Towing a bike...

...is a bit twichy.

I've been on the back end of that combo - it's interesting indeed.

Kilmartin. Took the standing stones by the car park. Found out at
DTD's last open day and was going to get back to it before the 31st
but couldn't get the Monday or Tuesday off work.

I was even less cheerful than usual that week.

It is, isn't it.

Laddo called shortly after leaving for work to inform me that his
chain had come off his 'ped. 'Come off' in this context means
snapped, taking a significant portion of the front sproket
cover/casing thingy with it.

After dropping him at work it was back to the bike for some head
scratching. Being far to idle to push the thing a few miles home and
having no bints available for at least a few hours, towing seemed a
sensible option.

Brother turns up with a tow rope and a couple of attempts at just
hanging on to it didn't work at all well. The forks looked a bit
spindly so I figured it would be best to tie the rope to the
easily-replaceable-if-they-bend bars - and slightly to one side to
miss the clocks.

We did similar, around the headstock, and cam up with the ingenious idea
that not tying the rope, but holding it, enabled the rider (me) to let
go if in trouble. Hard work holding that rope end for 5 miles!

Lordy we must have towed bikes dozens of times. Around the headstock is
the only way. I recall an R100S towing an RD400 happily at 70mph lol

Tie? TIE! No!

What you're meant to do is loop the rope round the headstock, and then
hold the end in your hand, so you can let go if necessary.

That certainly seems to be the concensus of opinion. I shall remember
that for the next time I don't do it.

I use about 4 metres of webbing, you put it through the
fork/fairing/headstock area, then lay it on the left grip. If things get
exciting, the towee simply lets go. I've towed up to 50mph without
incident.

Perhaps I should do a tutorial at the next *OSM.

Now dear brother is not particularly smooth when towing a car, so gear
changes were snatchy and just maintaining a straight line was
certainly arm muscle building. The usual method of the vehicle behind
doing the braking for the vehicle in front unsurprisingly was not
particulary effective as TS50 brakes were not at all interested in
pulling up a Primera.

It was only a few miles, we didn't go above 30 and I suppose it would
have been a lot smoother if I was on a proper bike, but it was an
entertaining experience I'll hopefully not be repeating again.

I was towed by "a mate with a car" when my Honda CB77 (305) needed
relocating in the middle of a rebiuld.
We put the engine in the boot of the car while I rode the rolling-chassis.

The tow-rope was looped around the headstock with the end up on the
twistgrip for me to hold. The idea being that I could release if things got
nasty.

We started just north of Kingston and headed for Twickenham. All was fine
going around Kingston one-way system and even over the bridge. However,
that's when it all went wrong....

Matey got over confident and started to push the speed up.
The road had been dug up and patched so it looked like rows of shallow speed
humps.
Without the engine the frame flexed - as the engine was a stressed member.
Without the weight of the engine and me being a 9-stone weakling [1] the
suspension was solid.

The result was a 100 yard rodeo ride ending with me being thrown against a
BT roadside cabinet and the bike being dragged on it's side for another 50
yards before matey realised the error of his ways.

I had a broken jaw and collarbone, not much skin on my hands (despite
gloves) and a gash on my leg that sprayed blood everywhere.

By the time matey pulled over and walked back he was laughing so much he
could hardly walk - but then he always did have a strange sense of humour.

There are two lessons I learnt from this:
- towing a bike is not a good idea.
- don't let anyone tow you in anything unless they know what they're doing.

Done this myself a couple of times but using a farm quad bike / CB250RS
instead of a car, rope around the bars connected to the rack of the
vehicle in front, not too bad really trying to start a bike by towing
it however was not the smartest thing I have ever done

I once did the definitive towing with two Belstaff belts joined
together trick (AJS to AJS.).