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Park n Move VFR Dolly?


Teacher

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I saw this at last year's International Motorcycle Show in Seattle and was impressed. Now that I have a VFR, I keep thinking it was meant to be. Still, the Park-n-MOVE is not cheap at around $200.

http://www.legalspeeding.com/Park-n-Move.htm

My question is, does anyone even use this for their VFR or for their bikes in general? I don't have a big garage and being able to move the VFR side to side would be awesome.

Also, I was just in Harbor Freight recently, and saw this:

http://www.harborfreight.com/2-piece-vehicle-dollies-67511.html

This car dolly only costs $50, and Harbor Freight always has those 20% off coupons. Is this worth getting (and you're getting two by the way, which essentially makes it $25 each!) and just installing a flat piece of metal modded onto it so it's not curved? They sell a higher end one with castors that lock so it doesn't spin around as freely as the cheaper one.

Currently, I have to take the car in and out if I want to use the bike. Having a dolly can make it so that I can just park awkwardly in and then fix it with the Park-n-MOVE.

Suggestions, comments, theories?

Thanks!

- teacher

post-23721-0-82126100-1344488600.jpg

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The park-n-move is a near duplicate of the Wunderlich product popular with BMW owners. I own a Park N Move; saw it at the show and was having a hard time locating a Wunderlich, so I ordered one. Unfortunately, I don't use it much and here's why:

First, the clearance under the bike is not substantial, which is problematic. You have to line up the park n move in just the right spot so the center stand tongs hit it in the device in the middle when the bike is placed on its center stand. This is kind of tricky. Often I have to reach down and move the thing an inch or two, or try to kick it to get it into position. This can be a pain when the wheels are locked. The bike also must be nearly upright to move the park n move under it, because of clearance issues.

Second, the casters have individual locks on them. It is important to lock the wheels when you put the bike on it so it doesn't slide around. The Wunderlich had an actual lever that locked; the park n move isn't as fancy. Its a pain in the butt to lock those wheels and unlock them.

Third, I realized that I don't move my bike that much. I like the idea of being able to move it around; its just kind of a pain to put it on the damn thing.

Knowing how this thing works, I would have preferred the locking arm of the Wunderlich. That said, it does work once the bike is on it. You can move the bike around so long as you watch the front tire (its always on the ground and you have to tilt the bike back).

I would not try to rig something with those car dollys. that curved surface is a disaster waiting to happen. If you go that route, pound out the bottom of the curve so its low and flat. And find a way to secure the wheels.

Next time I may go with a Bursig. Now that's a cool dolly!

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At $199, the thing is waaaayyyy overpriced. It wouldnt take much with a trip to the hardware store to copy it.

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http://www.telefix-p...e/catalogue.pdf

http://www.telefix-p...dex_rangier.htm

I have owned a moto-boy 1 for more than 13 years.

Used to live in an apartment block with storage on the 3rd floor.....

Into a narrow elevator and then negotiate three 90 degree corners..... np!

Now I use it to get the bike in/out winter storage, works a treat.

IMG_0298.jpg

Roll the front part of the bike over the threshold inside the shed, place the boy under and put her on.....

IMG_0300.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

I've got a few bikes, all of which have center stands, so this would be good for when I'm working on one, and would make rolling one or two out to the center for work, and back when I'm done useful.

I have only found the Moto Boy and the Legal Speeding one (Park-n-Move). Anyone have a link to the Wunderlich product?

From a quick look from my over-worked and befuddled wrinkled grey lump of organic material that I like to think is a brain, the Moto Boy has a locking bar as opposed to the individual locking casters on the Park-n-Move. The Moto Boy looks to be about $133 American, which depending on shipping to the States, should still be less than the $200 American for the Park-n-Move.

I'm thinking of getting one to start with, then an additional two depending on how my experience goes. Thoughts?

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The Harbor Freight motorcycle dolly is cheap and works well for the price. I use them for on both my bikes and was able to buy them for about $50 each when they were on sale (with coupon.)

post-14198-0-73561300-1352380122.jpg

Rollin

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Because we have too many bikes now, we ended up making our own so we could squeeze the bikes together for the winter. Very handy for the two STs. Made them out of spare steel plate and a bunch of castors we got for nothing at either an auction or industrial surplus place. Only really use it for winter storage though.

