Moto-Tote Bike Carrier

Moto-Tote Bike Carrier

CW EVALUATION

Sideways on the highways

HAULING A MOTORCYCLE HAS ALWAYS meant having a truck. If you didn’t have a truck, you needed a trailer, for which you also needed a trailer hitch, light hook-ups, registration, insurance and someplace to park it when it wasn’t in use. All of which kinda made you wish you had a truck...

Fortunately, there is a viable alternative to a trailer, at least if your objective is to carry no more than one bike at a time. The Moto-Tote from D&D Design is essentially a single-rail trailer stripped of its wheels, turned sideways and fastened to the back of your four-wheeler using a standard Class III hitch receiver.

We installed a Moto-Tote on a Chevy Astro van owned by a staffer who was tired of having his vehicle’s sano insides sullied by dirtbikes. The unit is shipped partially dismantled, so that it fits in a UPS-able box, but assembly is a snap. Installation consists simply of sliding the 2-inch-square steel tongue into the hitch receiver, then securing it with a standard hitch pin.

The Moto-Tote is sold with a ramp “kit” that consists of a metal tongue with two tabs that mate with slots in the rail. To complete the ramp, you need to purchase a 2x6, cut it to the appropriate length, and then assemble it using the supplied wood screws. We beveled ours at the bottom edge for that Norm Abram touch.

Loading is straightforward. Simply roll the bike up the ramp onto the rail and secure it with tie-downs from the handlebars or triple-clamps to the two metal rings on the Moto-Tote. The manufacturer also recommends run-

ning a tie-down from one footpeg to the other under the rail and another around the rear wheel, using the holes in the rail. (We omitted the latter tiedowns from our photo shoot in the interest of clarity.)

The Moto-Tote is said to be capable of holding bikes that weigh up to 500 pounds, provided that doesn’t exceed the maximum capacity of your hitch receiver. (Don’t forget to include the 70-pound weight of the Tote itself in your calculations.) Because the rail measures just 6 inches across, tires wider than 150mm don’t settle down inside. Yet even so, we routinely hauled supermotard bikes with 160mm rear tires and haven’t lost one yet.

So set-up, the assemblage is remarkably stable and secure, and the included shim kit should take up the slack once the tongue and receiver start to wear. Not that you don’t notice the bike is there; to the contrary, its location far aft of the tow vehicle’s rear axle affects both ride quality and handling. In physics terms, the polar moment of inertia has been modified, amplifying the oscillating weave effect. In motorcycling terms, it feels like you’ve got a bowling ball strapped to the luggage rack. A single sudden swerve is okay, but slaloming is best left to skiers.

Obviously, the degree to which the ride is affected depends on such considerations as the vehicle’s wheelbase,

spring rate, etc. And ride quality could be improved through the addition of adjustable air shocks, a load leveler or stiffer springs.

There are other considerations, as well. For one, while the protruding tiedown arm is cleverly bent upward to maximize ground clearance, the Tote still bottoms sometimes while pulling out of driveways. And depending on your vehicle’s taillight arrangement, the loaded bike might prevent following cars from seeing you at night. On our Astro van that wasn’t a problem, but the bike did block the reverse lights, which made it hard to back up in the dark. Also, because the Tote is powder-coated black, it’s difficult to detect without a bike loaded; applying reflective tape to the corners and tying a red flag to the protruding arm could help prevent an accident. Lastly, while a locking hitch pin ($15 from your local U-Haul store) would seemingly provide an effective theft deterrent, the two-piece tongue potentially could be unbolted and your bike carted away by determined criminals, even if it were locked to the rail. A one-way bolt such as that used to secure burglar bars to household windows would reduce the likelihood of such a scenario.

That said, we’ve been using our Moto-Tote for a few months now, and have been pleased by how well it works, and how easy it is to use. The best part is when you’re done using it, you can simply detach it, carry it into the garage and lean it against the wall like an ordinary loading ramp. Try that with a trailer! E3

DETAILS

D&D Design, Inc. 402-A W. Palm Valley Blvd., #309 Round Rock, TX 78664 888/333-4621 www.mototote.com Price $325

A Lets virtually any vehicle carry a bike A Lets trucks carry an extra bike A Far more convenient than a trailer owns v Rearward tow-vehicle weight bias v A drag in driveways v God help you if you get rear-ended!