Templar 250.. Pull behind trailer!?

[Hunnicutt]

Have you considered buying a Goldwing? Honda made millions of them and they're easy to find at reasonable prices.

[GypsyR]

I moved a 1984 Goldwing for someone locally. Not my thing but it rode fine and it all worked. Afterwards they offered it to me for $600. Not up my alley but a deal for someone for sure. It didn't look bad for its age either. Someone bought it. I would think nothing of adding such a trailer to a bike like that with more mass and bigger brakes.

[solidsnake2431]

Originally Posted by Thumper

One other comment. All of the trailers suggested have one real consequence. Intersections will be white knuckles. If you have to stop fast, I think you are going down.

The motorcycles that typically haul trailers weigh over 400 kilos and have grippy road tires, with three hefty disk brakes. A dirt bike/Enduro doesn't have the traction, stiffness, suspension needed to safely stop a trailer fast.

Yes the bike itself is lighter then most that carry trailers but I am not running stock suspension, stock brakes or stock knobbies on my bike. I have bigger brake calipers, much stiffer suspension and street oriented tires.

Hell... the stock front suspension on the bike alone you can't stop on the street because it's so soft the suspension just dives instead of slowing the bike down . That was the first thing I fixed on it.

[solidsnake2431]

I wanted to put an alternative to a regular ball style receiver. That way if the bike where to tip over or the trailer where to it they were be independent of each other. I was looking at something like this swivel bearing.

[Bruces]

What do you think will happen if that “playground swivel “broke and your trailer injured or killed some one ?

[GypsyR]

Originally Posted by solidsnake2431

I have bigger brake calipers,

Hell... the stock front suspension on the bike alone you can't stop on the street because it's so soft the suspension just dives instead of slowing the bike down . That was the first thing I fixed on it.

Bigger brake calipers? Umm, got pictures and/or sources for these calipers?

What did you for anti-dive? I have not found it to be really an issue with my model of Templar, just curious.

[Thumper]

Drain and refill the fork oil with Motul expert 15W med/heavy for a quick upgrade on the front fork. There are other brands as well. It is already a massive fork, it just needs heavier oil.

You really need dual front disks, but the spokes might pull out under hard braking, or the frame might bend/twist or both...and either way, all go sideways if/when you have to brake hard. IMHO

Keep in mind that dirt bikes are engineered to be light, agile. Oh, you can adapt a trailer pulling dirt bike. But braking just isn't going to be easy.

[solidsnake2431]

Originally Posted by GypsyR

Bigger brake calipers? Umm, got pictures and/or sources for these calipers?

What did you for anti-dive? I have not found it to be really an issue with my model of Templar, just curious.

The front forks dive because the springs are too soft and there is not adequate preload adjustment. I put the preload spacers that are sold for it then I combined it with 20 WT shock oil, filled the oil up a little bit higher then the stock level. Got a front Brembo brake caliper with the matching brembo master cylinder and braided lines..They come stock on the new KTM 500 EXC and 450 motocross bikes. VERY big upgrade you can nearly stand the bike on the front wheel slowing down from 120+ mph (my KTM 500 supermoto has them) I had to make a custom bracket for the caliper.

The stock rear brake caliper on the X model is actually a dual piston and is a lot larger and works better then nearly all new high end motocross and adventure bikes out there (believe it or not)

[GypsyR]

Cool enough. Jacking around with the front forks has been detailed elsewhere on this site too. I don't do a lot of stoppies or thrash mine on pavement. I was able to get the stock front setup adjusted to my taste. Still messing with the rear though.

Got pictures of the caliper adapter you made? Not sure I'd want to put a bigger caliper on my Templar's puny little rotor but it sounds interesting. I once made caliper brackets to adapt aluminum dual piston PBR calipers to my '67 Mustang.

[Thumper]

A set of 6 piston calipers from a GSXR 750 fit perfectly on a first gen Bandit 1200S for me a couple of decades ago. The mounts on the fork tubes and the rotors lined up perfectly. But KTM to Templar is unexpected!

I still think you need two disks, and those spoke are going to get heavy torque. They might loosen up, or worse, pop out. You'll need to keep an eye on that.

I'd like to see that caliper from the KTM on the Templar. That is worthy of posting in the Templar resource guide. Can you post a photo?

[TominMO]

Originally Posted by solidsnake2431

My welder only weighs about 40lbs and then I have about 30lbs of cords and tools.....

Since you are only talking about 70 lbs of cargo, the weight of a small child, rather than screwing around with a trailer, altering brakes etc, why not come up with a system with hard saddlebags and a rack? Preferably fairly easy to attach and remove.

[Thumper]

Well, the trailer option allows you to leave the gear behind easily. But it could be set up to do that with a "quick" release rack mount. OK, a few wing nuts? Could be "fast".

[GypsyR]

I've got similar sized MIG welder. I guess could see it on a custom rack, carried like a trunk. As long as the rest of the stuff was carried down low saddlebag style I picture it all being not much more unwieldy than a somewhat hefty passenger.
One of these days I need to get back on that trunk for mine. Stalled out on making a quick disconnect for the wiring for the brake and turn signals.

[Bruces]

Originally Posted by GypsyR

I've got similar sized MIG welder. I guess could see it on a custom rack, carried like a trunk. As long as the rest of the stuff was carried down low saddlebag style I picture it all being not much more unwieldy than a somewhat hefty passenger.
One of these days I need to get back on that trunk for mine. Stalled out on making a quick disconnect for the wiring for the brake and turn signals.

Just use a simple trailer light connector

[GypsyR]

Originally Posted by Bruces

Just use a simple trailer light connector

I probably have a half dozen of those in stock but I bought some WeatherPak style ones I like better for the ability to lock them and later easily quick release them without having to wrestle like you have to with four wire trailer bullet style connector. My tail light wires are fairly puny.

My issue is time. I'm not really fond of tapping into a perfectly good wiring harness without doing a high quality job of it. IE, I probably will up the game from Scotch-Loks. Haven't decided on crimp style taps or cutting and soldering yet really. I don't have enough three-way crimp connectors I think. Ought to go look I expect.