Towing broken bikes out?

[Mick DMember]

If you do enough trail KM’s per year, eventually you will come across the situation when a bike on the ride, has a monumental failure that all the combined knowledge and tools etc on the ride cannot fix.

There comes the moment, when a decision is made, that the bike has to be dragged or pushed out of the bush. Not being a fan of pushing bikes got me wondering, how do other guys go about getting broken machines out of the predicament they are in?

I have been on several rides where a bike needed “getting out” and was impressed with what some of the guys, had on hand for such a situation.

I have seen thin seat belt strapping with a loop sewn into either end used to good effect, these two guys ran it from the right foot peg of the towing bike, to left footpeg of the bike being towed. This technique worked fine, as long as the person being towed was mindful that they must go wide, when ever the “team” made a left turn, other wise the strap would catch the knobbie of the towing bike, with disasterous results. These guys managed to tow this bike for 10km at 60 kmph at some stages.

I saw that Murph carries such a strap, which he also put to good use when guys were stuck on hills on my birthday ride.Up until now I haven’t considered carrying a tow rope of sorts.

This leads me to the question, what techniques and equipment work well, when the situation occurs that a bike needs a “snig”, so to speak?

Share your thoughts with us.

[GregMember]

Here is a tow technique I saw used at Condo using an front inner tube the guy had the inner tube over his shoulder all day and used it multiple times with great success

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFjrJ7vTO5U

TB

[JohnMember]

I got towed a long time ago by an experienced bush rider. One end of a thin piece of rope was tied to the back of his bike followed a meter later by an old tube and then another length of rope. the rope at my end was put around the triple clamp (not tied) and then up to the grips where it was held onto. Any problems you just let go of the rope. Hope that makes sense.

[DamoMember]

I always carry a strap similar to a tie down, but with a metal loop in the end, to be used as JAK mentioned.

Had to push my bike out of the bush when I was 15, never forget that time. Took about 5 hours, very hilly!!!!!

Never needed it when I have carried it, but happy to carry.

[RoyMember]

Like the others have said. Foot peg to foot peg is the go.

[TrentMember]

… unless you run into strife and can’t let it go. I think the strap wrapped around the bars and then held by the second bike is safer but I think a permanent pull strap fixed to the triples would be a good attachment point as it is centred and won’t pull the bars on an angle plus it doubles as a lift/tug point when you’re slogging up greasy hills. Either way I still think the rider needs to be able to let go.

[Mick DMember]

I towed a guy out of a pony express circuit one day using the footpeg method and he couldnt get it in his head to go wide to avoid the knobbies hitting the rope and eventually I ended up with the rope tangled around the brake disc and caliper so tight it needed cutting out. Also with the foot peg method when things go pear shaped you cannot bail if you are being towed.

[mikeMember]

This happened to me once when i was livin down in the ACT. I was on my XR600 and sunk it pretty badly in a boghole about 20 klms from the car.Cause i was young and dumb i did’nt have anything to tow it out with so i use my long sleeved teashirt i was wearin. I just looped it around the forks up near the triples and tied both sleeve ends onto the subframe on one side of me mates kato 620 near the blinker bracket. It was’nt pretty and i was real close to him once we started goin. I remember it being a real hard struggle to keep it all upright especially on the hills but we got back eventually to my relief.
These day i carry a bit of blue & yellow teltsra rope but might swap it for some strapping after reading some OBT’s comment.

[Eric SmithMember]

If using the footpeg method, don’t wrap or tie the strap or rope around the towed bike’s footpeg. Drape it over the footpeg and stick your foot on top of it. If you need to bail, you can lift your foot.

Personally I prefer a strap from the footpeg of the tow-er to the handlebars of the tow-ee, wrapped around and held in place by hand. To bail, just let the strap go and it unwraps from the bars and is gone.

I don’t usually carry a strap, but I do almost always carry a spare front tube – which will do the do in a pinch.

[john pavkovicMember]

JAK wrote:

Quote:

I got towed a long time ago by an experienced bush rider. One end of a thin piece of rope was tied to the back of his bike followed a meter later by an old tube and then another length of rope. the rope at my end was put around the triple clamp (not tied) and then up to the grips where it was held onto. Any problems you just let go of the rope. Hope that makes sense.

Did a trial skills day where they showed you all the stuff you need to carry, first aid,spares, different techniques ect…. and one of the things when all else fails was towing. We were shown a couple ways and the pitfalls but the good old inch wide strap about 3m long tied to the back of the towing bike and like jak said above was by far the safest way. The strap can be used for so many things in an emergency its mind blowing and once its rolled up takes up hardly any space at all.

[jamieMember]

I towed a mates crf,when he smashed all the rads and hoses with a spare tube slung over his bars then tied to the webbing/strap then hooked to my bike. With the tube you can ease off better with the tube absorbing the take off and differences in your speeds.And it will tow in a straight line.

But i had to make him run along beside it on the hill climbs :laugh: Only hassle is make sure its his tube.And he buys you a beer.

[murph the surfMember]

Dude towed me back to the Pines once, (very emabarassing but better than the alternative) I’m pretty sure we had the rope around both handle bars thus either the tower or towee could release in a hurry if needed :ohmy:
Thats my two cents worth
Cheers
Murph
P.S. Thanks Dude

[NathanMember]

The only time i have ever broken down in the bush was when i fouled a plug on the two smoker bout 2 kays from the cars at the end of a 90 kay ride. It was the first ride i ever did with Diddel. Which makes it an unusual event as its usually Diddel who breaks downs and requires maintenance. :laugh:

any how after we tried some towing methods that failed we pushed the c*nt out. Diddel did most of the work while i sat on the bike pretending to try and run start it. :laugh:

the point im trying to make is always carry a Diddel. :woohoo:

There young, fit and silly enough to push you out of any situation. :silly:

Tf2

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