(cross-post with an update to a tech thread, thought I'd share here).
Been looking for a way to get a motorbike on the back of my van for a while. Didn't fancy a trailer (ferries are expensive enough already without a trailer supplement) and only want a small runabout bike for heading to events/having a laugh in greenlanes/dirt
After some to-ing and fro-ing, I found a Chinese 125 supermoto/offroad sort of thing for sale at my local bike shop - a Sinnis Apache 125. Apparently they are much better quality than most of the early run of Chinese bikes, in essence the engine is a Suzuki lump. I'm happy with that. It's about 125-130kgs wet, so I thought I'd have a crack with a [url =http://www.davecooper.co.uk/motorbike_racks.asp]Dave Cooper senior rack[/url].
So far so good, spent last week trundling around North Wales with it on the back. Needs a bit of tweaking - over a particularly undulating bit of back road the bike rocked a bit and smacked the back door with the handlebar. Just need to find a way to stabilise it and stop that flex. I have some ideas. I can load/unload it by myself (it's a heavy lift, but I figure it's all good weight training ;D).
It's pretty cool being able to park up the van, 10 minutes to hoik it off the rack and have a jolly hoon about (it's little 11hp is still good fun!)
We'll see how it fares long term - looking good so far though!
Will