How to safely load a dirt bike into the bed of a truck (by yourself)?

[Hannah Gliniewicz]

So I bought a new bike (my first 4t), and it is pretty heavy compared to my KTM. I’m also short and don’t weigh much, so there’s another disadvantage. I just can not for the life of me load it up my two ramps ? my truck is pretty tall and makes the ramps extremely steep as well. When I do load it by myself, I usually have a hill I can pick up enough speed down to load it. But a lot of local tracks don’t have any hills, the pits are all level. And I hate asking people for help to load my bike. The ramps I have are pretty skinny, so I’m not fond of the idea of riding it into the back of the bed. It would be different if the ramps were trifolds. But that seems to be my only option. Is there any safer, more effective alternatives? Has anyone walked beside the bike up the ramp while running the bike to give it enough throttle up the ramp? Fortunately being a former woods enthusiast my clutch control is pretty good. But curious to hear if there is any other ways of loading? Thanks in advance!

Edited September 11, 2019 by Hannah Gliniewicz

[texas angler]

Using a step (your bike stand or similar) and walk it up to the bed of your truck.   At the place I ride, I see a guy do this frequently and even into a semi-lifted truck (he's a big dude though).  I'm short too.  I say screw it and put ours on a trailer and all our gear goes in the bed of the truck.

Nice ride ya got there too.

[Piney Woods]

Bought that $$$$ bike and ridiculously expensive twice pipes and you can't afford a $120 tri-fold ramp??????????????????????

[DaveCR]

Longer ramps? https://www.discountramps.com/atv/ramps/dual-folding/p/BW-12012-2/

I'm using a hitch carrier when riding solo.

[Hannah Gliniewicz]

24 minutes ago, texas angler said:

Using a step (your bike stand or similar) and walk it up to the bed of your truck.   At the place I ride, I see a guy do this frequently and even into a semi-lifted truck (he's a big dude though).  I'm short too.  I say screw it and put ours on a trailer and all our gear goes in the bed of the truck.

Nice ride ya got there too.

I think I just need to buy a trailer ? getting to old for this 

[Hannah Gliniewicz]

15 minutes ago, Piney Woods said:

Bought that $$$$ bike and ridiculously expensive twice pipes and you can't afford a $120 tri-fold ramp??????????????????????

The bike came with the pipes, but after buying it I’m not looking to spend much more on bike stuff lol the ramps I own do just fine 

[BOAB]

Just curious, if you are so short how do you safely ride a CRF?  They are very tall.

[Hannah Gliniewicz]

20 minutes ago, BOAB said:

Just curious, if you are so short how do you safely ride a CRF?  They are very tall.

I don’t find the bike too tall, but I had the forks and rear suspension linkage adjusted a little to accommodate my height. But nothing really drastic. I’ve just learned to adapt to it, it’s very doable. 

[CDNSXV]

Hitch carrier.

[Icerink5am]

1 hour ago, Hannah Gliniewicz said:

So I bought a new bike (my first 4t), and it is pretty heavy compared to my KTM. I’m also short and don’t weigh much, so there’s another disadvantage. I just can not for the life of me load it up my two ramps ? my truck is pretty tall and makes the ramps extremely steep as well. When I do load it by myself, I usually have a hill I can pick up enough speed down to load it. But a lot of local tracks don’t have any hills, the pits are all level. And I hate asking people for help to load my bike. The ramps I have are pretty skinny, so I’m not fond of the idea of riding it into the back of the bed. It would be different if the ramps were trifolds. But that seems to be my only option. Is there any safer, more effective alternatives? Has anyone walked beside the bike up the ramp while running the bike to give it enough throttle up the ramp? Fortunately being a former woods enthusiast my clutch control is pretty good. But curious to hear if there is any other ways of loading? Thanks in advance!

It certainly depends how wide your ramp is - some can definitely be a little sketchy since they're so narrow. I do agree with the guy before me - with an expensive bike, the last thing you want to do is drop it because you didn't want to dish out another $100 for a decent ramp. Something like this would be great, and you could comfortably ride your bike up with a ramp that wide. I can see riding up being a little sketchy with a really narrow ramp.

