It's been just over a year since I installed my sidecar and I thought it might be useful to share some of my experiences. I've driven about 6,000 miles since the installation.
1. A training course would be very helpful. Unfortunately, I could not find one anywhere nearby and had to keep re-reading the "yellow book" and forums plus a few email conversations. This probably delayed being able to quickly enjoy the new sidecar experience, but there were no untoward incidents.
2. Get someone to set up the sidecar correctly. Assembly is also likely to be better done by a pro. I did the installation myself and had a heck of a time getting the right parts even though the kit was supposed to be custom for my bike. I did all alignment myself and it took several attempts to get it right. I should have hired Claude! At least my son learned from my experience and has a new sidecar enroute to Claude's shop in PA. So much of the enjoyment of a sidecar depends on correct alignment and, again, this delayed finally enjoying driving the sidecar longer than otherwise. It's worth paying someone who knows what he's doing!
3. Steering without modifying the front wheel trail is very dicey. It's very heavy in stock form once you add the chair, almost dangerous in some situations because the steering effort is unexpectedly high, especially if you're transitioning from two wheels. Pay the $1,000 for the steering mods. It's well worth it.
4. You can hold off on painting the sidecar in many cases. I did and am glad I did so. My bike is a darker silver-gray and I was going to paint it to match, but cash ran a bit low. It's good quality black gel coat. I didn't really like the result, but found a sign shop that was able to apply a wide stripe that closely matches the bike. It blends well with the bike and gives just a bit of an "old school" hint.
5. Sidecar windshields can be problematic. Many are too tall. I found that I gained about 5 mpg when I cut mine down. It made the rig less susceptible to wind as well.
6. I opted to not get a sidecar brake or electric camber adjustment, and I'm satisfied that I made the right choice. My sidecar is relatively light @ 165# plus 25# lead shot for ballast, and the bike weighs just under 600#. Since roads that I ride have many different degrees of crown, I set it to go straight on interstate type roads. That has worked well. The bike has ABS and correcting for the swerve on even panic braking is no problem.
7. I had a choice of wheel sizes for the sidecar and opted for the smallest I could get. It's a 12" trailer wheel with a bias ply tire. I perceive that this lowers the sidecar and makes it easier to handle for right turns.
8. Some riding techniques from two wheels do carry over to the outfit. You need to lean your body into turns even though the rig does not lean. Leaning into turns, almost like you would on two wheels, I have found to really help handling in turns. This may have been the most significant technique that helped make riding my outfit enjoyable. Interestingly, it's not emphasized in what I had read.
So, YMMV, but those are my thoughts that you might find useful.
And the most important what you didn't mention in your list of hints and experiences.
On the rig we can have lots of fun at street legal speeds monkeying around 😉
While others yarn being bored in their cages or folded down on their space rockets that need hyper speed to become fun to ride.
:O
No expensive gymn exercises needed. 🙂
Enjoy the fun to come and turn that grin from ear to ear into your life philosophy!
Its never too late for a happy childhood.
Sven 😉
Hey Sven, I like your take on the enjoyment of sidecaring!
Bob,
that nick name wasn't coined on me for nothing over 45 years ago, don't you think so too?
Paul,
there is one important thing you must keep actively in mind!
The most dangerous moments will come, and they come for sure!
The day You start to feel comfortable with the rig there will come THE moment when a branch or ditch kicks up the sidecar. invades a blind fish your lane, or somebody comes into your lane from a right cross road, while you overtake....some of those stupid things that rise the adrenaline already on a solo bike...If that happens in a relaxed moment you can bet that the decades of solo riding are programmed in your brain and the body follows the automated reaction routines!!! And DAMN you will react as SOLO biker. Exactly the opposite of what you aught to do in that moment.
That is the worst I had happen with my both first rigs each time after about a month. ,Each time the lost tenth of a second before I noticed my error...thank God... had not been too late. There must have been a guardian angel on duty in those moments. Here on this forum we had several notices about companions to whom that tenth of a second was needed and sadly they are not around any more.
So it is important to maintain the brain aware. Switch to RIG mode on 3 wheels, switch to SOLO mode on 2 wheels. ANd keep you mind alert in that mode needed.
By the way the opposite way is dangerous too. In Oktober 2012 I killed my Jawa engine. In April 2013 there were 2 open sewer tops on a street crossing and I first reacted in rig mode on my KLR... I still have no idea how I passed waving between those two 3' wide holes.
Another one. the left turn is more dangerous then the right turn...there is NO anouncement between the both sides of the thin line that separates drifting left and flip over the sidecar nose. You need to train the 4 letter (b.u.t.t) sensor pretty good for to notice where is your back tire and how much traction is left on all 3 tires before the friction limit will be reached.
