What did you do on or to your other bike part 2

[pdedse]

Indeed beautiful pics in that report pdedse

How does one load and unload a DR 650 by himself into a pickup bed?

Just pick it up and toss it in, right?  Helps to have the tailgate down.  



Sorry, couldn't resist.

I have a ramp with two sliding sections, maybe 5' long. It telescopes out to about 9' and provides a reasonable angle.  I use 1 or 2 steps, a 1' bench and a 5 gallon bucket and I look for an incline.  If I find a good incline, I don't need the 5 gallon bucket, just start at the top of the incline and gather some momentum and push walk it up along side the ramp, step on the bench and then onto tailgate and in.  If no incline is to be found, I put the bike in first gear and slowly, slowly walk it up, step on bench, then 5 gallon bucket, and then tailgate, but I really have to be careful with that.  I mean inches at a time and not be in a hurry.  It helps that I'm 6'3" with long arms, long reach so I can stand on the left and reach the right brake and throttle.  

Getting the bike off is the same, I look for an incline.  At home, no problem, as the driveway is perfectly inclined.  On the road, it's more of a challenge. If someone is around, I never turn down an offer of help.  

I tried riding my KLR650 onto the pickup years ago, lost my balance and both bike and I went over the left edge of the pickup.  I was hurt worse than the bike...but both of us only scraped up, broken turn signal.

Day 1 of this trip, I was just starting to back the bike down the ramp when I realized a second too late that I didn't have my right hand on the brake!  Yeah...an emotional experience and I just reacted...the bike was going down that ramp with or without me--as U2 sings--and I just jumped off the tailgate and held on to dear bike. Helps to have long enough legs, too. There was plenty of room so no biggie, but I didn't need to start my first day like that.  

One day I'll have a trailer and stop with the ramp nonsense!