After a string of cheap ’70s bikes, I bought my first decent motorcycle—a nearly-new Honda 250 dual sport. I learned a lot of lessons on that bike, and the toughest one cost me some plastics, a little pride and a fat ding in my pickup truck box. That poor Honda ended up on its side plenty of times, but it’s no fun when the ignition’s off and the incident was 100% preventable.
It’s far from the most exciting aspect of owning a bike, but sooner or later you’ll have to transport your motorcycle and there are plenty of ways to get it wrong. Whether by truck, trailer, van or hitch carrier, the basic tenants of safe passage are the same, and the investment in quality gear beats replacing parts.…