May Your guardian angel be in every second with you and your passenger.
Sven
Well said Sven. And here's hoping you have that extra one tenth of a second when ever it might me needed!! And the same for all of us here on the forum.
Some good advice there Mr Browne. Cant wait to fianlly meet up with you and see your rig. I am in the process of puting the same wheel on my sidecar.
You got it Sven
I do positivly subscribe Sven´s words! That´s word for word what I tell people when they buy or build a rig and start to ride it.
I have experienced that on my own when I began to ride sidecars in 1993 and nearly lost my left leg in an accident, when I behaved like a 2 wheels biker and crashed into a barrier. Someone had come into my way and didn´t care about my priority.
My leg was ok again one year later and I´ve learned my lessons from that. And I got back onto the rig the first day I could walk without help.
Well, my last point about some things carrying over from two wheels certainly sparked several responses!
To clarify, one's body must lean ALWAYS towards the center of a turn. On two wheels the bike leans with you body or vice versa. Even though a three-wheeler remains more or less flat in a turn in contrast to a two-wheeler, you still need to lean your body into a turn. You also need to move your butt in the same direction more or less to where it would naturally go on a two-wheeler. This counteracts the sensation that the sidecar wants to throw you off, a sensation that I had test-riding a Can-Am Spyder and then on my sidecar outfit. "Leaning off" is often mentioned as a method to mitigate the effects of sidecar dynamics; but in less vigorous turns it keeps you in a more comfortable posture that enables you to readily go further if the situation in a turn become more challenging.
My only point was that you need to still be leaning into a turn, just like on two wheels, even if the outfit doesn't automatically cause you to do so. Positioning to be prepared for an unanticipated situation is extremely important. I'm just a bit surprised that it's not been emphasized more. Unless you're already leaning into a turn, you're fighting centrifugal force when you really need to get into a leaning-off position when a turn suddenly tightens up. What I found was that imagining that my body still needing to be leaning somewhat like on two wheels has made controlling the sidecar much more natural. (It also gives you more exercise! However, it's less tiring when driving an outfit.)
Of course, steering is just the opposite of two wheels goes without saying! I found that steering change much more intuitive to remember, but the need to still lean into a turn was what I had to be much more intentional about always doing.
I find that I'm quite content to take things slower than I did on two wheels. Pushing the limits isn't such an attraction as on two wheels. Driving a sidecar rig is a great way to "chill out" from all of the mad hustle of modern life.
Paul,It depends on what rig you have. With my ural I have to lean towards the center of a turn. Almost always.
My Suzuki has much more weight and is much wider. And it´s low. I´ve got a ground clearence of less than 3 inches. And it´s got much more power.
This means that I could sit upright on the Suzuki when I would have already rolled over with the ural.
When going around turns with the Suzuki, I accelerate through ringht turns to drive around the sidecar. That´s keeping the hack´s wheel on the ground.
Through left hand turns I close throttle aprupt, what makes the sidecar drive around the tug. That helps alot there.
(Always bearing the physical limits in mind)
To say it short: You´re absolutlely right with what you´re saying. But some´s rig needs more and some´s less action to go around turns easy.
You wrote: Pushing the limits isn't such an attraction as on two wheels
I feel in the opposite way. Pushing the limits is the main attraction on a rig for me. Once the rig slides over all three wheels in a turn it´s getting intresting. From that point on
I can control the vehicle with opening or closing throttle. If I think It´s about losing control I just close throttle a bit and the rig comes back to normal behavior instantly.
That´s ablolutely great fun.
The big difference to a two wheel motorcycle is:
>You mustn´t initiate a steering movement with an impulse to the opposite side you wanna go to . If you do that (like on a two wheel vehicle) you roll over.
>You should accelerate around your sidecar and decelerate to let the sidecar drive around you in turns.
>You should lean towards the center of a turn
>In turns you want to accelerate around the car, you have to slow down BEFORE the turn begins, so you have always enough power to accelerate
>Turns where you want the car go around the tug, you have to get to with excess speed so you can close throttle apruptly to help around.
> In left turns (with a r/h car) it feels more secure but is more likely to roll over the missing right front wheel!
> In right turns the hack rises more easy (giving sudden excitement), but if you can accelerate enough, you can become very fast. (this is against most people´s good sense and must be trained for quite some time)
I don´t want to be a gasbag. It´s just my experience over 20 years of sidecaring.
kicher, kicher,
I thought I would be alone.
