I recently purchased a r75/5 witha velorex 562. I dont know much about airheads, and haven't ridden a sidecar rig at all.....ever. It's a blast around town up to about 55mph. I had a brief trip on the interstate and man, it is all I have to maintain control. I have checked the toe in, and feels pretty straight, or at least I can make it that way depending on where I put the third wheel in relation to the crown of the road. I'm pretty sure the shocks in the rear are pretty well shot, they are aftermarket (progressive) not sure of the model without pulling one and removing the spring. are these generally rebuildable? and are heavy shocks really required? or could I pick up some fresh OEM equipment to see how that feels?
Sounds like an alignment problem. Good shocks can keep things more manageable though. Are your mounts all tight?
Some of the extra narrow Beemer bars don't allow good steering leverage.
Lonnie
I've got 1/2" toe in measured at the rear wheel and 8' in front of that. Maybe that isn't enough. I'm seeing now that perhaps I should be measuring at the front wheel which would mean significantly less than 1/2" toe in. As far as lean goes I am slightly leaned in on my flat garage floor. I can usually find a spot on the road where I feel vertical. Maybe i'll ride around with a level on the bar clamps and see for real.
My handlebars are 28-1/2" wide and have a riser installed that puts them back 4" and up a couple. I't a very comfortable upright seating position.
I've checked both ends of all the mounts, and it has a pretty nice subframe. No pipe clamps or anything like that.
At the time I went on a short high speed run I was running an empty chair, the only ballast being a car battery in the back of the car.
Any chance for more data? You say you have trouble maintaining control... what does that mean to you? Is it oscillation in the front end? Is it pulling to one side? Please give us a little more info. Suggesting fixes without knowing what the problem is... well, it's just plain dumb.
That business about the placement of the sidecar wheel is a hint but I want to hear more before making a suggestion.
Your lean in will make the rig pull to the right. Add road crown and it's even more pull to the right.
It doesnt wobble or oscillate, it has a floaty twitchy feel to it if that helps
I see what you're saying. The roads I've been traveling (outside of my neighborhood anyway), have a defined rut and peak from heavy vehicles, I've been putting the cycle wheels in the rut and putting the sidecar on the peak to compensate for my lean in.
I've generally been able to find a spot that feels level, but I may be trying to hard.
The amount of lean depends on the roads you usually travel. The base for starting to adjust is usually agreed to be about 1 degree of LEAN OUT [away from the car] when the bike is normally loaded. You can instantly see that the way the bike and car are loaded will make big changes in this.
The deep grooves you talk about are a classic issue for sidecars. If you ride in the grooves, you will be "tossed about" when the tires start to climb out of the rut. IF you could always run in the very bottom of the groove you wouldn't feel it but that's just impossible. Staying out of the ruts is a start but not always possible.
Find a road without ruts and see if you get the same feelings.
I'm pretty sure the problems I felt at speed were entirely the fault of the ruts left behind on that particular stretch. On a normal stretch of road it feels just fine. I just picked the wrong stretch of road for my 4th gear exploration.
If you are quite heavy (or with weak shocks) the rigs lean-in tendency to pull right will be negated, as your weight will settle the bike itself to a neutral or lean out stance on the road.
The sidecar to bike lean-in is still an alignment problem that will show up with low tire tread mileage.
Lonnie
