First off let me say I am newbie to the whole sidecar ride, totally cool but different than 2 wheels, but due to injury 2 wheels not an option for me anymore.
I have recently put a Velorex 562 on a 1984 Honda Magna 700. Have a steering wobble at speeds below 40-45 MPH most while off the throttle in one direction or the other. I believe I need a steering damper. Any advice on one that wont break the bank or my brain installing it ( I am mechanically capable just dont want to re-engineer the wheel to get it on there ).
Thanks In Advance.
pirate eye
You should be able to get the head shake managable by: Snugging down the steering head bearings, rebalancing the front wheel, checking rear swing arm bearings for play, replacing the rear shocks with some that really work, installing heavier fork oil for rebound stability.
A small amount of nose wiggle is inherent with this bike/sidecar combo unless the trail has been altered. Usually at a low speed when on the throttle or decellerating.
If still uncontrollable a VW damper can be used placed as shown in the photo. The bushing end can be attached to the upper s/c strut.
Lonnie
Thanks, will give that a run as I have already gone over the swingarm, forks, shocks, bearings ... Myron...
Lonnie,
Very clever attachment on the fork brace.
Myron,
Yes, way different than 2 wheels. No longer a bike and not quite a car.
You will hear a lot on this site about low speed wobble. It's a common condition.
My Honda GL650/Dneper has a noticable low speed wobble between 20 and 25 mph. It's not particularly dangerous, just unsettling.
I fiddled with it quite a bit at first. I had some luck switching to some forks that had the axle mounted forward of the fork slider and sliding the the forks up in the triple tree. This reduced the trail a little and did give a little improvement, but I just couldn't quite stop it. The most improvement came from reducing the toe in to the least I could get away with.
I learned to keep both hands on the bars when I was in this speed range.
The part of this discussion that doesn't get much attention is muscle conditioning and muscle memory. After living with this wobble for a number of years(40,000 miles), I don't even notice the shake any more. My body has developed the muscle tone and automatic memory to compensate for the wobble. It's all part of the learning curve.
