Howdy gang, looking for advise from the more experienced rider...
Been piloting a sidecar rig for a couple of years and although I've never had a chance to take a sidecar riding course I have practiced figure 8's and flying the chair.
Maintaining the chair in the air while going down the road without ballast is actually pretty easy -never tried it with ballast. Yesterday while taking Roxy (55 lbs boxer) for a ride I decided to lift the chair. Wasn't hard to lift but boy I felt it in my arms and shoulders while trying to keep it in the air. I can't imagine even trying this with an adult in the chair.
Ant tips or tricks to making this easier or am I just a weakling and need to do some arm workouts? Or better yet don't make a habit of trying at all?
It is good to know the lift point of your rig by a flight or two although it's better on equipment to refrain from a lot of flying. The extra weight plus sideloading causes excess wear on wheels, swingarm bearings and spokes (if so equipped).
FYI: If balance is maintained there shouldn't be any excess strain on the arms or shoulders.
Lonnie
Thanks for the input Lonnie.
I guess the added weight puts even more strain on the connecting points. I'll refrain from doing this so not to break or bend something and now may also be a good idea to go over the mounting points to make sure nothing came loose.
100% agree with Lonnie about not needing any extra effort with a passenger when the chair is in the air! All you are doing is re-distributing the total weight of the whole rig and once it's balanced the steering shouldn't be any harder. It may be a psychological thing that makes your muscles tighten up.
Lonnie also makes a couple of other good points, that knowing your lift point is important for safety, and not over-doing it to protect the equipment.
I'm guilty of WAY over-doing it once by accepting a bet that I couldn't fly my chair for ten blocks in the San Gabriel Valley on Live Oak Blvd., even against stop lights! Easiest $100 I ever won!
Got a ticket once from a Sherriff's deputy who didn't know what to think of seeing a chair go down the street for more than a block in the air! He couldn't come up with a legitimate code violation, so it made it really easy to defeat him in court. I simply used the old bowling balls in one saddlebag analogy to explain how it's just a matter of re-balancing an uneven load.
For those interested, stock wheel and swingarm bearings are not designed and rated for constant heavy lateral loading, but most can be replaced with proper bearings that ARE for heavier lateral loads. You just need to talk to your local bearing house and explain what you have and what you want to do. Even if you don't intend to fly your chair (often!), it's a good idea to use better bearings in the wheels and swingarm, because not being able to lean and keep the loading radial, stock bearings are stressed more. Either that, or replace your bearings more frequently just for grins to be sure of reliability! Especially the wheel bearings.
