Congratulations on your "stick-to-it-ness" Miles.
I think a fun project would be to create a carbon fiber monocoque seat chassis, with quick release seat bottom and back panels ( for quick switch into pooch mode0. Utilize strain wave drive with pull-pull cables for the lift function. Would make a very compact, durable, and exacting package.
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
Congratulations on your "stick-to-it-ness" Miles.
I am surprised that Scott didn't pick up on the issue of....where are you going to leave the hardtop, or store the hardtop, or stash the hardtop, when the Boss Monkey is IN the sidecar, since she cannot sit In the sidecar with the hardtop ON, so....what the heck are you going to do with the hardtop ???
Aha...I have solved that mystery, that you didn't even know needed to be solved.
I ordered a "massage table" bag, because the dimensions were correct, and it is heavy duty enough to be made to carry a massage table, so I can slide the sidecar hardtop into the new "bag", and carry that on the back seat of my Wing, with it secured via bungee cords to the passenger hand grab rails.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0867J8HJ1?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
I also have an extra large heavy duty terry cloth towel, actually made by Pendleton woolen Mills... https://www.pendleton-usa.com/ , and came in one of our Subaru cars as it is tagged for Subaru, and I will fold that XL towel in half, have the sides sewn up, so it acts like a very large, and fluffy pillowcase, then slide the hardtop into that "pillowcase", then slide the entire thing into the new "bag", then secure it onto the back seat of the bike.
This way, wherever we go, the hardtop comes with us, so for parking at a hotel for the night, install the hardtop....if it rains on the Boss Monkey...install the hardtop, and she can skootch down inside the sidecar, and stay out of the rain.
Two Million Mile Rider
Exploring the World in Comfort
You are right, I had no idea that was even an issue.
Great solution! 😎
I figured the top fit into the trunk. Maybe Hannigan should buy a gross of them, and embroider with the company logo to sell. Sounds like an excellent idea. 👍
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
On my Astro 2+2s the hard top goes in a soft case a fits right behind the seat even with the seat all the way back. No need to tie it on the back of the bike.
On my Astro 2+2s the hard top goes in a soft case a fits right behind the seat even with the seat all the way back. No need to tie it on the back of the bike.
And that would be the same on this sidecar, placing the hardtop behind the sidecar seat.....except......with the Hannigan electric chair lift installed, that takes up the space behind the sidecar seat, so there is no longer room behind the sidecar seat to store the hardtop.
I had to find an alternative place to store the hardtop.....and Eureka....I found it. !
Two Million Mile Rider
Exploring the World in Comfort
I guess someone did some bad Enginering.
@2FLTC, yes, I 100% agree. And as all of us have found there are 1,000 things that could have, and still can be done better with the current batches of sidecars that are being produced by the majority of sidecar manufacturers. However, as we all also know, it is a matter of the lack of demand driving the lack of superior engineering. The numbers are just not there.
There are many things I can point out on any sidecar I have owned, or currently own, that would make more sense than what the sidecar builder produced, as I have no doubt that most of you folks can. The "end-user" is the real tester of these products, but do you think these sidecar manufacturers would listen to what we...The People...have to say about how to improve their product ? No !
VERY simple example: Hannigan builds a sidecar with a removable hardtop that 90+ % of the users of this sidecar can NOT sit in the sidecar with the hardtop in place....it must be removed to allow 90+ % of the sidecar monkeys to comfortably sit inside the sidecar. So they make it so that you can store the removable hardtop behind the sidecar seat. Okay......
But Hannigan also builds an Electric Chair Lift for these same sidecars, and if they, or you, install that Electric Chair Lift into the sidecar, then....not only does it make it impossible for 95+ % of the sidecar monkeys to NOT be able to sit in the sidecar with the hardtop in place, (because it raises the seat height by 2.5") but now there is NO ROOM behind the sidecar seat to store that removable hardtop.
Yeah....real smart engineering there....NOT !
Two Million Mile Rider
Exploring the World in Comfort
@miles-ladue FM, sorry to hear of your pain in what should have been a pretty straight forward project!
Hope it works flawlessly, as I am sure it will after your attentions...
@miles-ladue FM, sorry to hear of your pain in what should have been a pretty straight forward project!
Hope it works flawlessly, as I am sure it will after your attentions...
Dane, thanks, but my engineering issues are nothing compared to what you have been through, and continue to go through, with Black Betty, that Sweet Girl.
Through perseverance I am able to turn a pigs ear into a silk purse. The electric chair lift that has now been installed into this Hannigan GTL sidecar will do exactly what we need it to, which is to assist my Boss Monkey getting into, and out of the sidecar.
If your friend, and mine...Chuckles in Eugene...were 35 years younger, he could build all of these things for you and I, and make a handsome living doing it. But with him being semi-retired, and now with some health issues...the weight bears down on us individually to re-engineer anything we buy from sidecar manufacturers, so that they will work....as originally intended.
Two Million Mile Rider
Exploring the World in Comfort
