bicycle carrier for motorcycle

So a few years ago, I decided to stop sitting on my ass, getting fatter every day and bought a bicycle. Fast forward a few years and I'm not in the best of shape but I'm getting there. I love all of my 2-wheeled beauties. I have taken my bicycles to gravel races, long distance endurance events, snow races, etc. Only issue I have is every time I throw a leg over my pedal bike, my FJR cries, and a little bit of me dies. And if the event isn't in my home town (most aren't), I have to take the car which kills me even more.

I saw a guy last year at an cycling event on a V-Strom with a bicycle rack attached to it. He said it's his preferred method of travelling to and from cycling events. I have seen the stuff from 2x2 cycles online but was wondering if anyone else had an opinion on a good way to transport a bicycle with my FJR.

I suppose If you can carry an FJR in your car trunk....



one would think you could strap your bicycle to your FJR



I've not seen anything, but the 2x2 stuff here. Seems about as well done as anything I've seen in this VERY niche need.

Yup...2x2 has already thought out the mounting and safety aspects. That'd be the way to go. I know I wouldn't put my mountian bike on the back of my FJR with some BS mounting contraption made by JoeDirt in his back yard with a tig welder and some scrap metal. But then again, I wouldn't put my FJR in the trunk of a Chevy Lumina.

You might want to pm Speedygg. His avatar used to feature his FJR along with his mounted bicycle...

Yakima copperhead mount. Home depot ladder extension. Very solid angled metal plate on top of backrest to support bike rack. tie down straps. I now upgraded to a givi SR??? case which I bolt the depot ladder extension to rather than use the tie downs.

Hey, I know its ugly but it works! Road FJR 2 hours to the start of RAMROD (Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day) in Enumclaw. After 154 mile bicycle rally around Mt Rainier, it was an awesome feeling getting on the Motorcycle for a 2 hour ride home....seriously! :yahoo:

Here is a link to the advrider thread that got me thinking about this setup.

Speedygg said:

Yakima copperhead mount. Home depot ladder extension. Very solid angled metal plate on top of backrest to support bike rack. tie down straps. I now upgraded to a givi SR??? case which I bolt the depot ladder extension to rather than use the tie downs.

Hey, I know its ugly but it works! Road FJR 2 hours to the start of RAMROD (Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day) in Enumclaw. After 154 mile bicycle rally around Mt Rainier, it was an awesome feeling getting on the Motorcycle for a 2 hour ride home....seriously! :yahoo:

Here is a link to the advrider thread that got me thinking about this setup.

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OMG! Is that unstable? It looks like it'd be unstable as hell.

Edited to add: A loooong time ago, back in 2005 @ my first EOM, there was a Canukistan that attended that brought his bike down. If I remember correctly, his method was more akin to a small trailer. Actually, I don't remember his exact setup. But I'm sure that it was a Canuckistanee.

Ignacio said:

I suppose If you can carry an FJR in your car trunk....

one would think you could strap your bicycle to your FJR

I've not seen anything, but the 2x2 stuff here. Seems about as well done as anything I've seen in this VERY niche need.

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I wonder how the handling with that on is. I mean the bicycle is what 20 lbs? That high up, has got to effect is somehow.

I've posted these before:

Ignacio said:

I suppose If you can carry an FJR in your car trunk....

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Not is FJR... If it really matters.

1331587393[/url]' post='943470']OMG! Is that unstable? It looks like it'd be unstable as hell.

Edited to add: A loooong time ago, back in 2005 @ my first EOM, there was a Canukistan that attended that brought his bike down. If I remember correctly, his method was more akin to a small trailer. Actually, I don't remember his exact setup. But I'm sure that it was a Canuckistanee.

Click to expand...

No more unstable than riding two up with an experienced passenger. A heck of a lot stabler than riding two up with my wife.

Speedygg said:

Road FJR 2 hours to the start of RAMROD (Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day) in Enumclaw. After 154 mile bicycle rally around Mt Rainier, it was an awesome feeling getting on the Motorcycle for a 2 hour ride home....seriously! :yahoo:

Click to expand...

After doing RAMROD, it was probably an awesome feeling just getting off the bike! :clapping: Congrats on doing this very challenging event. The 2012 registration lottery closes in 19 days.

I can see where your set-up would be very effective. Not much weight back there.

Keep Going!

Speedygg said:

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Looks like a recipe for unintentional wheelies.

As an added benefit you can ride 3-up.

Speedygg said:

No more unstable than riding two up with an experienced passenger. A heck of a lot stabler than riding two up with my wife.

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Did you mean an inexperienced passenger? I'd be hard pressed to even know an experienced passenger is on my bike. Well, except the 200+ pounders.

I guess where there's a will, there's a way.

mferriter said:

Speedygg said:

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Looks like a recipe for unintentional wheelies.

