Huey points out here something very important. I feel in the last time on harsh gravel rideing a pain in the right knee that comes from the miniscus,
Why I didn't feel it ever before? Because on a single bike you don't monkey!
Many CHoper driver make themselves unconfortable just because it looks cool.
No! The bike has to adjust to your body, not your body to your bike.
And watch yourself, How many single drivers you find twisted on their bike? At hard breaking they wipe away because of unsymetrical weight distribution.
Just elevating the seats cusion for 1.5cm made for me the big diference on one bike. For my rig I think the best idea will be to modify somehow the right footpeg, so that the boot or shoe will not slip to the right.
Simple things like adjust a few cm the handlebar so the hands rest completely relaxed ,give a good lever lenght and align the brake and clutch handles with the straight line of your fingers, may turn a neck stressing bike to a medium for relaxing.
An excellent riding position gave me the Norton Commander in its original outfit. Typical english, wide ergonomic handle bar, spline straigth, 90 degree legs.
As Huyes says let somebody experienced watch you. and why not video tape you out of another sidecar to show you vividly what to improve and were you are good at.
Myself I frequently just rise up in the foot pegs move the arms and legs and sit down straight again. helps circulation and avoids spasm.
Heal well your bones and don't force the body before time. Maintain the doctors indications. 1999 to 2000 I was 8 month out of battle just because of not listening to the doc's indications. Stubburness has to be payed expensive!
Go with patience and you go farer!
Recover well!
Sven Peter Pan
Good discussion. What may be called 'ergonomics' may mean many thinsg to different people. What suits one person may not suit another. The seat that feels so 'cushy' on the showroom floor may sell a bike but get darn hard after a couple hundred miles in the real world. The handle bars that make one feel 'cool' make be awaful on a sidecar rig.
Riding position itself is a very important factor that can be a personal thing. In over fourty years of riding my tastyes have changes and somewhat due to necessity. Years ago I didn;t care for the leaning forward position. Armchair position on a bike was for me. Well a few years back I broke a couple of vertebre in a motorcycle acccident and found that after that the leaning forward position was excellen tfor me. Have done a coupe of saddle sore 1000s since that I would have never been able to do otherwise.
Experiment and find out what works best for you. When things get serious 'looks' are not the priority.
After getting in some practice with a sidecar rig and getting comfortabel with it's quirks one shoudl not feel it is hard to ride one.
Even without steering mods most rigs can be pretty easy to ride with good technique.
Let the tendancy of the sidecar to lag behind on accelration and to keep moving on braking work for you in turns.
Wider bars can help.
Riding position will be good for one rider and maybe not so good for another.
Forward controls can be bad in many cases but adding a couple of pegs farther back can take away the concerns.
Don't falL into the idea that you have to hang off and be a gymnist to operate a sidecar well and at speed. That is simply ridiculous at best. If you want to do this fine but it is not necessary on a well balanced rig.
These are just a few examples. Don't be afraid to experiment and you will get rewarded for it.
