Hey everyone. I just got back into town. 570 miles round trip with the motorcycle on the front the whole time.
Great to report back that everything worked flawless!
The carrier is made from aluminum and bolted on, it weighs very little. Maybe 80 lb total.
The motorcycle was held on and secure as could be. Never shifted, moved or wiggled at all.
Up next I will replace the straps with a permanently affixed chain that will hold the bike via it's frame rather than the straps over the bars.
Cooling was not a problem nearly as much as I thought it would be.
Bus ran at about 200 all day going 60mph. Cooled down to 180 on downhills or when driving slowly.
Pulled the climb up Hwy 6 ( 3700 ft ) comfortably at about 30-35.
Temps creeped up to 210 but I would back of the speed pedal and they dropped back down right away. I actually think that it wouldn't have got hotter than 210 even if I had continued to push it, but there were two lanes the whole way up and no urgency to find out.
I stopped twice on the way up, though I'm not really sure I needed to. I don't have a trans cooler or a temp gauge so I stopped to let the trans cool a bit and give me some peace of mind that I'm not cooking the fluid.
Lighting was fine.
The headlights actually lined up with the spokes of the tire pretty well. I did use my overhead lights after about midnight when there was no-one on the road, and I used them on the road into canyonlands, as it's about 30 miles long and there was no other traffic. I didn't get pulled over, shot at, nor did I blind any other drivers.
I saw more replies to the thread while I was gone. I'm not worried about vibration. The bus is air ride all around and pretty comfortable ride.
Im excited this will work out because a rear mounted solution is not great for my needs.
I'm not concerned about bugs hitting my bike, nor rocks. On the trails we rode I dumped the bike at least 20 times, and also did an impressive Endo trying to make a steep rocky climb. What's the difference between the bike hitting the rocks at 40 mph or rocks hitting the bike at 40mph?
Up next will be a transmission cooler, and probably a set of those snow plow lights even though I didn't need them on this trip.
Here are some pictures, and I'll post more when i pull the SD card from my camera.
View of the road not obstructed at all by the motobike