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Don't know why you'd say that. I've seen bikes loaded down with more weight on the rear on advrider. For that matter, I've seen some guys at the local bike night with way more weight than that in their "ho" riding on the back.

gixxerjasen said:

mferriter said:

Looks like a recipe for unintentional wheelies.

Click to expand...

Don't know why you'd say that. I've seen bikes loaded down with more weight on the rear on advrider. For that matter, I've seen some guys at the local bike night with way more weight than that in their "ho" riding on the back.

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Yeah but hopefully that weight is over the back wheel, not hanging several feet behind it. Depending on the size and weight distribution of the "ho" in question, of course.

If the OP is doing any kind of distance riding on a bike that weighs 20lbs, he is on the wrong bike. Trek is making a road bike that weighs in at 1100 grams. That's 2 lbs, 6 oz. Amazing.

"Heavy" mountian bikes weigh in around 28-29 lbs, and the more expensive ones are less than 20. Of course, it doesn't take much to spend over $8k for a frigging bicycle, but you get what you pay for.

HotRodZilla said:

If the OP is doing any kind of distance riding on a bike that weighs 20lbs, he is on the wrong bike. Trek is making a road bike that weighs in at 1100 grams. That's 2 lbs, 6 oz. Amazing.

"Heavy" mountian bikes weigh in around 28-29 lbs, and the more expensive ones are less than 20. Of course, it doesn't take much to spend over $8k for a frigging bicycle, but you get what you pay for.

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Strangely enough I have a bike that weighs in at around 35 lbs that I do 40+ mile rides on. It's ummm, big. I was thinking more along the lines of my cyclocross bike though, which is more around 22 lbs. Most of the events I head to are endurance events where a short race is 62 miles on gravel roads. The big ones are 200+

Here is the big bike.

HotRodZilla said:

If the OP is doing any kind of distance riding on a bike that weighs 20lbs, he is on the wrong bike. Trek is making a road bike that weighs in at 1100 grams. That's 2 lbs, 6 oz. Amazing.

"Heavy" mountian bikes weigh in around 28-29 lbs, and the more expensive ones are less than 20. Of course, it doesn't take much to spend over $8k for a frigging bicycle, but you get what you pay for.

Click to expand...

Back in 2008, a german bike builder built a bike weighing 2.8 kg (lookie here). However, good luck doing any real long distance riding with this bike. And if you want to partake in any organized races, bike has to be at least 14.99 lbs (UCI bike weight limit)

Mine is a titanium frame that comes in at around 3.3lbs for just the frame. Once you add in wheels, stem, handlebars, crank, derailed, seat...I weigh it at between 18 and 19 lbs (depending on if I use hollowed chain). Then you get real and add your tail bag, fenders (PNW required winter item), water bottles....and you realize you aint never going to really ride a sub 20lb bike for very long. Similar to motorcycling, you can have a lot of fun continuously experimenting with lighter components.

With regard to trek bike weights in production, here is a link to some actual weights.

Good God man...How big are those tires? That's gotta be a couple pounds right there. Is the rack something you need for the endurance stuff, or is it just one of those things you don't want to have to hassle with and take on and off?

It has been a long time since I rode 62 miles in one stretch. When I was in college, I had friends who were on the bicycle team. Since I was young and strong, I ended up on the team too, riding one of my buddy's $2000 Cannondales. It was his "extra" bike since his main bike was a new $4000 carbon fibre version. I wasn't real good at road racing (C-team...Just above cheerleader) due to endurance and boredom, but I was really good at the sprints. Due to that, I got into mountian biking on a total POS from Walmart.

It wasn't long before I upgraded to a better lighter bike and started trying to get a mountian bike team going. In three years, we made some progress, but other schools needed to jump in the fray before real competitions could become a reality. We ended up having a few "unofficial" meets with other schools' teams, but nothing really ever came of it before I left. It caused too many issues splitting teams up due to different training regiments and vastly different bikes. I still don't know if any colleges are fielding mountian bike teams. Of course, my buddy with the Cannondales went right out an bought the carbon fibre Trek mountian bike I had ever seen. Sufice it to say, mommy and daddy were loaded.

I left college and continued to ride recreationally, upbrading in 1993 and again about 1997. That was when I got my first Trek mountian bike. I have been a Trek guy ever since. I have used and abused three of their bikes since then and every one of them has been bulletproof. I've had my current bike since 2005 and have ridden the shit out of it. Finally had to replace the crank and cassette in August, but for around $100 with the number of miles on it, that's a pretty good deal.

Anyway, good luck with the MC mount for your bike. Even at 35lbs, I don't think you'll have issues. I don't expect you'll be doing a track day with the bike mounted back there anyway.