OK I have been wanting a GS for awhile and I found my bike. 97 6500 miles. Its 5 hours away but not to fear close to my moms house. Anyway I have a pickup. 01 dakota quad cab(very small bed). I am looking for sugestions for tieing the bike down and what I will need. I have someof the ratching clamps 1 12 footer and 4 3 footers. is this enought? They have the metal hooks will it damage the bike? what do I hook it to? Any sugestions will be helpfull. is the weight of the bike enought to keep it from sliding left and right? Getting nervose looks like I am getting a bike.

also can anyone tell me the lenth of the bike tire to tire. I would like to know if it will fit with tailgate up.

Ok I got four 4 foot clamps and I think I am going to cut hook off and loop it around the frame. Sound ok?

I have a '95 Nissan pickup and mine will fit in it with the tailgate up IF I slide the rear end of the bike to the left after it's tied down.

Put the front tire between the grooves in the floor of the bed, centered.  Attach hooks to tie-down points in the front of the bed.  Attach straps to handlebars.  Ratchet straps down equally until 1/2 to 3/4 of the front wheel travel is pulled up by the straps.  Lift rear of bike and slide to the left until tailgate will shut.  Strap down rear of bike if you feel it's necessary.  I usualy don't.  Can't hurt, though.  Check the straps a few times along the trip to be safe.  

Your bike wont fit with the tailgate up, the bike is almost exactly 6'6" and fits in my 00 Dakota 6.5' bed.  A quad cab is a 4.5' bed and it should fit though with the gate down and the back tire moved over from center.  Hook the tiedowns to the anchor points in the front of the bed (covered by rubber plugs) to the handlebars, and if you want to be really safe hook another one from the back of the bed anchor points through the rear tire and to the other back of the bed anchor point.

I have a couple good web page links I've posted before but I have them at work. Do a search here or I'll post sometime this weekend or come monday.

I have a long bed pickup so mine fits with ease.  Make sure when you secure the front, the forks are compressed but not all the way.  If they are totally compressed, you can blow fork seals when you hit road bumps (it happened to me).  I have a tie-down at each corner of my bed so I hook the handlebars and the passenger foot peg brackets.  The bike does not move when its like this.  Make sure your tie-downs have a high enough load rating to hold the bike.

http://motorcyclistonline.com/howto/hauling/

AND

http://www.motorcyclebeginners.com/transport.htm

I just picked up a 97 GS500 in my 99 Ranger shortbed.  The tailgate had to stay down (at least partially.. i tied it half-closed).  All you will need is three ratchet straps:  2 about 6' to attach to the handlebars and compress the front shocks as already mentioned.  I'm the paranoid type, so I threw in a third strap about 14' to go around the rear of the bike, through the frame above the rear tire and up to the front tiedowns.  if you have to buy new straps, DON'T GET CHEAP WITH THE STRAPS!!  for about 30 bucks you can get 3 tons worth of tensite strength holding your 381 lb bike in place...well worth the investment.  With these three points of contact, the bike won't budge, even if you have to put the hammer down to avoid some of those psychos on the highway.

peace... good luck with your pickup.

Ok I have learned a good bit the last day with the help of the boards. THANK YOU ALL. Anyway the quad cab has a 5'4" bed 7'2" with the gate down. It also has 4 hooks up front 2 in the flor and 2 on the sides. Being new to this I am gonna use all 4 up front and 1 in the rear one side to they other maybe looping it around the tire, or maybe just 2 up front and 2 in the rear. Anyway Thank you everyone.