get the chair back down...

Sounds like you might need some weight in the car, all I do is just give it a little push to the left, it doesn't take all that much in my case, try putting some more weight in the car.

I am not sure what you are piloting, but for me, I generally roll off the throttle when I feel the chair hop up, and it comes right back into control. However, I have gotten good enough at flying the chair within the past year, that often I allow it to fly for a bit further before I actually attempt to correct it at all.

On my Ural, I simply adjust or shift my body on the seat, let off the throttle and the rig generally sits down quite easily. Adding weight may be helpful to you as well, so I wouldn't rule that out as an option to consider. I was trying to think out if I ever used the brake as well in the process, but the entire motion of setting it down is such second nature to me that I'd probably overtax my brain in trying to disect it all correctly and leave something important out, anyway. I don't recall using the brake all that much though. 🙂

One thing I'd suggest most strongly, since flying the chair sort of freeked you out, is practice, practice, practice. A vacant parking lot is indeed your friend when practicing flying the chair or just setting it down correctly. It all is a technique that has many variables, so practice is probably the better thing in compensating for those times when you rig hops or flys on you, unexpectedly.

Good luck with it all.

PRACTICE IN A PARKING LOT.

i have to agree with parking lot practice keep at it until you can manage a complete figure of 8 then nothing will phase you & flying will be all part of the fun of chair riding.

The key is of course PRACTICE. After a while you will learn th elimits of yopu and your rig under various conditions. IF you continue to practice you WILL increase your skills evnelope again and again.
The key to staying out of trouble in th ereal world is to go into a turn at a spped you can handle the turn in and not over do it. Once you feel you have done this you can accelerate and still be in control Overcooking it going in is what gives problems to most. Note that in time you will find you can negotiate turns much faster than you thought p[ossible when learning.
We are mostly talking about turns into the sidecar. these are the most roublesome to newbies. It may see very strangel but for many who have been around for a long time it is not th eturns into the sidecar that are the problem but turns away from it in spirited riding.

Claude as allways your answer is ellequent and i am in full agreement with you. what i should have made clear was the figure of 8 i was talking of was with the chair airborne througout the whole manouver, when you can achieve this you will know the weight & balance of your rig intimately it is at this time that man & machine are in harmony the feel of your outfit is something no one can teach.

It Should be fun or your doing it wrong. Hank

Hank:
Fun or pain depends much on bike and drivers spirit too.

In former times I got many halloooeees when playing with the MZ/Superelastic, but an BMW-K100/EML (Hänschen's Porsche-chaser)was the hardest thing to get up I ever tried.
Beside its instability when lifted because of the car tires and the Earles fork, I never ever would have been able to get it out of a tiny ditch. (important thing to consider when you have a mentality as I had to that tim).

That day I learned that every rig is completely diferent and has a character as diferent as their drivers characters.
And I decided for my person to stay with light weights.... easier to play with and lot of fun on small roads.... What skinny I was in those days....

Best regards
Sven Peter

have you taken a S/TEP class?

No step class in the uk but 40 years plus riding will do it for me.

Originally written by Hank41 on 9/12/2008 12:21 PM

Claude as allways your answer is ellequent and i am in full agreement with you. what i should have made clear was the figure of 8 i was talking of was with the chair airborne througout the whole manouver, when you can achieve this you will know the weight & balance of your rig intimately it is at this time that man & machine are in harmony the feel of your outfit is something no one can teach.

It Should be fun or your doing it wrong. Hank

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Key word? YOUR outfit. We must remember that after getting used to one rig it by no means indicates that another rig will be the same. Weight distribution between sidecar and bike as well as suspension etc are huge factors. Some of the traing rigs at the classes are small bikes with light sidecars on them. To me this is good in that they show what a rig does without having to force the issue too much.
If beginning to practice on your own in a safe place is is not a bad idea to do so with the sidecar made as light as possible. In other words even though if it is good to have ballast on a given rig when on the street taking it out for practice will magnify the traits that given rig have.

Originally written by Hank41 on 9/13/2008 3:31 AM

No step class in the uk but 40 years plus riding will do it for me.

Well, good on you! That was directed at the original poster, who seems to be having some trouble. Rather than sifting through a bunch of advice from folks with unknown backgrounds being offered to someone whose experience and background we don't know, he might consider a more structured approach. If he hasn't taken a S/TEP class he should. If he has, perhaps a refresher is in order.

I believe he hails from Seattle, so Evergreen Safety Council's classes should be readily available to him. If not I do have a class coming up in a week and there are still four openings.

I strongly beleive classes with coaching, followed by practice are far better than reading and gleaning advice from the internet is a haphazard approach at best. Some of the advice will be very good, some of it dead wrong.

That said, I would point out that as noted in the first posts, speed is not the only or even the most important reason a sidecar will lift. It sounds like he is turning and applying throttle abruptly, both of which will upset even a heavy sidecar and will cause a light rig to lift instantly. Ballast alone won't fix this and trying to get the car down after it's lifted is not as good as not letting it get there in the first place

If you are having problems taking off from a stop, try setting up for that right turn(USA) as you come to a stop, angling a little the direction you intend to go. Ease into the corner and ease on the throttle, shifting your weight the direction of the turn. Less throttle, a
gentler line through the corner, weight shift and smooth rather than abrupt input will make a huge difference. Not knowing you or your rig, I can't comment on the need for more ballast. It is certainly a consideration, but it sounds more like a driving style/technique problem to me.

I believe he hails from Seattle, so Evergreen Safety Council's classes should be readily available to him. If not I do have a class coming up in a week and there are still four openings

He is from Seattle but I'm wondering if things have changed with Wa. excepting training in Or.?,,,I thought/understood that the DOL required it to be taken in Wa. thanks to the group of self centered individuals that got this money grabbing, State renvenue makeing, mess going.

Originally written by Shadow1100T on 9/13/2008 5:46 PM

He is from Seattle but I'm wondering if things have changed with Wa. excepting training in Or.?,,,I thought/understood that the DOL required it to be taken in Wa. thanks to the group of self centered individuals that got this money grabbing, State renvenue makeing, mess going.

He may have to take the class in Washington if he wants to get his sidecar endorsement by taking the class, which is why I suggested Evergreen might be his first choice. But if there isn't an immediate opening there and he wants to take it here in Oregon, I am pretty sure we can help him improve his cornering techniques.

I agree, Washington isn't doing all it could do to make training available to it's residents, but I do know some of the people involved in implementing the rule changes and those I have talked to are anything but
self centered and thier intentions were to improve the level of safety and the training available to the three wheeled community to get it on par with that available to two wheeled motorcyclists.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I plan on taking the STEP class next summer, as I believe the last "cheap" one with openings is in late november - by that time I intend to have put the rig away for the winter.

I need to do a good round of parking lot practice - the good news is I've finally found a good parking lot.