Oh what fun to frighten grannies on the sidewalk ... on wet cobblestones in Kiel, once upon the time.
Claus, a good tip for to avoid roll over in lefties with Your low rig. Mount some low friction pad in the right nose corner with a chamfer: Teflon, UHMW, PE.
Worked great on my MZ to students times, never again the nose grabbed cobblestones for to tip over, but permitted to slide with style.
Graziös wie eine einst Antje im HH Zoo. Gracious like the grandma of this little bugger:
Sven
GOOD advice from Claus and Sven from experience! I also liked Sven's comment about "monkeying around" at street speeds. YES, it is fun.
I mentioned on another forum about flying my hack around a right-hander and over a curb just for fun once, then carrying the hack in the air for a couple of blocks, only to get pulled over by a Sherriff's deputy and ticketed. It wasn't hard to beat that ticket, and the judge came down really hard on the deputy for wasting the public's time, but several LEO's on that other forum jumped on my case for "taking unnecessary chances and endangering the public"!!! My explanation to the judge was that flying a hack is much like loading a couple of bowling balls in the right saddlebag of a solo bike and having to re-balance the bike as you ride. It didn't matter to her, though, because the ticket was written all wrong. The officer couldn't find any law that I was violating. He "...just didn't think it looked safe!".
I once won a $100 bet that I could fly my hack for 10 miles through city streets in So. Cal. without letting the 3rd wheel, or my feet touch the ground. Stoplights were a challenge but I did it! It was a Kawasaki Voyager 1300 sixer with a Motorvation Spyder 'car, so the 'car was actually a bit light for that heavy bike (940lbs), making the stunt much easier.
Sven made probably the most important point about there being two mindsets, and you HAVE to be able to switch between them. I once let a solo-bike friend try my sidecar rig, but he immediately ran my bike up into a neighbor's yard and into some bushes because he just couldn't release his solo bike mentality long enough to steer the rig. (I NEVER let anybody ride my rig now!)
Everybody should practise to fly his hack until he can drive straight securely and do left and right turns (in a sane speed of course and in a closed garden). This is the only way to learn when it´s safe and when one is about to losing control over the rig.
Bruce and Sven are right: I always tell my custumers to forget about two-wheel bikes when they start riding a rig. They shall park the twowheeler for a couple of weeks and get used to the rig. Thereafter it´s more easy to switch between the two mindsets.
Sven, I don´t need teflon at the right front end. The rig weights about 900 pound empty and goes like on rails. To roll that thing over someone must be really stupid. 😉
To roll over the ural is more likely. And in that case even a tea trolley wheel monted would´t help
A bottom line from all of the useful comments might be that a. you need to get to know your rig (they're all different), and b. practice within reasonable limits, and c. sidecar rigs and two-wheelers are different. I once went and found a big, empty parking lot once to try the intimidating "flying" experience. I found the transition not all that abrupt, but not quite so easy to maintain the wheel off the ground with my particular rig. Now, if the sidecar lifts, it's no big deal; but it's not something I seek. YMMV, esp. on a Ural. As for sliding my rig on three wheels, it's about impossible on anything except loose gravel. The tug's tires are just too sticky, esp. with a car tire on the rear.
My sidecar has been a means to extend my riding years now that I'm not as spry or daring as I once was and motoring within my "envelope" suits me just fine. And, yes, I'm still aware that anyone on four wheels is out to kill me. I'm especially alert for things that may challenge my "envelope" like squirrels, groundhogs, deer, hay bales, spilled grain from feed trucks, cow pies, etc. in the roads around here!
Paul,
I notice you have a Suzuki Burgman 650. I had never seen one before until I just now googled it. That is a fascinating machine! If I had known about them before I bought my current Kawasaki 1300 Voyager, I might have opted for one to make life easier on my left hip. Several of the images of the Burgman show the bike with all body panels removed and that is a great bike for getting the CG lower and also giving the rider a lower seating position for easier ground reach! I couldn't see any way in hell of attaching a sidecar until I saw about a dozen pics of some with them!
The reason I googled it was because I have a GS650 "in the barn" that I inherited from my late brother. It went to another friend of his before I finally got it, and his kid removed/sold the fairing and lost all of the stock turn signals, etc. so it now needs so much stuff to restore it that it's not worth it. Not sure what to do with it. I rode it four years ago and it ran fine, and the engine still runs great in the bike. Maybe I should just make a midnite cafe-racer out of what's left. Frame, forks, wheels, brakes, gas tank and engine! Nothing else. Ooo, ooo, ooo! Maybe a racing sidehack rig!
Could we get you to post some pics of your rig?
