I don't like owning my truck. I do because it's absurdly useful and I can't find a way to replace it that makes any sort of sense. I've owned it since new, 225k miles. What I've been tossing around is getting a small trailer to pull behind the Accord for local stuff and behind the FJ for "away" races and going to fetch dumb motorcycles. Even though the weight is ok for the Accord, I had dismissed a small enclosed because of the air resistance. Life is life though and now I find myself in a position to experiment with that idea with this lovely 5x8.
I was so far down this path that last week I ordered a hitch for the Accord and these two Baxley wheel chocks that I was going to design a small open trailer around.
The wheel chocks came when I was off fetching race bikes so I got to play with them this morning. They're legit. They'll get mounted in the enclosed for now and experiments will commence.
Cool stuff! Your kart track seems like the kind of place that might host SXS racing for cars that have been set up for on-road fun. Have you seen anything like that?
Seriously good score on all fronts Mr Deuce ...
I have an open trailer with a wire cage that's a bit bigger than that although maybe not quite as tall. With 3 (trials) bikes it costs me roughly 4 miles to the gallon in extra fuel over no trailer, interestingly the penalty is only a couple without the sides. I have towed it behind an ST170 Focus, Subie Forester, Subie Outback and most recently a Focus diseasel and rarely have trouble keeping up with or ahead of the traffic.
I am intrigued by your rule set for mini moto - we call them buckets over here and the only real difference I can see is that the kart tracks insist on fairly massive plastic sliders to stop their tracks being torn up by sliding bikes.
cheers, Richard
In reply to RichardNZ :
In my truck towing at about 70mph my mileage dropped from 16 to 12. The truck was very sad in the mountains in Virginia. I'm seriously considering having a friend build an open trailer so I can pull it behind my Accord, more on that later.
As far as rules, it's absurdly open. The main classes are limited by engine size, but other than that the rules are open. The fastest "regular" class is 65cc water cooled two strokes, do whatever you want. We also have unlimited which is up to 85cc water cooled 2 strokes but there are few if any bikes built for the class. How we race, being able to race multiple classes on the same bike, encourages people to build for the slowest class they reasonably can and then entering all of the faster classes as well. You can only run 2-3 races on an unlimited bike, but you can run 10+ on an F7 bike. More races is better.
We don't require sliders but we probably should. I can walk around our kart track and point out places I've fallen because of the scratches.
When I was racing bikes instead of cars, I had a 2wd '84 Toyota pickup that was the perfect tool for the job. Low loading height, 20something mpg with bikes in it, comfortable, kind of fun to drive when empty. Since you have more crew members to bring with you, maybe time to find a crew cab hilux to import?
Also worth noting that, at the same time, there was a guy with some sort of little french GP bike that used to show up with it inside of a RAV4.
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
I don't have a good solution, but now you know why I'm so interested in all the small truck threads here on GRM. If I was starting from scratch I wouldn't pick my truck, but I'm not and I already have my truck. So any new solution has to be better than that. The XR100's are long bikes (for what we do) and you can't shut the tailgate on my truck without the bikes being sideways. You can do that with two bikes in back, but not three. We also just learned that the RS125 is almost the same length and needs to be shifted sideways to fit. In the group of us, I run one bike per person (for now), so up to three, each of the other guys runs a bike (more coming) and we have the Grom for endurance. So for an away round we're looking at five people and a minimum of 6 bikes. We also like to have at least one more driver than the number of vehicles for away rounds so an injury means that we can still get all the hauling vehicles home. Combine that with leathers, helmets, boots, tools, generator for tire warmers, on and on and you see why vans are the answer.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
To me the question then becomes whether having the team distributed between vehicles is something you want or not- if you all live close enough together, maybe one big team hauler and one trailer would be nice. If you're an hour or more apart, maybe not.
For the one hauler, one trailer solution my vote would be a 2500/3500 van or a Suburban 2500/Yukon XL and an enclosed trailer. Distributed gets more complicated depending on what bike lives at whose house, etc.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
+1 for living the van life. Though an RV & 20' trailer would work too.
I put the bikes as close together as I physically can on the chocks and they're right about at 52 inches from outside to outside. They will physically fit in the trailer, but once in I'm not sure I can get around them to strap them down. This needs more investigation.
In the mean time it has been determined that the shoes that I put in the white bike are far superior to the ones that I put in the red bike. Kid#3 is right at the end of her front brakes as well, so two new sets of the good shoes and chains as well. Both bikes were right about max on the adjusters. New chains shortened the wheelbase about 2/3 of an inch on each bike.
Hard to tell from the pics, are the new bikes of similar size and scale as the XR100's and the GROM? I admit I'm ignorant in most things m/c.
In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :
The RS125 is about the same length as the XR100 or the Grom, but is much lower. It runs 17 inch wheels. The riding position is very compact. Full size adults can ride them, but you better develop a solid stretching routine if you want to ride them for more than about 10 laps at a time. At 5' 10"-ish and 150lbs I like the riding position, but our 6' 2' 200lb teammate finds the chassis much less pleasant. He has started stretching. 