The way my dad taught my was always momentum. Get a running start with the bike, and I literally leap into the truck bed as I push the bike up. Like others said, you can always put your stand down next to the ramp as a second step. But yeah, if you don't want to ride it up, running start is the way to go. Leaping into a truck bed isn't very hard when you're running, and the bike should have plenty of momentum. 

[BOAB]

Its funny, but when I was MUCH younger it was the usual thing to just ride the bike into the bed of the truck on one skinny ramp.  That was just how you loaded the  bike, we didn't think anything of it.  Nowadays...NO WAY! 

[Hannah Gliniewicz]

6 minutes ago, CDNSXV said:

Hitch carrier.

Would love one but my the hitch on my truck is pretty rotted. No towing or bearing any weight on it. 

[Hannah Gliniewicz]

7 minutes ago, BOAB said:

Its funny, but when I was MUCH younger it was the usual thing to just ride the bike into the bed of the truck on one skinny ramp.  That was just how you loaded the  bike, we didn't think anything of it.  Nowadays...NO WAY! 

I used to have a single, homemade wooden ramp that I’d ride my 85 right up. But I don’t feel as nibble now on the big bikes haha

[Hans Schmid]

Quad ramps make for easy work... 

[Chuck.]

1 hour ago, Hannah Gliniewicz said:

I think I just need to buy a trailer ? getting to old for this 

I'm old and use a PU for my bike(s). I use a pair of folding ramps that are similar to the above link.  I use one ramp for the bike and one ramp to walk on.  I load using the bike's engine to move the bike up the ramp, you do need clutch and throttle control. Unload is just back it down the ramp. 
Lessons learned: The foot of the ramps are slippery on the exposed aggregate concrete in my drive way so I added a piece of industrial rubber floor mat to the bottom of each ramp.  The other, and probably safer, option is to use the tie straps shown in the link to keep the ramps from slipping off the tail gate.

[IDTrav]

I guess another question is - who still rides their bike onto the bed of their truck and what is your process? 

Just bought a new GMC AT4 with the folding tailgate but am still a bit too short to load by myself. Picked up a motorcycle hauler that goes in the trailer receiver but would like to have the skill set of solo loading into the box if ever required.  

 

[Dmouse]

 I used to load my bike in a pick-up I had using 2ramps and walked the bike up and in using the motor and a lot of clutching. Once you get used to it, it's no big deal and is fairly easy to do

[Piney Woods]

4 hours ago, Hannah Gliniewicz said:

The bike came with the pipes, but after buying it I’m not looking to spend much more on bike stuff lol the ramps I own do just fine 

Your op said they were too skinny which implies that do not do just fine. One more thing, if your hitch is rotted(rusted) enough to be unusable you better not go anywhere in that truck or put your bike in the bed. Hitches are very thick, high quality steel, much thicker than anything else on that truck. You playing games with us?

Edited September 11, 2019 by Piney Woods

[pat22043]

longer, wider, better ramps
Hitch carrier can work too, but seems kinda silly when you have a pickup truck bed right there

[Hannah Gliniewicz]

16 minutes ago, Piney Woods said:

Your op said they were too skinny which implies that do not do just fine. One more thing, if your hitch is rotted(rusted) enough to be unusable you better not go anywhere in that truck or put your bike in the bed. Hitches are very thick, high quality steel, much thicker than anything else on that truck. You playing games with us?

Relax bud. I said I don’t feel comfortable riding up them, but I can. Just not fond of the idea. 

Its an older truck, it has rust. I can’t tow with it, so a hitch carrier probably isn’t a good idea either. My dad owns a shop, my boyfriends a mechanic, and they both see no issue with it otherwise. So I’ll trust their word over yours. Obviously a newer truck is on my list, but my yota does just fine hauling my bike to local tracks on the weekends.