How to move a bike in mini van

[Zack]

Hi there,

Could you transport FZ-6 in a mini van? No way? Maybe? Read on. We have done it over the last weekend and have pictures to prove it!
We live in Toronto and have a town house with garage in Sarasota, Florida. By the way, absolutely love that place!
As you can guess driving season in Canada is pretty short so we decided to move FZ6 over the October - May to warmer place. We don't have pickup truck and would hate to attach a trailer for such long trip. U-Haul van was also out of the picture. Very expensive! So we decided to use what we have on hand, Honda Odyssey. Here is how it went:
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1. Purchased steel 7 foot folding ramp in Home Depot for 99 bucks. It's quite heavy but obviously sturdy. Aluminum one would be better but it costs about 150 and is much harder to find.
2. FZ6 is too high to fit the available headroom so we removed complete front fairing. It was easier than expected. Remove small side panels (see picture), disconnect 2 electrical connectors on the left side inside the fairing (we had one more wire because of headlight mod) and finally remove 2 bolts holding whole assembly attached to the fork (12mm ratchet). Bingo, front end comes off.
Watch when disconnecting a plugs. To do first one you have to push small notch towards the body of the plug and second one you have to pull it away just a bit in order to disengage.
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3. Put ramp up and don't forget to tie it (strap supplied with ramp) to the van so it doesn't slide backwards under the weight and momentum of the FZ6 going up the ramp.
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4. Previously we run the bike until we had only one bar of fuel in the reservoir left. Two persons, one on each side can simply push bike up and into the van. What I believed to be hardest part proved to be a piece of cake! I thought that we will have to find higher grounds or something so ramp is not sitting under sharp angle on the ground. But FZ6 with no front fairing and no fuel moved up no sweat.
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5. We used 500 lbs. nylon straps with ratchet heads to strap the bike to the floor. First we put bike into the first gear. By removing seats we had seat anchors as a hard points to grab on. Let me tell you 4 straps would be enough to hold the motorcycle steady, upright, a little compressed shocks. We added two more on the rear kind of pulling a bike backwards because I was afraid that in case of emergency stopping bike could jump forward and hit us sitting up front.
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6. Driving to Florida was uneventful aside from enjoying pure American landscapes over the course of 2400 km (1600 miles) and 22 hours non stop drive. Have to love America.
7. Fun part starts here. After arriving to destination we put up the ramp. Hardest part was to release the straps. Ratcheting heads are spring loaded and hard to release. Unloading was a piece of cake.
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8. It takes only 10-12 minutes to bolt back (2 x 12mm bolts) front fairing assembly and connect electrical plugs. Ready to ride!
If you look closely at this pic you will see 2 holes for those bolts.
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9. If there is a prize for most killed mosquitos we deserve it. Killed at least a million.
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That's it boys. Nice and easy. We are doing same thing some times in May after snow in Toronto is gone. It costed us about 400 - 450 bucks in gasoline to get there and back and that is all. Also, we spent weekend in paradise swimming in ocean and driving for the first time slowly with no helmet and just with sunglasses along the beach roads. Temperatures are still in 90's (33 C) there.
We also did interesting mod on the bike. See next post for details!

Zack & Son

P.S. How do I upload 5 more pics?? Anybody knows?

[Scab]

Originally Posted by Zack

P.S. How do I upload 5 more pics?? Anybody knows?

Another post, I think.

[bd43]

Yes, just reply to this thread and keep going, eager to see the rest of the pictures. I can't believe you actually did it. Kudo's.

[Zack]

Originally Posted by biker_dude43

Yes, just reply to this thread and keep going, eager to see the rest of the pictures. I can't believe you actually did it. Kudo's.

Thanks for advice man, I didn't know how to overcome this limitation with attachments. Here are more pics ...
(not greatest quality, iPhone used, but it serves the purpose)

[scottsst]

oh hell yeah I love the Idea of just using a mini van to move bikes around its SO much easier than a trailer . there is a guy in the Ducati owners club that I'm in that uses his Dodge Caravan to move his 998 track bike around it works great his loads it to one side sleeps in the back with it when on the road

[Zack]

Originally Posted by biker_dude43

Thanks for the extra pictures. I forgot to mention, we do have a \"Gallery\" where each member can upload photos to specific locations or albums of your own, like \"Pics of Bike in Minivan\" then put all your photos in there. Then you can call the pictures up one by one, get their URL and post the URL's in the message using the \"moutain/sun\" icon. Then I think the number of photo's go beyond 5? This way you can message then picture, then message, etc.

Thanks. I was actually wondering for the longer time how people insert pictures and videos straight into the text. Would sure look better ...

[thirty_too]

this is how u move a bike in a minivan... towards the end of the vid just be patient

YouTube - Honda CBR600RR 2007 STOLEN!

[steveindenmark]

I thought you meant a "Real" mini van. That would be a neat trick.

I watched the vid of the guys stealing the bike. I always try to lock mine to something solid and that includes my cycle.

Steve

[Taiwanese]

Originally Posted by thirty_too

this is how u move a bike in a minivan... towards the end of the vid just be patient

YouTube - Honda CBR600RR 2007 STOLEN!

holy ****..........

[fz6gow]

How do the FZ6's rate among thefts? I can't imagine they are as popular as CBR600 or GXRS. What do you guys think?