How do you haul your bike?

Any time I have transported a bike in my pickup truck in the past I have stuck the front wheel up against the front of the truck box, tied the handle bars crossways to the truck tie downs, tied the front wheel so it won't kick out sideways, and put two ties on the rear for good measure. I have always done this with the bike sitting on both wheels as I was told many many years ago that a centre stand is just not engineered to take the stresses of being bounced around in a moving vehicle. Never had a problem but was just curious on what everyone else does, centre stand or no centre stand? Any consensus?

The main reason I am asking is that just booked my RV spot in Florida for this winter . It's about a 2,000+ km trip each way and the bike is going with me.

All I do is place it caddy corner, strap the forks down to compress the susp. place it on the side stand and roll......rides fine down hilly country rds @ 60 mph....

My son and I have transported three XS400s plus a few other older cycles and used the center stand in all cases. I have a motorcycle front tire cradle that flips up to "cradle" the tire. Then use a Canyon Dancer for the front and two straps for the rear. Pull it down real tight and inspect during the trip. Our trailer is a standard 4'x8' flat bed utility trailer that rides relatively smooth.

I only use tie downs on the handlebars, each attached to the front corners of the trailer (trailer in my case) so they compress the front forks.

Then, two tie downs on the rear wheel, to the back corners.

Works beauty, and is recommended by UHaul, FWIW.

In the back seat of a Ford Taurus (mostly disassembled)
Ford Expidetion with all the seats down, the handlebars turned all the way down, and me n the back supporting it for a 20 min ride. (completly together -the engine)
i picked it up from the PO house in a 66 Ford Ranchero, shoved up against 2 17inch racing slicks and 2 tie-downs. drove like that for the whole weekend. + the 5 hour trip home.

i havent needed to take it anywhere to ride it yet, because its not finished! lol

I just completed a round trip 1200 mi each way to Florida in a Honda Ridgeline. I made a support from 2X4's' one across the front of the bed, and two running the length of the bed just the width of the tires. The back wheel just barely sits on the tailgate and I pulled the two 2 bys tight together against the rear tire and screwed a short piece of wood across the ends. Tied the two front with straps to the front tie downs and the two rear the same way. Didn't draw the two front ones down too tight as someone told me they had blown out fork seals that way. The thing rode as stable as a rock. one of the ties loosened a bit and it still couldn't be moved.

I always hear people talk about not strapping the front down too much because of the possibility of blowing the fork seals. I usually strap them down pretty good and have hauled over 20 different bikes in the back of my truck (some several times) and have never seen it happen. You don't want to strap it down too loosely, hit a big bump, have the forks compress, and have a strap unhook.

If I'm traveling less than an hour or two, I just roll the bike up in the back of the truck and strap the handle bars to the corners of the bed. Two straps and your good to go. If I were going on a real road trip with a bike in the back, I would probably consider holding the front wheel in a chock and using 4 straps (one to each corner) in case one breaks. I almost lost a 4 wheel off the back of a trailer once because the strap holding the front was rubbing on something sharp and cut almost all the way through. That would have sucked.

Two in the front Two straps in the back and two by the seats tied to each hitch hole thingy in the bed. But I don't have a truck that is what I would do. I usally just buy a working bike have my friend drive my car and I ride the bike back to get a feel for the bike if that bike doesn't start I usually won't buy it unless they know what is worng and it's a cheap fix

Oh yeah... to address the original question about using the center stand or not... I have used it before but 95% of the time do not. It's too much work with having to get the bike on the center stand and then slide the bike forward to hit the front of the bed of the truck; then unloading is more of a pain too because you have to slide the bike back then push it forward off the center stand before you can roll it backward out of the bed of the truck. Sooo... I vote no on using the center stand, only because I don't think you need to use it for hauling.

The centre stand also raises the bike's centre of gravity. I vote no.