Hi, I have been lurking here a few months, asking some questions and reading all the posts I can to assess whether I indeed want to commit to a sidecar. Having only ridden 2 wheels and finding the pros of a sidecar more appealing than the cons, I am fortunate that I live in an area with a 3-wheeler class and am enrolled. I get to rent a rig for class, so a good way to check it out without a commitment!
I attended the pre-range class last night and this weekend is the 2-day range training - I am so excited! I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting for class at 7:15AM tomorrow 🙂 Only 1 sidecarist in the bunch and he is not experienced yet - he is driving his rig across Tampa Bay to class. Should be interesting - the remaining attendees have Can Am Spyders!!!
Anyway, just wanted to share. I hope this gives some flavor for the experience- I suppose I will either be more of a regular or less of a lurker in the next week or two 😉 Thanks to all here for advice, tips, stories, and to Lonnie & Richard for personally responding to all my questions.
Enjoy the class Beth. I hope you have a good time. There wasn't one real close to me so I decided to learn all I could and take it slow. I've been riding for about a month and I'm just getting comfortable with the rig. I'm considering riding it to my nearest class soon. Nothing beats hands on training.
Let us know how it goes. I'll be watching to see what you think of the course.
You go girl!!:-) I have a feeling you will love it,
Great way to go. Unfortunately there weren't any classes where I live so I just bought a rig and figured if I hated sidecars I could resell it. That was 3 years ago. What I ended up selling was my 2 wheeler.
Originally written by scrinch on 2/8/2009 5:41 PM
Great way to go. Unfortunately there weren't any classes where I live so I just bought a rig and figured if I hated sidecars I could resell it. That was 3 years ago. What I ended up selling was my 2 wheeler.
I lost my rig in a fire before Christmas, and I immediately felt a massive loss. I bought a new one within a month.
Originally written by RichardMc4 on 2/6/2009 9:22 PM
You go girl!!:-) I have a feeling you will love it,
I did, Richard!!! The first day, the rig was set up horribly and I had to wrestle with it, but still enjoyed the challenge. The instructors made some adjustments as best as they could (they had rented it from a place in Eustis) and it was a bit more controllable day 2! They said if I could handle that piece of ...., a rig set up correctly would be a piece of cake, comparatively speaking!
Yesterday, as my last exercise, I flew the car, albeit not far, but it was fun trying. I wanted to drive the little thing home, but was forced to hand over the keys to get my completion card (which I didn't need since I am endorsed for 2-wheels already, but wanted it anyway!)
Now, do I buy a rig, add a hack to the Nightster? ...that's how I started off lurking here in the first place!!! Decisions, decisions!! I am thinking a Velorex to start, maybe. Thanks for all the support.
Hello Beth,
I do not know what a Nightster is, but if it is heavy go with a heavy sidecar too. The sidecar should weight about 1/3 of the bike and I can not imagine how the fellows drive with their light Velorex s/c of 75kg screwed to a Harley?....
Might that be the reason why I am the most seen rig driver in Costa Rica?... well not in the moment. I recently overloaded the sidecar and drive now just the 350 Jawa without boat...
Sunday I was lucky about that. I visited the earthquake area and suddenly I dropped into a mud puddle that covered fender, engine block, half carburator and the mufflers.... bubble, bubble, spit, spit. It was over knee deep and with the sidecar I'd never would have got out allone. This way it took "only" 25 minutes of sweat., (But on the other hand in the boat I would have had my ropes, block and pulleys with me)
Best regards
Sven Peter
