A dirt bike for a lot of people is not exactly a means of transport. It is a machine that is needed to take part in certain sports. Due to this, it has to be moved around from time to time. As a new owner of a dirt bike, there are lots of challenges you will encounter. One of these challenges is moving it from one point to another.
When looking to move your dirt bike, one means of transport that will easily come to mind is making use of a truck. While a truck appears like the most effective vehicle for moving a dirt bike, what are the chances of a dirt bike fitting comfortably into a truck?
All things being equal, a dirt bike of average length should fit into a truck bed with the tailgate closed when it is positioned diagonally. For this to occur, a truck bed has to be at least five and a half feet long and you need to use a system from The Dirt Bike Review to keep it upright.
What is the Role of Truck Bed Size?
There are many types of trucks and with these different trucks come different truck bed sizes. If you will be moving your dirt bike in a truck, there are certain trucks you can make use of. Not all trucks will be convenient because of the size of their truck beds. When transporting a single dirt bike with a truck, you might be able to get the dirt bike into the truck bed even if it does not fit perfectly. If you are moving more than one dirt bike, then the size of a truck bed becomes very important.
Types of Trucks
Various types of trucks come with different truck bed sizes. Due to this, if you must move your dirt bike with the use of a certain truck, you have to know its truck bed size before going ahead to make plans to use it. Let’s take a look at various trucks and their truck bed sizes.
Standard Shot
All things being equal, a standard shot has the right size that is needed to move the average dirt bike with the truck’s tailgate being up.
While standard shots are expected to have enough room to transport a dirt bike with their tailgates up, that is not always the case. There are standard shots that are about five feet long, as well as those that are about 6 feet long. The implication of this is while standard trucks are averagely expected to be able to transport an adult dirt bike with the tailgate closed, not all of them can do this.
What is the reason for this?
The reason for this is for a truck bed to be able to house an average dirt bike with its tailgate closed, it must be at least 5 and a half feet long.
Compact
A compact truck is one that does not have a very large truck bed size. Due to this, it might not have the space that is needed to contain the average dirt bike.
All things being equal, compact trucks feature four doors. Furthermore, they have a truck bed which is usually about 5 feet. Sometimes, this truck bed is less than 5 feet long.
While compact trucks are known to have a bed space that does not exceed 5 feet, they come in different models. Some have four doors, as well as those that have just two doors without a space for a back seat. Once in a while, those trucks that have space for just two doors create provisions for suicide seats and are known to be small.
There are bigger compact trucks that still do not give priority to the length of their truck bed. The extra space in this type of compact truck ensures that there is an increase in legroom for the occupants for the truck but not enough room for dirt bikes to be transported.
When transporting a dirt bike with a compact truck, you have to bear in mind that you will be unable to do so when your tailgate is up. Due to this, if you must make use of a compact truck, then, your tailgate has to be down.
Standard Long Beds
All things being equal, a dirt bike is expected to be able to fit into a truck bed of a standard long bed with its tailgate closed. Unlike the truck bed of other types of trucks, when you are transporting an adult dirt bike with a standard length bed, you will not need to go through any form of struggle as the truck bed of this type of truck is at least 7 feet. When this is compared to the average length of an adult dirt bike which is 6.8 feet, it becomes obvious that a standard long bed can always be trusted to transport an adult dirt bike with its tailgate closed.
Since you do not need to arrange the bike diagonally when transporting it with a standard long bed, it can be comfortably used to transport more than one adult dirt bike at the same time.
How to Measure the Size of Yours?
While a truck bed of a certain size is good enough to move an average adult dirt bike, it might not be good enough to transport your dirt bike as your dirt bike might be longer than the size of an average dirt bike.
Due to this, if you must be certain that the truck bed of a particular truck can be used in transporting your dirt bike, you will need to know how to measure a dirt bike.
Measuring the length of your bike is easy. All you need to do is get a measuring tape and measure your bike from the tip of the back tire to that of the front tire. Once this is done, you can be sure of the types of trucks that can be used in moving your dirt bike from one place to another.