Ask any rider what they fear from a tow company and you'll hear the same story: the bike hauled on its side in a pickup bed, or strapped down by the handlebars so hard the triple clamp shifted, or leaned against a rail with a tie-down sawing through the paint. Motorcycles are not small cars. They carry their weight high, their steering pivots freely, and every shiny part on them costs more than it looks like it should. Towing them correctly is a discipline, and it's one we take seriously because half of us ride.
How a Bike Rides With Us
Front wheel into a proper wheel chock, mounted to the flatbed deck, which holds the bike vertical without anyone death-gripping it. Soft loops go around the lower triple tree and swingarm or frame, never around bars, levers or bodywork, then ratchet straps tension the bike down into its own suspension, compressed enough to stay planted, not slammed to the stops for a hundred miles. Four points minimum. We carry spare soft loops because they're the piece everyone forgets, and a scrap of carpet for kickstand-side security on paranoid days. Rain? Bikes get strapped exactly the same but we'll throw a cover over a leather seat if you've got one, and take it slower on the paint.
What We Move
- Sport bikes, and yes we know about clip-ons, rearsets and the fact that your R6's fairings cost four figures
- Cruisers and baggers, weight is no issue, the deck and chock don't care that your Road Glide is 850 pounds
- Adventure and dual-sports, luggage on or off
- Trikes, Spyders and sidecar rigs, they load like small cars with feelings
- Scooters and mopeds, no job too small, a dead Vespa in a MARTA lot is still a stranded ride
- Dirt bikes and ATVs, from trailheads, backyards and the occasional creek bed, which becomes a recovery story
The Calls We Get
Breakdowns, obviously, electrical gremlins are the motorcycle classic, a bike that cranks but won't spark on the shoulder of GA-400 at dusk. Flat rear tires, which on a bike end the ride immediately, there's no donut spare in a saddlebag. Drops and low-sides where the bike runs but the rider is done for the day, and nobody should ride adrenaline-shaky through Atlanta traffic. Track days at Road Atlanta up in Braselton, we've fetched more than one bike that ended its session in the gravel at turn 10a, and we'll bring it home while you ice your pride. New purchases, the Marketplace find two counties over with no title drama but also no battery. And the sad Sunday-morning special: the group ride that left a member behind with a dead charging system at a gas station in the mountains. We do those runs too, distance is not a problem.
If You Ever Have to Strap a Bike Yourself
Trailer owners and pickup borrowers, this one's for you, learned the expensive way by half our customers. Front wheel against a chock or the trailer's front wall, bike vertical, and compress the front suspension with two straps from the lower triple tree (soft loops, never bare hooks on metal) pulling forward and down at roughly 45 degrees to each side. Two more from the rear, swingarm or frame, pulling back and down. The bike should sink into its fork travel maybe a third, enough that it can't bounce free, not slammed to the stops, fork seals hate a hundred miles at full compression. Never strap from the handlebars on anything heavier than a bicycle, bars bend and grips rotate. Check tension five miles in, straps settle. Kill switch off, key out, fuel petcock off on older bikes. And if reading this paragraph felt like a lot, that's the honest argument for the phone number at the top of the page, we do this several times a week with equipment built for it.
Cost, plainly: local motorcycle tows run $85 to $110 all-in on the published table, long hauls price per-mile in writing. Some riders carry roadside coverage through their bike insurance or a rider association, worth checking your policy tonight, though the coverage usually dispatches whichever contractor answers, and whether that contractor owns a wheel chock is the lottery you're playing. Call us directly and the chock is guaranteed, it's bolted to the deck.
Georgia Riding Realities
Two local hazards fill our bike calls disproportionately. Summer pop-up storms, which turn a dry ride home into ten minutes of blind rain and leave bikes sheltering under gas station canopies across the metro, if you're waiting one out and the radar says it's not passing, a tow home beats hypothermia in July, oddly possible at 70 mph soaking wet. And the mountains: the North Georgia loops up 129 toward Suches and the Gap eat chains, clutches and rear tires two hours from anyone's garage, we run those rescues most weekends in season, and the quote covers the real distance honestly rather than punishing you for having good taste in roads.
After the Pickup: Where Bikes Go
The destination list for bikes is its own little map of Atlanta rider life. The metro's motorcycle shops and dealer service departments, where we know which service doors open early and which want bikes left chocked out front with the key in a lockbox. Home garages, the most common drop, with the bike rolled exactly where you point. Track-day trailers and storage units in the fall, when riders winterize, and yes we do straight storage runs, bike from apartment deck to storage unit, no breakdown required. Buyer-seller handoffs for Marketplace deals, where a neutral professional truck showing up reassures both parties more than any escrow app. And occasionally the sad run to an insurance salvage lot after a bike is totaled, which we handle with the small mercy of not making the owner watch the loading. Wherever yours needs to go, it goes vertical, chocked and photographed, and the price was settled before the truck left.
What to Tell Dispatch
Bike make and model, roughly what it weighs if it's unusual, whether it rolls and steers, and whether anything is broken off, a snapped clutch lever or bent bars change the loading plan. Where the bike is matters too: a bike down in a parking garage with 6'2" clearance means we bring the low truck. And if you dropped it and it's lying on its side, don't wrestle it up alone if you're not sure of the technique, a second back injury doesn't help the bike. We'll be there soon enough, any hour, and lifting bikes correctly is literally our job.
Pricing runs the same structure as our car tows, hookup plus miles, all-in on the phone, and bikes never share a deck with a car on our trucks. One bike, one ride, no leaning towers of vehicles.
Bike down, bike dead, bike bought? Call (404) 595-9776 and tell us what you ride. It comes home vertical, on its wheels, the way it should.
Common Questions
- How do you tow a motorcycle without dropping it?
- Wheel chock bolted to the flatbed deck, four-point soft-tie rigging from the lower triple tree and swingarm, suspension compressed about a third. The bike rides vertical and cannot fall over. It's the same setup race teams use, minus the sponsor stickers.
- What does motorcycle towing cost?
- $85 to $110 local, all-in. Long runs price per-mile in writing, and your bike never shares the deck with a car.
- Can you pick up a bike from Road Atlanta?
- Yes, track pickups are a regular Sunday event for us. Tell dispatch it's at the track and roughly what broke, gravel-trap bikes sometimes need the extra straps.
- Do you tow scooters and mopeds?
- Every week. A dead Vespa is still a stranded ride, and it chocks down the same as a Harley, just faster.