flying the chair questions

Great information, I'm the newbee I only have about 50 miles on a California Friendship II hooked to a 2008 ultra classic road king with anti lock brakes. No flying yet Just setting up the sidecar has been a great experience because no help near me. My concern has been brakes on sidecar, with that if you are going at a quick clip making a right and fly it have to tag the brakes and that non moving wheel comes down, would that not be a bad whoops like the previous story which became a wreck, so side hack brakes could cause you to loose it. Warren

I am not an expert but in 4k or better miles and being my only reliable transportation I have leaned quit a bit. I found setting it up properly is not as hard as I had thought it would be.

If the chair comes up many times backing out of the throttle or straighten up will bring the chair down just make sure you have room to do it. This is where many mess up and hit something.

Mine has a brake on the sidecar and so far I have not had a problem do to it. I have a 02 Harley Ultra with a 06 Harley sidecar. One of the reasons I like flying the chair is you can take left hand turns faster. All so you get the strangest looks from others. LOL

46u - 4/3/2013 10:27 PM

I am not an expert but in 4k or better miles and being my only reliable transportation I have leaned quit a bit. I found setting it up properly is not as hard as I had thought it would be.

If the chair comes up many times backing out of the throttle or straighten up will bring the chair down just make sure you have room to do it. This is where many mess up and hit something.

Mine has a brake on the sidecar and so far I have not had a problem do to it. I have a 02 Harley Ultra with a 06 Harley sidecar. One of the reasons I like flying the chair is you can take left hand turns faster. All so you get the strangest looks from others. LOL

I'm thinking it's right hand turns that can fly the chair, not left.

You are correct unless you are in England, Australia, or New Zealand.
Since they drive on the other side of the road, they also mount their hacks on the wrong side of the bike.

As stated yes right tuns when the hack is on the right side like in the USA. One way to help to keep the chair down is shift your weight and set on the edge of the seat, lean towards the hack on the same side as the hack but is more when at speed going around a curve.

You can take left turns faster but if you ever get the rear wheel off the ground it is all over. But takes much more to do that then fly the chair.

You can take left turns faster but if you ever get the rear wheel off the ground it is all over. But takes much more to do that then fly the chair.
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Yea but trying to carry the rear wheel in the air can only be done in a decreasing radius turn, but oh does it ever get the adrenaline pumping!

Thanks

Hmm. With my MZ-rig I could make the 180° left turn within a single lane at 35kmh = 22mph and come back with 30kmh = 19mph.
Just a question of butt sence and not having any alkohol in your blood. But not for nothing every few month I needed to bend the frame back into shape and change spokes.
(I remember a easter saturday I flipped my CB650 backwards down a sand pit wall just because there was some blood left in the alkohol running through my venes)
Those were the times...Now I am a responsible family man. At least try to appear as one for the last 24 years.
Sven

From our Random Quotes at the top of each page:

"When cornering, it is better to go in slow and come out fast than to go in fast and come out dead."
Stirling Moss

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Peter Pan - 4/1/2013 4:25 PM

gummiente left quite a few decendency in berlin

Well, the rubber duckies might be mine but I'm not admitting to anything until a DNA test is done. And there is no way I ever had any relations with a bear. I think.

XLerate: From our Random Quotes at the top of each page:
"When cornering, it is better to go in slow and come out fast than to go in fast and come out dead."
Stirling Moss

Phelonious: You can take left turns faster but if you ever get the rear wheel off the ground it is all over. But takes much more to do that then fly the chair.

These are two things Marcus taught us at the S/TEP class. He made me brake hard into a left turn -- and then harder again; sure enough, the rear wheel began to lift and lose traction. At 15mph, I only slid a little to left, but at 35mph you are likely to dig the nose of the sidecar, and likely flip the whole rig.

Yeah, no matter how spunky and capable a drivers feels on any given day it's still impossible to overcome those pesky laws of Physics, describing stuff like gravity, centrifugal force, bodies in motion and the potentially fatal 'Woops' factor...

I agree what has been said. I have found from experience when I very first started driving my rig I made turns very slow to keep the wheel on the ground. Case in point where I turn onto my street is coming off a main road as well as a state highway. You have to go so slow like one MPH to keep the sidecar wheel on the ground do to the way the intersection is made that I have all most been rear ended. Now I take it some faster key word being some to keep from being rear-ended and the wheel on the sidecar does come up 6 to 8 inches. I think this is safer then being hit in the rear.

I have come across may intersection like this so either you go so slow you could get rear-ended or you us your ablates to fly the chair just a little. Yes you should be able to take it as slow as you want IF all drivers where courteous but we know this is not true so we have to cover our butt as no one else will. I rather rely on my ability then someone else’s.

Yes physics plays a part in anything we drive and the thing is not to go past what you are capable of doing. Bottom line if you really ride the wheel on the hack is going to come up some whether you want it to or not and it is very good reason like some have said to learn to do this and still be able to control the rig. If you do not practice this you will end up getting hurt. This is from experience not what I was told or read. These are things you will ONLY learn from experience.

The 180° swave is a story of its own and only few rigs will permit it under controlled conditions like sand or wet surface and lots of space. And as mentioned no alkohol in the blood!
The MZ was one of those rigs because of its extremely soft s/c suspension that would permit it. But in one occasion on a wet basalt peebled road the right front lower corner of the metall boat got caught by a stone and since that day the collegue never again asked for a lift home...
That lesson made me recall my first solo a CB125, where I welded some flat steel on the mufflers so they would not get holes when I was cornering 90° lifting the back wheel.
So the next thing the MZ-rig recieved was a brightly green PE-plastic low friction pad in that boat corner for to avoid getting caught again.
Those were times...(ulcera at the age of 24)... better not to remember everything.
Sven

By the way in Washington State it is not illegal to fly the chair.
I was making an acute corner ( greater than 90 degrees) onto a side street in Port Townsend and the hack lifted.
I carried it in full control until going straight on the side street and saw the flashing lights in my mirror.
I asked the officer, (a very pretty young lady) if the lift was the reason for the stop?
She said no, that in Washington state it was legal. She stopped me because of the no RIGHT turn sign I had violated.
I told her that It was the first no right turn sign I had ever heard of on a two way street and that my attention had been studiously
on traffic around me. She admitted that the sign was new and let me off with a warning.