How a Motorcycle Should Be Loaded on a Tow Truck in Buffalo, and How It Should Not

A bike has nothing to hook. No frame rails, no bumper, no tow eye, and it falls over if you look at it wrong. A truck set up for cars will improvise, and the improvising is where the scratched tank and the bent clutch lever come from. Motorcycle towing in Buffalo uses a flatbed like a car does, and everything after that is different.

The bike rides up the deck on its wheels into a chock that holds the front wheel upright. Soft loops go round the triple tree or the frame, never the bars, the tank or the fairing. Four straps, the suspension compressed so nothing can bounce, the bike standing straight. It takes longer than hooking a car and it is the whole difference between a bike that arrives and one that arrives damaged.

The cost is the published formula, $160 before mileage and $7 a mile, with no motorcycle surcharge. A bike that is down and will not roll is lifted onto the deck instead, and that recovery is $199 to book plus $150 an hour from when the driver arrives, separate from the tow. Before you let anyone load it, ask three things: do you have a chock, do you use soft loops, and where do the straps attach. The motorcycle guide has the rest.