Trailer for Versys 650
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Going to chime in here.....based on experience.
towed my then bike out to Colorado Springs from NKY 4 years ago. Used my Honda CRV and a 5X8 utility trailer. Don’t let people ever tell you that Kansas is flat, it ain’t. It’s uphill both ways and always into a headwind. Same for eastern Colorado. I had to keep that poor little CRV almost floored just to maintain the speed limit. Think about it, heading west you’re always climbing toward the mountains. It’s very very gradual but it’s there all the same. My gas mileage went to total $hit. Was stopping every 100 miles or so, which works out to about 10 mpg, with a 12 gallon tank and not running it fully dry (lots of wide open space and not always gas stations where you want them out there). If you do choose to tow, get the best trailer you can, use and sell it when you get back. You’ll end up selling it for almost what you paid for it and the difference is still going to be a lot less than what renting one will cost you. By the way, I’ve now got a V-6 Jeep Cherokee and it pulls the bike/trailer like it’s not even back there and still gets better gas mileage than the CRV ever did. My wife had a Ford Edge with the V6 and it did the same. The RAV4 and CRV just aren’t designed to tow like the mid-sized SUVs are, and don’t do near as good a job as they do. Loved my CRV and put 315,000 miles on it before selling it to my nephew, but it wasn’t designed to do any serious towing.
towed my then bike out to Colorado Springs from NKY 4 years ago. Used my Honda CRV and a 5X8 utility trailer. Don’t let people ever tell you that Kansas is flat, it ain’t. It’s uphill both ways and always into a headwind. Same for eastern Colorado. I had to keep that poor little CRV almost floored just to maintain the speed limit. Think about it, heading west you’re always climbing toward the mountains. It’s very very gradual but it’s there all the same. My gas mileage went to total $hit. Was stopping every 100 miles or so, which works out to about 10 mpg, with a 12 gallon tank and not running it fully dry (lots of wide open space and not always gas stations where you want them out there). If you do choose to tow, get the best trailer you can, use and sell it when you get back. You’ll end up selling it for almost what you paid for it and the difference is still going to be a lot less than what renting one will cost you. By the way, I’ve now got a V-6 Jeep Cherokee and it pulls the bike/trailer like it’s not even back there and still gets better gas mileage than the CRV ever did. My wife had a Ford Edge with the V6 and it did the same. The RAV4 and CRV just aren’t designed to tow like the mid-sized SUVs are, and don’t do near as good a job as they do. Loved my CRV and put 315,000 miles on it before selling it to my nephew, but it wasn’t designed to do any serious towing.
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That is awesome...I made this trailer from a Harbor-Freight one, for ROUGHLY $250 US PLUS around $50 US for the aluminum ramps, etc, and towed an '09 V650 from Phoenix to Calgary, Alberta, then I sold the trailer for about $700 CDN.
DSC05962 by Ed Copeman, on Flickr
DSC05961 by Ed Copeman, on Flickr
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Also in Ohio 👍🏼
Been a lot of great suggestions and advise here.
First $.02 if possible, perhaps borrow/exchange your vehicle with a friends truck for duration of your trip?
I head out west once or twice a year and almost always with bike loaded or in tow. Little vehicles with trailers just don't tow well in general, though CAN be done. First time out west I built a little trailer and towed my 84 Nighthawk SC behind my Ford escort 4 speed...Hardcore! Drafting semis to get up to speed limit. Difficulties don’t begin to register until the Ozarks and just gets worse. Also, you don’t just lose power from climbing but also altitude and wind, a/c etc.
I’ve had a little 4x8 ramped trailer with wood floor (TSC $600 on sale later resold for same$) but it always bounced all over especially through cities...nerve wracking. Now using a 5x10 (much more stable) and can safely carry 2 bikes. Bring a friend! Just take the ramp/gate off and lay it flat, park the bikes on top for the journey. Those ramps are gas eating sails.
Going solo, I ramp up into the truck bed. Colorado 5’ bed, gate down. Waay simpler, more efficient, less stress, easy parking etc.
Unfortunately CL isn’t good for anything now with fb marketplace taking all their business if your looking for used. Scored a $500 snowmobile there just before the snow! Winter ride👍🏼
Dayton area btw.
Been a lot of great suggestions and advise here.
First $.02 if possible, perhaps borrow/exchange your vehicle with a friends truck for duration of your trip?
I head out west once or twice a year and almost always with bike loaded or in tow. Little vehicles with trailers just don't tow well in general, though CAN be done. First time out west I built a little trailer and towed my 84 Nighthawk SC behind my Ford escort 4 speed...Hardcore! Drafting semis to get up to speed limit. Difficulties don’t begin to register until the Ozarks and just gets worse. Also, you don’t just lose power from climbing but also altitude and wind, a/c etc.
I’ve had a little 4x8 ramped trailer with wood floor (TSC $600 on sale later resold for same$) but it always bounced all over especially through cities...nerve wracking. Now using a 5x10 (much more stable) and can safely carry 2 bikes. Bring a friend! Just take the ramp/gate off and lay it flat, park the bikes on top for the journey. Those ramps are gas eating sails.
Going solo, I ramp up into the truck bed. Colorado 5’ bed, gate down. Waay simpler, more efficient, less stress, easy parking etc.
Unfortunately CL isn’t good for anything now with fb marketplace taking all their business if your looking for used. Scored a $500 snowmobile there just before the snow! Winter ride👍🏼
Dayton area btw.
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230 Posts
It's going to take you just as long to drive, towing a trailer with your bike and then riding to your ultimate destination and back, as it would if you leave the car (and the trailer you would not have to buy) at home and just jumped on your bike and rode there and back.
