Bikes moved 24 hours across Kalamazoo County

Motorcycle Towing in Portage, MI

Flatbed only, wheel chock, and four-point soft tie-downs at the frame. No wheel-lift, no chains, nothing looped over your plastics.

☎ Call (269) 350-8697

One right method, several wrong ones

How a Motorcycle Should Be Moved

A bike has two wheels and no way to stand up on its own, which rules out every towing method except one. It goes on a flatbed deck, front wheel into a chock, and it gets strapped down. There is no motorcycle equivalent of a wheel-lift, and anyone suggesting otherwise is improvising with your bike.

The chock is what does most of the work. It holds the front wheel upright and square before a single strap is attached, so the bike is never being balanced by hand or held up by tension alone. Four soft straps then go on — two forward, two rear — anchored to the frame or the lower triple clamp, never to handlebars, mirrors, fairings, spokes or anything cosmetic.

The detail that separates careful from careless is how far the front suspension gets compressed. You need some compression so the straps stay tight when the deck moves, but cranking the forks down to full travel for a hundred miles is how fork seals get blown. Enough, and no more. It’s a small thing that costs nothing to do properly and a few hundred dollars to get wrong.

We don’t have a repair shop, so wherever your bike is going — your garage, your dealer, an independent shop, a friend’s place — that’s where it goes. Riders tend to be particular about who touches their bike, and rightly so.

Tell us before we roll out

Make, model and rough weightA 400-pound sport bike and a fully dressed Gold Wing are different loading jobs. It decides what ramp and how many hands.

Does it roll and steer?A bike that rolls goes up the ramp easily. A seized wheel or bent forks means it gets winched, which needs different rigging.

Has it been down?Crash damage changes where we can safely attach. Tell us honestly and nothing gets loaded onto a bent frame rail.

Where it’s parkedGravel, a soft shoulder or a steep driveway all affect ramp angle. Worth thirty seconds on the phone.

Every kind of bike

What We Move, and What Each One Needs

Sport bikes and supersports

Full fairings and very little exposed frame. Strapping points are limited, so the lower triple clamp does the work and nothing touches the plastics.

Harley-Davidson and cruisers

Heavy, low and long. Weight and floorboard clearance are the constraints on ramp angle, not strapping — there’s plenty of frame to work with.

Gold Wings and full touring bikes

The heaviest thing on two wheels, often north of 800 pounds with bags and a top case. These are a two-person load, not a hero job.

Choppers and custom builds

Long rake means the front wheel sits far ahead and ground clearance is minimal. Loading angle matters more here than on anything else.

Electric motorcycles

Zero, LiveWire and the rest. Flatbed anyway, so nothing changes mechanically — but tell us, because the powertrain shouldn’t be woken up during loading.

Trikes, sidecars and scooters

Three-wheelers and rigs are wider than the chock allows, so they get strapped down flat on the deck instead. Scooters and mopeds are the easy end of the day.

Where riders call from

Motorcycle Calls Around Portage

The lake roads on a summer weekend

Gull Lake, Austin Lake and the routes out toward Richland. Good riding roads, and where most of our warm-weather breakdowns happen.

M-43 west toward Mattawan

A favorite stretch, and rural enough that a breakdown means a genuine wait. We know these roads, which shortens the part that matters.

Deer season in early fall

Dawn and dusk through October and November. A deer strike on a bike is an emergency call — 911 first, then us for the machine.

Storage moves in spring and fall

Bikes that wouldn’t start after a Michigan winter, or that need moving to storage in October. Scheduled work rather than emergency, and cheaper for it.

Dealer and service runs

Portage and Kalamazoo dealerships, or a specialist farther out. Common for bikes that are technically rideable but shouldn’t be ridden.

Bikes bought sight-unseen

A project bought two counties over that doesn’t run yet. It comes home on the deck without anyone risking a ride on unknown brakes.

Straight answers

Motorcycle Towing Questions

Will the straps damage my bike?

Not with soft straps on proper anchor points. We use fabric soft-loops around the frame or the lower triple clamp, then ratchet straps to the deck — metal hooks never touch paint, chrome or plastic. What causes the damage riders complain about is chains, bare hooks on a swingarm, or straps run over a fuel tank or fairing. If your bike has an unusual layout and you’d rather point out where to attach, do — the operator would genuinely rather be shown than guess.

Can you move a bike that won’t roll?

Yes. A seized engine, a locked rear wheel, a flat tire or bent forks all mean the bike can’t be walked up a ramp — so it gets winched onto the deck instead, slowly, with the load spread properly. Say so when you call, because it’s a different setup and roughly twice the time on scene. A dropped bike with damaged forks is the one case where we’ll want to look before committing to an approach, since the usual front-end attachment points may not be trustworthy.

How much does motorcycle towing cost?

Similar to a car tow rather than cheaper, which surprises people. The bike weighs less, but it takes the same flatbed, the same driver and more time to secure properly — four straps and a chock take longer than winching a car on. Local moves are quoted in US dollars on the phone before dispatch; longer runs are priced per mile. If it’s a planned move rather than a breakdown, book ahead and it usually costs less.

I laid the bike down. What happens first?

Call 911 and get yourself looked at, before you think about the machine. Adrenaline hides a lot in the first twenty minutes, and a bike can wait where it is. If you’re able, get well clear of the road and leave the bike where it fell rather than dragging it — moving it can worsen the damage and complicates the insurance picture. When you call us, mention it’s been down so the operator arrives expecting a damaged machine rather than a straightforward load.

Do you tow trikes, sidecars and can-am style bikes?

Yes, though they load differently. A three-wheeler stands on its own, so it doesn’t need a chock — but it’s wider than a bike and often wider than a standard chock position allows, so it gets strapped flat to the deck at multiple points instead. Sidecar rigs are the same idea. Give us the overall width when you call, because on a few of the wider trikes it determines which truck we send.

Can you tow an electric motorcycle?

Yes, and it’s simpler than with electric cars because motorcycles go on a flatbed regardless — there’s no wheels-down option to rule out. The differences are practical: electric bikes are often heavier than they look, regenerative braking can make the rear wheel resist rolling when the system is live, and some models need to be properly powered down before loading. Tell us the make and model and we’ll check the procedure rather than assume.

Can I book a storage move in advance?

Please do. Getting a bike to storage in October or back out in April is planned work, and scheduling it means we can slot it into a quiet part of the day rather than around emergency calls — which is better for you on price and on waiting. It’s also worth doing before the first cold snap; once the weather turns, everyone remembers the bike at the same time and the calendar fills.

Can you carry my bike and my car together?

Sometimes, and it’s worth asking because it saves a whole trip. A motorcycle takes up a fraction of a flatbed deck, so where the car is short enough and the combined weight works, both can travel together. Two bikes on one deck is usually straightforward. Tell us what you’ve got and we’ll work out whether it fits in one run or genuinely needs two — we’ll say if it doesn’t rather than overload a deck.

Related Services

Flatbed Towing

The same deck for cars. All four wheels off the ground, nothing dragging.

Long-Distance Towing

Bikes bought out of area, brought home on the deck at a per-mile rate.

Fuel Delivery

Small tanks run dry fast. Sometimes it’s a gallon of gas, not a tow.

Bike Down in Portage?

Tell us the make, whether it rolls, and where it is. It travels on a deck, on soft straps, to wherever you say.

☎ Call (269) 350-8697

Portage Tow Truck
Portage, MI 49002 & 49024
Phone: (269) 350-8697
Email: info@portagetowtruck.com
Open 24 hours, 7 days a week