Help me choose a good dual-sport sidecar setup...

Andy,
a KLR 650 rig would be quite a monster on back roads! (you make me water in the mouth)
http://www.wild-rider.com/EN_Photos.asp
The owner of the upper local enduro rental is thinking exactly of a KLM 650 with a cargo box as service bike and as supply vehicle for guided tours since he saw my standard street rig.
A motocross sidecar would be a little light for to drive without monkey.
But you can build it up as dual proposite sidecar. As cargo box and as passenger sidecar Spare tires and some tooling and you have gained enough load for to ride happy allone too.

Don't laugh with my tiny 350 Jawa street toy and the original Velorex sidecar too you can have good fun in the mountains. (as you may read in the roads to go section)

A relatively light sidecar doesn't need to have an Enduro as work horse to give you plenty of fun.
Best regards
Sven Peter Pan

The title "Dual sport" will mean different things to different people. One extreme would be a light weight moto-cross rig with a bare platform, grab bars,a headlight and a license plate. Not much fun on the free way, but it could just about climb a tree. My rig represents the other extreme.I stumbled onto my rig by chance and as long as I respect its limitations, it does fine on all the Forest Service roads I ride in Idaho. I admit that I am abusing this touring bike, but on the other hand it will cruise on the pavement at 75 mph all day long. Just make sure you have a bash plate on your oil pan.
I tried to attach a photo. The photo was too big. My rig is a 1983 Honda GL 650 Interstate with a Dneper sidecar. The whole set up cost me $3500. It took me a year of shopping to find it.

Mark makes some good points. Many bikes out there that will serve the purpose very well as a good dirt road runner without being a full on dual sport machine. Many of these can be upgraded to handle even rougher stuff if the need rises. To run dirt roads and just about anything short of the real knarly stuff a full on dual sport bike for a tug is not needed.
The rigs based on true dual sport bikes are nice for what they are but are not the best handlers on many surfaces.
Many an off road rig has been based on various street bikes and they do very well. I know our one XS1100 based rig probably saw as many miles on dirt as it did on pavement. It was a terror on typical fire roads and loved to be slid around at apeed. No way would a typical dual sport bike based rig come close to running with it under those conditions. There are many other examples of these type rigs and they do very well.
See attached for picture of a clean full tilt XS650 based rig.

My wife has a 1974 R90/6 with a velorex sidecar. We bought it with some fairly aggressive tires on it. On the way to the MOA national this summer we took a few detours down dirt roads. She literally 'dusted' me on my GSPD!. Trust me she was not having any problems with that rig.

s

Here's a rig that worked very well for me a few years ago.
A 1983 Yamaha XS650 with URAL Bavarian Classic sidecar. With me (180#'s) and a 140# monkey aboard we ran the Bonehead Enduro out of Snoqualmie, WA which uses newer and older forestry roads, creek beds and trails (fit for solo bikes) and ends as far above the snow line as any of the participants can go. My rig (Oldest driver) got up into the snow zone about 50 yards farther than any other sidehack rig including several URAL Patrols with 2 wheel drive and knobbies all around. Two of the URAL outfits were piloted by the URAL, America team.
On the Bonehead Enduro there are 5 "bones" to be picked up to complete the run . You get loose directions to the first "Bone", which is located in a hidden place off road and must take the one that has your registration # on it. That "Bone" has the directions to the next "Bone location and so on.
This event is sponsored by the Vintage Motorcycle Club and has loose rules that state that the bike must be pre-1970 or the rider must be pre 1946.
This bike was bone stock with better rear shocks and higher viscosity fork oil and Metzeler street tires. The only drawback was the smaller fuel tank and 29mpg range. I added a 10L gas can later.
Pix show the rig, my monkey "Scotty" at the Loo and muddy me going in for a cold beer after the run.

Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars

Take a look at the Dauntless web site. They have several nice photos of the Dual Sport options.

Attached in a picture of a rig we did from scratch a while back based on a R100GS. This one was a double wide to carry two kids in it but was still a lot of fun.

