shifted enough times that I don't use it unless I need to extra space. The secret with that one is to tighten it way more than you think you need so the cords are close to their limits. Otherwise, it bounches around and shifts.

Those ROK straps are nice, but I don't carry stuff often enough to justify the cost.

Wow, that had to be a sphincter shrinker. Glad things worked out OK for you in the end and that we aren't reading about this in face plant ...or about the handgun in JM. I have always had good luck with cheap cambuckle tie downs and/or bungee cargo nets.

Yikes!

I've used one of these for a couple of years now.

http://www.newenoughhp.com/luggage/tail_bags/rapid_transit/platoon_motorcycle_tail_bag.html

I only use it when both Givi E360's and my tankbag are full and I need more room on longer trips. It's pretty darn secure although I do inspect the bungies and hooks carefully to make sure they are in good condition. The nice thing about this set-up is that even more crap can be hooked onto the large and convenient D-rings on the side. The bag stays put and doesn't more around, although getting on the bike is more of a PITA with it on there.

I'm sure many other people have other, just as good solutions to the gear/storage issue. Loosing a bag in traffic is a nightmare I hope I never have to encounter.

Good that your incident didn't cause any injury to yourself or great property damage.

Coupla years ago, a guy was riding on a long, straight section of 4 lane road at well over 100 mph on a K12RS. His backpack, which he had secured? to the seat with a bungee net blew off the back but somehow wound up under the fender and wedged between the wheel and swingarm, locking the rear wheel. 300 feet of skidmarks later he was ejected from the motorcycle and died at the scene. Upon reading the article in the local papers, I cut all my bungee nets up. It easily could have been me.

Nothing but straps from now on and the Rok straps are the best of the bunch. If the expense is a bit high, so be it. I don't wear $100 helmets either, or gloves for that matter.

Can you sew? Things like Roc straps can be expensive but the raw material (bungie or webbing) is not, and you can make what you need. I agree, no hooks for securing loads, always go across the luggage in an X, and I also use webbing to secure multiple peices together before attaching them to the bike as an extra precaution against shifting.

picked up a pair of the adjustable 18"-54" Rok Straps...will report back.

thanks guys!

abe

Get a bungee net. I've used one to secure everything from a spare helmet to a grocery bag stuffed with freshed baked goods. They strecth a lot in all sorts of directions. They make 'em in different colors and sizes. Any motorcycle gear seller (DennisKirk, et al) has 'em for like $15.

may be a little more change but they are worth it, once you start using them you will never go back to round bungee's with metal hooks. Just like shovelstrokeed mentioned, use your new Rok straps to make a cross over whatever the object you want to secure to the bike, I've used that trick on anything and everything and never lost my stuff yet.

If your a cheap bastard like me who used to work in DC you should check out the local motorcycle shops for tiedown straps that are used to package motorcycles. Most shops are pretty cool and will let you have them for free. Get yourself a handful and cut them to various length. I go to the local BMW dealership around here to get mine. They use heavy duty cinch buckles for their bikes. Other than that, Rok Straps are probably one of the best out there.

Ps. If your an 1811 or 0083 that would suck to have your heat in the middle of the Beltway!

That image will stay burned in my mind forever and I will act accordingly, so thanks.

I like to use both straps and bugees together. The straps will keep the load from being picked up by the wind like that unfortunate guy's backpack, and the bungees will keep the load from constantantly tugging on the straps and loosening them with time - and no hooks for the straps, they'll come loose every time!

+1 on the straps with loops through things instead of hooks. I use straps to keep things on the bike, and bungie cords and/or net to keep things from flapping.

This is in Labrador (not that that's relevant, other than to imply that things didn't fall off for hundreds of miles of shitty gravel road), and the white things are straps with cam-locks, looped through the loops on the panniers:



John

I use rokstraps and rope.

Good rope, from the sailboat store. And lots of good knots.

Yup. The best thing I've found for tying shit down, be it on a bike or pickup or whatever, is good old rope. Nice stretchy nylon rope. Bungees are too stretchy, things can shift if they're too loose, the hooks can break if they're too tight and you can't always find a good spot to hook them. Ratchet straps are nice, but if things shift they'll come loose, there's no stretch in them.

Go get some small nylon rope, 3/16 is really all you need, and check out iwillknot.com. My standard technique is to attach one end of the rope to the frame somewhere, usually the loops by the passenger pegs or the passenger grab handles, with a bowline or a few half hitches. Pass the rope over the load, preferably going through a D ring somewhere along the way, and put in a butterfly knot somewhere. Loop through the frame somewhere, back through the butterfly knot, and pull it tight. Back around the frame a couple of times in the same spot, and a few half hitches over the bundle-O-ropes. Repeat this as needed to make sure nothing will move.

It sounds complicated, but it's easy once you get the hang of it.

Trucker's Hitch. Works like a dream.
I do like a bit of elastic, which is why I use the Rok straps. Most stuff I tie down on the bike is either a large bag of tools or some clothing in a ruck. The tools will shift around under the pressure of the straps and the clothing will compress. Either way, without the elastic, I used to have to stop at about 100 miles out and tighten things up a bit. Now, I just make sure they are will stretched to begin with and I can easily run 6 or 700 miles with no worries.

I have found that simple 1" nylon straps work very well, but there is a trick to keeping things tight. Never just attach one end of the strap to a rack and run it over the load then attach it directly to the other side of the rack. One must loop the strap through the rack, over the load, then loop it through the rear of the rack and back over the load to itself. This allows the strap to use the load as a buffer, what ever you are holding down needs to have some give to it. Does this make sense ??

ps I found some really cool quick release nylon buckles that the ends allow one to feed the strap through and adjust the length from the female end and the male end (you can make your own custom length straps without sewing)

NO BUNGEE NETS, no bungee Cords, they can kill you......