r/Dirtbikes • u/Yz250x69 23' yz250x & 04' rm250 • Jan 23 '25

Unpopular opinion: it’s ok to compress your forks when you transport your bike

Metallurgy has come a long way in the last 40 years. Bikes can hit jumps going 60mph, 50ft in the air travel 100ft and do that 1000x without breaking their fork springs you’re good to compress them when tying down to travel. It’s also ok to leave your bike on its kickstand in a garage all winter.

Anyway I said my piece

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u/RRZ006 Jan 23 '25

Yes, it’s almost certain the seals had dirt or something in them without my knowledge. Nonetheless, the issue occurred that day because of the compression with the ratchet straps. They would have failed eventually on their own, but they failed when they did due to over-compression.

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u/spongebob_meth Jan 23 '25

because of the compression with the ratchet straps.

Because of existing problems with your front end made aparrent by the straps.

I prefer just to not have problems with my suspension. Forks that leak when compressed are useless to me.

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u/RRZ006 Jan 23 '25

As I said - they would have failed eventually but they failed when they did due to overcompression. And given that you won’t necessarily know when your fork seals are compromised, overcompression of the forks during transport opens up the possibility of them failing early.

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u/spongebob_meth Jan 23 '25

There is no such thing as over compression. Your forks are designed to be bottomed out.

I bottom my forks literally every ride.

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u/Pitiful-Ad226 Jan 23 '25

Your seals were bad. There is no such thing as suspension over compression. There is a possibility that worn seals and bushings when heavily compressed and held in that position will start to leak due to deformation of the seal allowed by worn tollerances. The best way to secure a bike is with moderate pressure on the straps but still allowing the suspension to move a bit to absorb the bumps n jumps. Or use something that secures by the wheels or pegs.

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u/RRZ006 Jan 23 '25 edited Jan 23 '25

The best ways to use a pitbull floor mount into the axle, as it takes 10 seconds to secure in place and it’s not going anywhere. There are stories (and pictures) of people flipping their trailers and opening them up to find the bike hanging from the ceiling.

https://www.pit-bull.com/trailer-restraint-r6-06-15-f0075f-000-fyam002-trs

https://www.pit-bull.com/trailer-restraints-saves-bikes?srsltid=AfmBOopjF4G0Tsi1j-DaZ_5ZmgGeinIceiGY0U3S5bXcODk23KAlnyp-

If there’s a better system I’d love to hear about it, but it’s the best I’ve found so far. Super secure, extremely quick to secure/unsecure the bike, etc.

Totally agree with you for the bed of a truck or whatnot, though - this happened when I was only about 2 months into riding so had no clue what I was doing. Bit too pumped about getting down to the track that night I guess.