Well it was a little cold but my parents came out to see there first grand child a week after being born and we took out the side car. It was the first time I got to ride in the car and not do the driving. What and experience. My father had several questions as he is torn between a 2013 Harley Ultra (110 yr anniversary) bike and the trike version. He likes the trike part since the tires are car tires in the back so they will last a long time and can be taken off really easily. But the front tire on the trike is always in the center of the road and you are always a trike and can't convert to a bike ever. This will be the last bike he is planning on buying as he will sell his 03 to my brother. He puts about 20-25K miles a year on so he wants something that is good road worthiness as well.
The thoughts on the side car is the fact it does put to the right taking off and pulls left stopping (I know the some have brakes but mine doesn't). The pulling on the stopping isn't a big deal as he would get the harley side car as well which would have brakes. He is also concerned how wide it is and possibly how hard it is to take the car on and off (with brake lines, since I don't know how that part is done).
Concerns then are the pulling on take off, width, and increased tire wear. He has made a pros and cons list out for the side car vs the trike. Side car also can carry more people (dogs, grand children, groceries, etc)
Question is how much more tire wear will the side car be on a large bike if set up correct? How hard is it to pull the brake lines when taking the car off? How much does the car pull on a larger bike on take off and driving down the road? How much does the handle bars wiggle on a larger bike with the stabilizer shock if you were to momentarily let go of the handle bars? The handle bar thing really freaked out my father when I showed him and then he experimented. Your answers might help swing the decision on sidecar vs trike. I think most of our family would prefer the sidecar to be honest. Also is the Harley sidecar more narrow and does the car pull less when going down the road (not accelerating) if you have less weight. We were two 200 plus guys on a poor 1200 Sportster harley (the smallest harley) and one of the larger sidecars- a hitchhiker. Also, what years where the hitchhikers made? There isn't much info on them.
Hitchhiker was made from 1970 to 1997. Originally made in Minnesota, last made in Ohio..........fly
coalminer16 - 5/7/2010 11:08 PM
The thoughts on the side car is the fact it does put to the right taking off and pulls left stopping (I know the some have brakes but mine doesn't). The pulling on the stopping isn't a big deal as he would get the harley side car as well which would have brakes. He is also concerned how wide it is and possibly how hard it is to take the car on and off (with brake lines, since I don't know how that part is done).
Concerns then are the pulling on take off, width, and increased tire wear. He has made a pros and cons list out for the side car vs the trike. Side car also can carry more people (dogs, grand children, groceries, etc)
Question is how much more tire wear will the side car be on a large bike if set up correct? How hard is it to pull the brake lines when taking the car off? How much does the car pull on a larger bike on take off and driving down the road? How much does the handle bars wiggle on a larger bike with the stabilizer shock if you were to momentarily let go of the handle bars?
I recently had a Hannigan Astro GT sidecar mounted to my Kawasaki Vulcan Nomad 1700 and have driven it about 1500 miles so far. It is as wide as my Buick Lucerne with the car mounted! You quickly get used to driving the bike to the left of the lane, rather than in the center as you would typically do when riding alone on a bike. Regarding the pull back on acceleration and push forward on deceleration, that is just the nature of the beast. Again, you learn to anticipate it and push on the bars appropriately. Ours has a quick disconnect for both the brake line and the electrical line. I only plan to remove the car when required for maintenance purposes, such as changing tires on the bike. I also plan (soon) to mount a car tire on the rear of the bike - the rear tire has 7400 miles on it and is getting close to worn out. I also plan to mount a harder compound touring tire on the front of the bike when that tire needs to be replaced. Regarding "wiggle" - I do not have modified triple trees but do have a steering damper. The wiggle is no big deal - I can ride comfortably with one hand when going straight down the road. I did find that I had a death grip on the bars the first couple of days riding the rig - you learn to relax as you get more comfortable with driving it. My rig has a camber control - a device that allows you to raise and lower the car to adjust for the camber of the road or other driving conditions. On acceleration, I raise the car all the way to reduce the amount of pull back. On a sweeping right turn, I can trim the car so the bike tracks around the curve with very little steering input. Going straight, I trim the car to neutralize the pull on the bars, based on the camber (or lack of camber) in the road. The rig is much easier to drive with this camber adjustment. There is a switch mounted above my turn signal switch to raise or lower the car. Hope this helps. Tell your Dad that his concerns will quickly pass as he gets adapted to driving the rig - mine did.
