Does anyone have any experience or info concerning these sidecars? They're apparently manufactured in South Africa by a British company.
http://www.rangerlifecycle.co.uk/products/products_index.htm
I've already got a Jialing JH125 (Chinese-made copy of Honda XL125/XLR125) which these sidecars are designed to fit as bolt-on accesories, no welding required. Sounds ideal -- and believe me it's hard to find anything for 125-sized bikes!
I'd like to use a utility model to haul cut firewood home to my house in the mountains, so there's no highway use intended for it. Anybody have any info to share on these sidecars -- or ideas about other similar-sized alternatives anybody else produces? Thanks all.
I've never seen one of these over on this side of the Pond.. but not surprising since their primary market is aimed towards rural, undeveloped infrastructure third-world nations, who either cannot afford anything more than a lightweight motorcycle, or in the case of government use, cannot make use of a vehicle any heavier due to a road system not any more sophisticated than a two track goat-trail.
Looking at the design though, I can't help but think that you could probably make one yourself, for perhaps a few hundred dollars, utilizing a motorcycle scrap yard, a reasonable supply of raw metal stock (ie. a metal supermarket), access to a welder, or to a machine shop at reasonable cost, and some creativity.. the motorcycle is lightweight, the sidecar design would also be lightweight, perhaps employing 3 connections to the motorcycle total. You could use velorex type collar and clamp type connections to the sidecar, available at http://www.dauntlessmotors.com .. or if willing to wait a bit and gather up parts over a period of time, keep an eye on Ebay for parts to come up at a lower cost.
The end result may not be as commercially 'pretty' at what the lifestyle rig is, but you are looking for utility, not pretty.
Just a thought to ponder..
Thanks -- I may have to go that route if I can't find a ready-made one to buy. I wish some enterprising company (Jialing's US distributer in Miami: wouldn't that be a surprise) would import a container-load of the sidecars and retail them out to anyone with a 125-size bike who wants to buy one. It's a shame if there's not enough of a market in all North America for one container-load of small, lightweight sidecars.
