Best ratchet straps for motorcycles

A motorcycle on a trailer fails in two familiar ways. The straps are so loose the bike walks, or they are so tight the forks top out into the fender and the paint meets a bare hook. The hardware that prevents the second problem is a soft loop. That is the practical reason the AUGO 15-foot kit is StrapRank's editor's pick for this job: the listing includes four soft loops and coated S-hooks with safety locks, at a published 733 lb load capacity.

A method that respects the bike

1. Use a wheel chock if you have one. The straps then keep the bike from leaving the chock. They are not a substitute for blocking a rolling wheel if the bike can roll.
2. Put soft loops around the handlebars, the lower triple clamp, or a frame point the motorcycle maker says is a tie-down point. Keep hooks off brake lines, radiator fins, turn signals, and fork tubes.
3. Run the straps down and slightly outward to trailer anchors that are rated for the load. Opposing angles keep the bike from leaning when one strap unloads over a bump.
4. Compress the suspension enough that a bump cannot unload the strap completely. Stop while the forks still have travel. The ratchet will happily keep going after the fender has not.
5. Use at least two straps. Four is the usual trailer setup, two in front and a pair keeping the rear from hopping. The AUGO pack is four straps, which matches that count without a second order.
6. Band the tails. Recheck the handlebars and the strap tension at the first stop.

There is no motorcycle-only section in the general cargo rules that StrapRank is going to invent. Commercial carriers still live under the cargo securement rules and any commodity section that applies to the vehicle they are hauling. A recreational trailer trip is still physics: a few hundred pounds of bike, a high center of gravity, and straps that go slack if the suspension rebounds. The 733 lb published capacity is about holding, not about winching the bike onto the trailer by the bars.

When a different strap is the better tool

If you over-crank ratchets, use a cam buckle and pull it by hand. Rollercam's set publishes 350 lb. VULCAN's 6-foot cam-buckle pair lists vinyl-coated S-hooks and a 2-pack, and it does not state a working load in the text we reviewed, so that field is check listing. If you are tying a heavy adventure bike and you want a higher published capacity in a short pair, AUGO's 1.5-inch straps publish 1,466 lb and still include soft loops. They are 10 feet, which is enough for many trailers and short for a tall route over a windscreen.