The Aprillia RS250 is regular street bike size. A small street bike for sure, but the frame for the Cup bike and the standard bike (which we didn't get in the US) are the same and the position is comfortable.
In a lot of ways pure race bikes are like formula cars. "How much room do we have to leave for the bag of meat that drives? Can we get a smaller bag of meat?"
Both of the 125's run. 116 octane race gas was involved. I have a couple of videos to upload, but for tonight, you get this nonsense.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
berkeley that's a fast bike
Sounds like happy neighbors to me.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Silly man without a helmet 
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Nowhere is it carved in stone that you have to tie off the bars ... with the cage OFF my trailer I normally put the tie downs round the top of the fork sliders, being careful of the dust caps obviously. With the cage ON I use the bars but only 'cos I can't get my hands through the 4" mesh and I also crank the bars to full lock as due to a major design error (I got greedy making the cage and thought just another couple of rows of mesh = moar rubbish on each landfill trip) the bars foul the sides. Bike 3 always goes in backwards. In a previous life I tied all my bikes down through the foot pegs using short bits of chain which stuck up through the hole in the pegs and had ring pins to stop them pulling through. Used to get odd looks as the bikes had no visible means of support 
if you're doing chains check both sprockets carefully as they all wear at roughly the same rate. I was going to change mine recently but after washing it and stretching out 90 links it measured at 1277 mm against a nominal 1270 - well within the 2 to 3% generally recommended.
In reply to RichardNZ :
Agree about the helmet. He and I have this debate. I won't even ride in 1st gear from the truck to pit lane without a helmet. He's ridden a billion bikes over the past 20 years and has that easy (dangerous?) confidence that comes with that experience. In his defense, immediately after those shots on the red bike he came in and said "I need a helmet", so he got it.
Tying down is something that is always evolving. We tied the 125's down by the triples and that worked well. I actually only like using the bars on dirt bikes, not on bikes with clip ons. I just learned about the foot peg tie down thing with dirt bikes and I'm intrigued and may experiment. The Pit Bull tie downs that just attach to the rear axle are also fascinating. Expensive, but they look nice.
The sprockets on both bikes are still fairly good (not perfect) I'm shocked and how well the chain/sprocket pair is wearing riding on track instead of in the dirt. I think it's a combo of not having abrasives constantly grinding things down, and not having the shock loads tha come with the slip/grab nature of dirt riding.
I appreciate all of you insight on this.
Trailer. Thinking a lot about a trailer. Let's start with the Accord which is what I want to use as my tow vehicle. I want to use Accord wheels and car wheel bearings and come close to matching track width for superior tracking and so I don't bonk things with a trailer wider than the car.
A little measuring and math says that I'm about six feet at the outside edge of the tires and 51-52 between the tires. Chalk out a trailer that's six feet wide and has 1x3 foot wheel wells. I think that's overshooting the wheel real estate but I'll confirm with my trailer guy. Trailer bed is 7 feet long.
One bike mounted in the center.
Move the chocks so I could get three across the front. Doesn't fit. Bikes are in the wheel wells.
Space them so that the bikes are a comfortable distance from the wheel wells and I still have room for a short bike between, probably backwards like shown.
I'm sure you would much prefer low ride height with wheels and tires that match the tow vehicle, but how about small wheels and deck-over like a snowmobile trailer instead?
Why not raise the bike floor above the wheelwells with pull out drawers underneath? That 10 inch tall drawer can hold a lot of spares and tools in a well organized fashion.
If I try to maximize space I think I could get four as long as they're skinny.
Big bikes are NOT skinny but I could still fit two with some creativity.
And I think this would be the final layout. Two bikes normally, three if needed, room on the deck for a generator for tire warmers, fuel on the tongue.
The front and rear "wings" give me room to mount a spare and a toolbox and also the width needed to get good strap angles on the bikes.
Any thoughts?
In reply to newrider3 and Dusterbd13 :
Low deck height is a priority. It's THE priority really. My riding partner is 4'10"ish and 85lbs. Right now an injury, even one that has me fully capable of still driving the truck, means that we abandon the bikes. She can't load them in the truck. No way no how. My 16 year old can barely get the XR100's in. I can barely load the Grom. I despise powering bikes up ramps, and you can't power a broken bike up a ramp. Trailers are all about loading and unloading to me. The easier that is, the better the trailer is.
In that case, I would lean towards torsion stub axles (axle halves) clocked for a low ride, rather than a tube axle with leaf springs. They'll ride better for a lightweight trailer, and allow you to get the deck lower than wheel centerline. You can get them with 5x4.5 hubs to match the Accord wheels.
In reply to newrider3 :
That's the plan. I'd kind of like to use car bearings on the end of torsion stubs, but again, my trailer guy knows things.
It should look about like this, but with decking. Because I have too much free time and a 3D printer.