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I'm not sure if www.Louis.de ships to the 'States, but I know they do ship to the UK. They sell the Motoboy (current incarnation thereof, looks a bit different than Dutchy's), but their knock-off version is only EUR50 ($65) including 19% VAT (which gets deducted on exports from the EU). You'd still have to add shipping costs and US import duty, but it still seems like it would be cheaper than the Park-n-move.

I've had a pair of orange ones like that for about ten years. I think I must have purchased them from POLO, another German motorcycle accessory chain store. I thought I'd use them, but never did, really. Garage floor needs to be very flat, and I found I didn't have enough room to wheel my bikes around, anyway!

So, you can imagine why I was a bit puzzled about what was going on in Zimmermann's mind when he wrote this:

In May 2007, while on a three-week ride to Alaska, Aaron came up with the idea for the Park-n-Move. By December 2007 the Park-n-Move was a reality and it was debuted at the International Motorcycle Show in Long Beach, California. Shortly thereafter, Motorcycle Consumer News awarded LEGAL SPEEDING the Innovation of the Month, February 2008, for the Park-n-Move.

Telefix, to name just one manufacturer, had by that point been manufacturing essentially the same product for at least 20 years!

Ciao,

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I have the same one that Rollin has and it does the job, but I think the wheels are a little less than to be desired, at least on mine. Sometimes one of the wheels gets "stuck" and won't rotate in the direction of motion and therefore makes it difficult to maneuver. I have been toying with the idea of replacing them with better units and seeing if that will take care of the problem, but since I use it for the Duc and I use the VFR almost daily, I am in no hurry, the Duc is my "weekend" bike anyway. For the record, it is supposed to handle up to 1250 pounds.

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Motoport (they have shops in teh US don't they?) also sells the centre stand dollie.

If you do not have a centre stand you can also get a model like this, motor mover:

groot_mover5.jpg

HPIM3768.jpg

On 9-8-2012 at 10:45 AM, Dutchy said:

Used to live in an apartment block with storage on the 3rd floor.....

Into a narrow elevator and then negotiate three 90 degree corners..... np!

 

 

 

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http://www.telefix-p...e/catalogue.pdf

http://www.telefix-p...dex_rangier.htm

I have owned a moto-boy 1 for more than 13 years.

Used to live in an apartment block with storage on the 3rd floor.....

Into a narrow elevator and then negotiate three 90 degree corners..... np!

Now I use it to get the bike in/out winter storage, works a treat.

Roll the front part of the bike over the threshold inside the shed, place the boy under and put her on.....

The link was no worky. This one is better?

http://www.telefix-products.de/product.php?id_product=93

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I should add that one of the things I like about the ones that use the bike's center stand is that if I'm NOT using the wheeled stand, they are large and bulky to stash somewhere. Though I do appreciate the MotoPort one, never seen that. Looks like I have a few more to check out when I get back from dinner, unless I pass right out in the diner. Always a possibility these days.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I made my workstand a little more mobile. I have limited space, mama parks in the shop in the winter. In it's original form, it would only roll front and back with a bike on it. At that, it was hard to move. So I fabbed up some dollies:

IMG_0721.jpg

Made 1 for each end of the cross tubes.

IMG_0722.jpg

Made the cross bars from 1" hot roll I sniped from work

1/4 x 3 flat bar $40 for 20' (have lots leftover for other projects)

8- 3" casters from Princess Auto (Canadian equivalent of Harbor Freight) $48 (wife works there, I love her job !)

Handful of SS fasteners $5.00

So for about 100 bones, made it movable by 1 person and not have to worry about tipping it over. I can now roll it out of the way when not working on it by myself. I love it when a plan comes together LOL

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I've been using the Harbor Freight one for a couple years now without any problem. It does exactly what I wanted it to do - fit two cars and the bike in my just-barely-two-car garage. I still have to fold the VFR's mirrors flat to the windscreen to clear it with the car.

Anyway, I wouldn't say the dolly moves effortlessly around my garage, but it absolutely does the job and you can't beat the price. (I also paid around $50 with one of their coupons.) It was a godsend, because I was getting ready to fabricate something that probably wouldn't have worked as well and would have cost me at least that to build.

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I too have the Park n Move and use it for my VFR as well as the KLR. It works well and the main reason I like it has to do with storage size when not in use. I don't use it often but it has come in handy. I bought it used otherwise I would have passed.

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