You may be thinking that the return journey being (very approx... I'm an Australian) 4000 miles
or so on a bike may tax your physical resources... However you will save much of your physical
resources by not having to run around like a headless chook acquiring a trailer/setting the trailer up/acquisition of the paraphernalia to secure the bike to the trailer and loading and unloading
the bike from the trailer multiple times/driving the car whilst towing the trailer with your
pride and joy strapped to it/storage of the car with trailer when your on the bike..
And all those things will absorb physical resource if you choose to trailer the bike part way
instead of just riding the bike there and back.
Also you would not have to worry about the cost of the trailer!
The money you save on juice, presuming you car uses more petrol towing a trailer with your
bike on it, than your bike would over the same distance, (not to mention the cost of the trailer) will allow you to spend those savings on better accommodation and better food.
Apart from all that, (and I reckon this is the main point you are "missing"):
Far greater adventure and satisfaction on a motorcycle than in a car.
Alan.
PS. Take lots of photos however you choose to travel.
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Great in theory, and have done it many times, but...and we know there is always a but involved, you can normally put down many more miles in the car in a day than you can on a bike without getting too fatigued so you spend less time getting to the starting point during a limited vacation.It's going to take you just as long to drive, towing a trailer with your bike and then riding to your ultimate destination and back, as it would if you leave the car (and the trailer you would not have to buy) at home and just jumped on your bike and rode there and back.
You may be thinking that the return journey being (very approx... I'm an Australian) 4000 miles
or so on a bike may tax your physical resources... However you will save much of your physical
resources by not having to run around like a headless chook acquiring a trailer/setting the trailer up/acquisition of the paraphernalia to secure the bike to the trailer and loading and unloading
the bike from the trailer multiple times/driving the car whilst towing the trailer with your
pride and joy strapped to it/storage of the car with trailer when your on the bike..
And all those things will absorb physical resource if you choose to trailer the bike part way
instead of just riding the bike there and back.
Also you would not have to worry about the cost of the trailer!
The money you save on juice, presuming you car uses more petrol towing a trailer with your
bike on it, than your bike would over the same distance, (not to mention the cost of the trailer) will allow you to spend those savings on better accommodation and better food.
Apart from all that, (and I reckon this is the main point you are "missing"):
Far greater adventure and satisfaction on a motorcycle than in a car.
Alan.
PS. Take lots of photos however you choose to travel.
In the US, unless you are a school teacher, 2 weeks is max consecutive time off for most workers. Spending 6 days riding to and back from the good roads eats into that time.
Now, convince a buddy or two to go with you and you have now doubled the distance and hours on the road you can spend driving to the destination giving you more time for enjoying the good roads.
Also, if your bikes happens to break down out there, it is easier to get it back to the car and haul it home.
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Ok, dumb suggestion. Have you looked into shipping the bike? We've used U-Ship for all kinds of things, though not a motorcycle, and the rates have been very good. The only thing is your shipment dates are somewhat flexible. What they do is put your job out for bid, and someone with space in their truck will pick up the work for cheap just to get a few extra $.
Depending on where you want to start/stop, you could probably find someone on this forum who would receive your bike for you and keep it the few days until you arrived.
Depending on where you want to start/stop, you could probably find someone on this forum who would receive your bike for you and keep it the few days until you arrived.
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I have met people with only enough time off to explore the country in one direction. They make the trip on their bike and then either ship it home, or stick in storage until they can fly back out to ride home. This works well if the trip out is near the end of their riding season. Another option I’ve seen people do is fly across country, buy a bike and ride it home.
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Last summer, I took my 650 Versys out viaSouth Dakota, Wyoming and to glacier park in Montana, had a great time particularly while staying in Whitefish, and and going to Deadpool’s end of August festivities.. here’s how I did it...
![181862]()
![181863]()
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I am concerned about weight and the Rav4's ability to tow for such a long distance. That's why, upon learning the Uhaul trailer is 800lbs...I nixed that. The Harbor Freight is 250lbs
Still...this is all 'bucket list' stuff. Being in Ohio, and still a reasonably new rider, I should make trips on the eastern 1/2 of the US before tackling a trip out west. Hopefully there will be some camping trips this summer with some friends and I can ride the Versys to/from. I have been educating myself about appropriate camping gear (small) and have made a few purchases. I already have a large SW-Motech bag and looking forward to it.
The 'big one' for the eastern USA is a good friend who's bought a home on the coast in Maine. It will take me three days to get there @ 333 miles per day. (more miles if I choose to stay off the interstate...which sounds inviting.) I drove it last year, even that was two days of pure interstate (boring) driving.
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Argh..got mixed up, havent figured out how to delete a post.
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Many years ago I built a little red trailer like the one in FastEddie's post, though it was one size larger. I put on a plywood floor and some eyebolts to strap down my first bike, a 1982 Kawasaki KZ550. Getting the bike on/off a trailer is always a trick, but iirc we just backed it up to a hill.
The trailer itself had no problem at all with the 600# load on it. I would endorse such a trailer for your Versys, presuming your tow vehicle is capable.
The trailer itself had no problem at all with the 600# load on it. I would endorse such a trailer for your Versys, presuming your tow vehicle is capable.
two things...
1st. Check out www.rideMSTA.com. We have a lot of Ohio members and lots of opportunities to explore many of the prime riding areas in the the eastern US (along with some western US stuff too). local, regional, national stuff going on all year
2nd. Figure your gas mileage with that Rav4 towing a bike will drop significantly! Like probably to around 10mpg going across Kansas. It’s 1200 miles from Columbus to Denver. Even at an average of 15mpg that’s 80 gallons of gas. 80 X 2.50 = $200 in fuel each way. Adds up quickly.
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How about this trailer?
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I have saved this video, and I will be investigating it. I like the fact it can be disassembled for storage.
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