Pit Bull Trailer Restraint System (TRS) Pins for Honda VF500F

I recently received a set of Pit Bull TRS pins for the Honda VF500F. If you're not familiar with their trailer restraint system, it is essentially a plate that mounts to a trailer and has a bracket that mounts to the rear axle of a motorcycle to lock the bike into place on a trailer. It takes so much stress and time out of securing a bike to the trailer that it's absolutely worth the premium price tag for me.

This picture was from a few years ago, but you can see the TRS mounted to the rear of my SV650 axle on the trailer. I used to also use Canyon Dancers on the front clip-ons to keep the front wheel straight--but I don't even bother nowadays, I just turn the wheel to the side.


Anyway, Pit Bull didn't make pins for the Honda VF500F. I can't imagine there's much demand. But I saw one of the guys from Pit Bull talking to someone else on the 13X (WERA) boards about doing custom pins for another bike, so I reached out to them to see if they could do Honda VF500F pins.

They said absolutely, let's give it a shot. They just needed an axle from me to determine how to manufacture them. So I bought a spare axle, installed it and torqued it to spec on my VF, marked the bolt to show how far the nut threaded on, and sent it off to them. Maybe a month or two later, I received the two pins and cup receiver back. The cup installation requires removing the rear axle to slide the cup over so the pin has something to lock into on the 17mm side of the axle. You can see the three pieces below with the cup installed on the axle.


They're not posted on their website yet, but the part number I believe they'll be assigned once they update it:


Here is the original pin installed, and you can see a little bit of the pin is not full into the cup receiver. I sent video back to Pit Bull, and they said they would prefer a tighter fit.


I got the revised pin in this week, and now it is a much more snug fit, and feels just as solid as when I mount my SV.


(and yes my axle adjusters are upside down... I kind of liked how they looked, and I can't see how it'd make any functional difference, but the bike isn't going anywhere for a while anyway so I may flip them back)

So no more dicking around with this setup for me when I cave in decide to do another track day on the VF.


I have no idea if I'll be able to fit two full size bikes side by side on a 4x8 trailer... but I'm at least going to try. Once the snow melts.


Just wanted to share because Pit Bull did me a big solid by manufacturing these. I doubt there's much of a market for them, so they could have easily just said "ehhhh, nahhhhhh".

 

I should mention, I'm 99.9% certain the '84-'86 axles are the same. The parts diagrams show that they are the same parts, so if you have an '86, these should work the same.

 

And the right side snug fits over the axle nut? Or does it also get a cup?

And the pieces are engineered to be a snug fit for the VF torqued axle width cuz the holders pinned locations are a constant?

The left side slides all the way to the stop, then the right slides into snug position and is then pinned. No large pin on the left.

How is it getting the bike centered for final fitment?

It's a cool system and I'm not picking it apart, just making sure I get it.

 

You might need to stagger them on a trailer that narrow, but you say you let the bars turn, so it might work.

 

Here's a better picture of the pin that goes over the 22mm nut. Yes, the fitment assumes that the axle is completely torqued.


The is the side that goes into the cup receiver that is installed on the axle. The center of it is bored out a bit to allow the 17mm hex to sit inside it so the pin goes all the way into the cup receiver.


This may help explain it a bit--this is the video I sent to Pit Bull about the original fitment which wasn't quite tight enough. So they moved the locking pin hole a little bit, so it would push the pin further in.


And this is the second video I sent them after I received the revised pin that removes that side-to-side play.

 

How does the right side "clock" to engage the nut and then get pinned?

 

You're probably right--and I looked at trying to move one of the mounting plates forward but there was a cross bar on the trailer that blocked that. If it doesn't work in this configuration, I'll look into getting more creative.

The good news is I can actually loosen and turn in the clipons once the bike is on since it doesn't require trying to them since it's locked on by only the rear axle. It took me over a year to really trust that it didn't need a front tie point.

I actually set it up because I bought pins for my TW200 so I could also travel with a pit bike. But they've added a few "Vintage" classes to ASRA this year, and I thought it might be fun to run around in last place at one of the rounds on the VF, hah. I'd have to work out a belly pan first though.

 

Do you have to install the axle from the right with the nut on the left?

I suppose you can switch the sides the hardware is on for a right side axle nut installation?

 

Nope. You just flip the pins to the opposite side of the receiver. So you can use the same receiver for multiple bikes--it just requires a different set of ~$100 pins for each bike.

Something tells me you're asking because I have the axle installed backwards...

 

Hah! No, not really. It's just most of the time that's how Honda does it. I like being behind the bike with the torque wrench in my right hand, and keeping the axle from turning with my left. The only bike I've done it left side nut is on a bike with an aftermarket right side muffler that seemed to want to be close to the nut/axle end at full compression.

 

Thanks for taking the time to show this and for answerimg my questions. If I had a flat trailer I woukd def look into this. Their stuff seems to be really well made, I love my single sided swingarm stand.

 

Very nice, Cold........nice write up and pics! Your trailer almost looks like the one from HF that folds up.

Your bike looks incredible.....love the livery, mate! Thanks for posting all this...very cool!

 

Yep, it's one of those 1725# harbor freight trailers. It's worked well so far. I'd love to have an enclosed trailer someday, but I have nowhere to store one. I've slept through some vicious storms on race weekends where I'm pretty jealous of the enclosed trailers. I woke up floating on my 2" air mattress inside my tent during the September round this year lol.