Motorcycle Dolly

Who Needs One Anyway?

Several years ago I came across an ad for a motorcycle dolly in one of the motorcycle magazines and being the tool junky that I am, wanted one immediately. Good thing I’ve always found it a pain to order anything from the States (thanks to the exchange rate, shipping costs, and brokerage fees) because it gave me a little time to reflect on whether I even needed a dolly. Unsurprisingly, the answer came back as no. We have a large two car garage with an attached workshop, so there is plenty of space to accommodate our two bikes. During the riding season, one of the cars is parked out doors, while in the winter I can still easily tuck both bikes in around our four wheelers. The honest truth was that the dolly would have probably been more of an inconvenience rather than providing any kind of real help, so despite my craving for another gadget, I sadly concluded that it wasn’t for me.

Someone with Too Many Bikes

A couple of months ago, everything changed - suddenly we were a three bike family. Caroline finally got her dream bike (see...), and her 883 was being parked until a good price could be fetched for it, or failing that, possibly become my project bike. Although our garage could still handle another motorcycle, it would no longer be as easy to maneuver tools and vehicles about like before.

As fate would have it, shortly after the Street Bob arrived to its new home, a Princess Auto sale catalog was delivered to our door, and for the first time being offered within its pages, I found a Motorcycle Dolly similar to the one I once illogically yearned for. Where before it would have been a luxury with little purpose, now it was a solution that actually made sense.

Princess Auto imports many of the same products as Harbor Freight, so the identical dolly is available from both companies. Although I found the Princess Auto price pretty good, Harbor Freight had it on sale at the same time for $70 US.

As I learned with the Table Lift I purchased before, it is a good idea to shop at Princess Auto on the first day of their sale if you don’t want to be disappointed. By 9:30 am of the first day, five of the ten units they had at the Ottawa store were already gone.

Assembly

Since here in Ottawa we were up to our necks in snow in December, I decided to assemble the dolly in the comfort of my family room rather than the garage. The pool table turned out to be handy for laying out all the nuts and bolts, while having a fridge nearby provided the necessary provisions needed for me to complete the task. The following photos show the dolly from box to usage.

64 pounds of hardware ready to be assembled.

Why is it that the French text always seems so much more prominent on packaging here in Canada?

Unlike the Princess Auto Table Lift which was only painted and therefore easily scratched, this dolly was nicely powder coated.

Here laid out is the rest of the hardware that will be used to assemble the dolly.

Unlike Harbor Freight, Princess Auto didn’t spring for an English writer and so the manual contains funny errors. For example, what is a “Cheese head blot”?

Although I read some comments and reviews of this dolly on the internet that were less than complimentary, I found it remarkably well made. All the bolt holes lined up, and the welds looked pretty clean to me. Assembly didn’t take long, and only the exploded parts diagram was used as a guide.


Here you can see the dolly ready to accept a motorcycle (if it was in the garage mind you). The ramp is positioned to permit a wheel to easily roll up into the frame.

With the ramp now levered into the down position, the castor wheels are lifted off the ground. Doing this on both ends of the dolly prevents it from further movement.

Loading and Moving the Bike

Now that we have the dolly in the garage, it was time to see how hard it was to get a 650 pound bike on it. Since this was her bike, I let Caroline do the honors.

Despite having the ramp at the front locked down, trying to roll the bike on caused the dolly to move forward. Besides taking these pictures, I assisted Caroline by placing a foot on the front ramp to keep the dolly from sliding. Without someone or something (like a wall perhaps) to keep the dolly stopped in place, it could be risky for one person to ride the bike on.

So with my help, the bike rolled on without incident. Note that the front wheel has come to rest against a Stop Pin. This pin is just dropped into slots in the frame. There is another pin for the rear of the bike, but this bike is actually a touch too long and it could not be used
.

Here you can see the jiffy stand in the side tray. This tray can be relocated a few inches forward or back if need be to better accommodate the stand. For the Street Bob, the side tray was perfectly positioned in the middle.

As added insurance against disaster, the bike was secured with tie-downs. Since the frame was designed with a lip along its entire edge, tie-downs can be positioned wherever convenient. Although we tied the bike down from the front end, the manufacturer shows a bike being secured with straps going from one side to the other over the seat.

One other point: the front end can not be turned to full lock position because of the frame walls. This of course means that the bike cannot be secured using the steering lock.

Unless you have a glass smooth garage floor, moving the bike by yourself on the dolly is not that easy. It’s doable, but it will take some grunt effort. On the other hand, two people pushing and/or pulling makes it child’s play.

With a (little) help from me, the bike slid into position against the wall in seconds. I was concerned at first that the castor wheels were too small to do the job, but when the bike glided into position I knew they would be ok.

  
The Street Bob just fit on the dolly. The front wheel (above right) was held in place by the Stop Pin, while the rear wheel (above left) was wedged in by the ramp.

Summary

Overall I am very satisfied with the product. The price was quite reasonable, and compared to other dollies on the market, a downright bargain. Although others have reported major manufacturing flaws (eg. Wheel mounting brackets badly mis-aligned), our unit came almost perfect. Only one hole during assembly needed a bit of cleaning up from the powder coating.

Design details I would have liked to see would include bigger wheels, and a better method to prevent the dolly from moving when loading the bike.

In the spring, the Sportster will be put on the dolly. Being 150 lbs. lighter, it should improve the dolly’s performance.