When looking at the following bike the car wheel is in line with the bikes rear wheel and the passenger sets way back, granted it's a old bike but why is it now a 10 to 12 inch's wheel lead on the car is the way to do it.
I don't see a rig attached but earlier rigs that travelled at slower speeds often had no or little wheel lead. The result was very easy steering and high speed instability when turning away from the sidecar, braking or sudden deceleration on a downhill turn.
The URALs and Dneprs, slow rigs with old school (30's) technology still use very little lead and many will show scrubbing at the lower front of the car where they have dipped their noses in the sand or on the road.
Harley rigs have maintained about an 8" lead for many years.
The story goes: Little lead, easy steering, lots of lead, harder steering but high speed stability.
Some racers have the sidesar wheel in the middle of the wheelbase.
Lonnie
Had a brain fart i guess, here it is:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Harley-Davidson-1918-J-correct-VIN-number-Antique-Vintage-1918-Harley-Davidson-with-sidecar_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQitemZ110429555147QQsspagenameZRSSQ3aBQ3aSRCHQ3aUSQ3a102
Hack'n: you just stated the rule of thumb abou the sidecar lead. Maybe that explains why my rig is so stable.
The old bikes being hardtails woudl work fairly good with little to no wheel lead although some would have still be a good idea. They were also not running the sppeds we do today as a rule.
It all realtes to turns away from the sidecar and having the rear of the bike 'unload'. With heavy bikes less lead can sometimes be tolerated. Light bikes tend to like more lead because the rear is so light. The hardtails were basically all unsprung weight and lifting the rear was harder.
Hi there,
I've just fitted a chair to our 88 Suzuki LS650 and I gave it 9 inches. It handles very well, not pulling to the left at all. It's great on the open road and round town and doesn't have any bad habits at all. We have a guy just out of town who has a large collection of bikes, ranging from about 1903 up to late model stuff, and some with chairs, and he was a wealth of info about toe in and lead.
How about a picture of that "Leftie" Savage?
Lonnie
Not too sure how to go about it but I'll give it a go! I've been told by "our guy just out of town" that the chair's a copy of a Swallow Jet 80 on a home made frame. I need to paint it to match the bike, as it's still in the same colours it was when it was fitted to a CX500 a while ago! We've done about 2000ks since I fitted it (about 5 weeks ago) and the only major change I've needed to do was to scrap the belt drive off the bike and fit a chain and sprokets!
my Marauder/caliF1 runs aprox 6" lead center-center,..handles very well at 80mph,..even with factory rake and trail of the head,... and daughter is beside me,..cheers crawf.