Awesome Claude. Do you have any more photos? Who made the car? Have you had any experience making a Dneper or Ural wider? My 7 year old boy and his friends are getting too big to ride side by side.

We made the sidecar in the shop from scratch. It had a swaybar, torsion bar suspension , braked sidecar wheel linked into the rear of the bike. (The bike had to be converted to a disc rear from a drum brake), 10 gallon auxillary fuel tank. mucho storage under seat and a few other things.
I have attached a picture of the box and fuel tank mentioned above when under construction.The seat sits on the box in front of the fuel tank.There is also a rear view of the rig. The box had a lockable door in the front and rear of it.
Oh, please excuse the clutter in these pictures. They were taken in the 20 x 20 shed we worked in prior to moving into our present 40x100 shop. Yes, we still have clutter though...lol.
Thi stype of rig can also be done in a single wide version which is probably more practical under many conditions off road.

As far a widening a Ural or Ural type sidecar it could be done with minimal effort. The Ural would be mor einvolved due to the trunk than say a Dnepr.
You may be ahead by just fabricating a new body though..or maybe not.
Another option would be to lengthen the body and put one seat behind the other. Note that more body support WILL be required either internally or externally. I have attached a picture of a chaing done this way. No we didn;t build that one :-).

I have a Suzuki 1000 V Strom with a Ural sidecar. The work was done by Jay (Dauntless). I have since added a swaybar. V Stroms are pretty nice bikes with miserable resale (they are sorta ugly).I have had it on dirt roads several times, doesn't seem to turn real well in the dirt (understeers),i.e. the front tire doesn't have enough traction compared to the weight of the rig. However, I have only limited experience on other rigs offroad (my Ural Retro, it did the same thing, although less power so less pronounced).greg

Originally written by gregbenner on 11/30/2007 8:09 PM

I have a Suzuki 1000 V Strom with a Ural sidecar. The work was done by Jay (Dauntless). I have since added a swaybar. V Stroms are pretty nice bikes with miserable resale (they are sorta ugly).I have had it on dirt roads several times, doesn't seem to turn real well in the dirt (understeers),i.e. the front tire doesn't have enough traction compared to the weight of the rig. However, I have only limited experience on other rigs offroad (my Ural Retro, it did the same thing, although less power so less pronounced).greg

Probably should nto say this as it can get one in trouble. Understeer such as you have can be overcome with a ton of throttle which can induce oversteer. Do not attempt it in the real rough stuff or if your swaybar is not heavy enough to take care of the nose dipping in left handers or you will at best have a large pucker moment and at worst end up with some sheet time. Nuff said you are on your own.

Claude, my sidecar is the Dneper. I had thought about putting a "Rumble seat" where the trunk would be. Not a lot of leg room in the back though. Your dual sport Beemer looks great. I don't think my wife would sign off on an open platform for the kids. She made me install seat belts in the Dneper.

The double wide sidecar actually had accomodations (built in hinges) to install a removable door for kid saftey although the door itself was never added.
As far as the rumble seat idea it has been done. See attached picture of a Chaing conversion. Pretty tight quarters i'd say.
I have also included a mockup picture of a modified Dnepr sidecar body.It has a tonneau cover on the rear. The idea was to have the option for a seat back there of just storage.

Andy, I have to admit that I would like to upgrade my system to something with more horse power. Greg's Vstrom 1000 cc is one I have been lusting after. A friend of mine had the KLR650 (2 wheel). He sold it and bought the 650 Vstrom. He said that the Vstrom was much more comfortable on the longer trips. Less vibration.

Claude, the picture of the rumble seat confirms my suspitions. I think I'll keep after a wider rig. Maybe a Hannigan when I hit the lottery.

Greg. I too have significent under steer due to the 15 inch lead on the sidecar wheel. I put an Avon sidecar tire on the front to improve the contact patch. I moved the tool box from the sidecar trunk to space between the sidecar and the motorcycle. I also learned how to pull myself up onto the gas tank to shift my weight forward and to break the rear end out with either gas or rear brakes. No one of these changes cured the under steer, but all together I can crank a hard left and keep the rig going where I want to go.