@brstr nice 👍🏿 which route are you doing?
I’m in Thailand now just finishing up a week long dive trip (live aboard). We talk such technical stuff about sidecars.. meanwhile in Thailand, most folks seem to be riding these - haha 😂
Why do you find that funny ?
I did not know they drove on the left in Thailand.
In the Philippines the no 1 form of transport is a little ( usually under 200cc ) bike with a sidecar. A friend of mine from the Philippines fitted the sidecar on my little 650 Suzuki Savage. He did a great job.
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Not sure what you mean by which route.
Been going to Cambodia most every year for 20 years.
We don't have our own children but got adopted by one lass in particular and others to varying degrees from our 1st trip.
Now it's grandma and granddad.
We stay at our daughters house on the outskirts of Phnom Phen.
Having said that we will fly from Perth via KL this trip and land at Siam Reap for a few days.
Wife wants to see Anchor Wat this time.
The family will meet us there then drive as to the city.
Should be grand fun for all.
One of life's big surprises.
@mick-boon I found my attempts to understand technical details of a sidecar installation and driving it funny. I’m in India right now and almost everyone here rides a bike or some kind of hack.. with just a helmet on.. since speeds in these countries are so much less than our speeds, I feel that they don’t give these technical details much thought.. maybe? They just ride (or drive)..
I was born in India so smaller CC bikes are my go-to… but I think I won’t be able to travel on highways with smaller cc bikes. I still yearn for those sub 200 CC bikes though.. you don’t ever have to worry about picking those up.. one only worries about picking up a royal enfield (every Indian’s dream bike).
@brstr that’s super awesome!! 👏 I thought you were doing a moto tour cross country.. While at Khaolak this time, I felt that during my next trip to Thailand, I want to ride across the Chiang Mai / Rai areas for a few days and then dive for a few, before heading back Calcutta to babysit mom for two weeks.
Brilliant fun , I bet.
I have a younger Indian friend who drives buses here now.
Also has more than a dozen bikes all the way back to 1903 in ages.
He led a little tour for 10 across India with a large van, mechanic and old style royal Enfield motorcycles.
Saw one of the guys yesterday that just got back.
22 days 14 stops over a couple of thousand kilometres.
Apparently it was a mission lol.
@brstr awesome 😎 it’s my mission as well.. the “mother of all rides”.. 22 days across the Himalayas.. I’ve been dreaming of it..
I really don’t know if my kids can handle any mountains.. but fingers crossed 🤞
Based on your post it seems like you're looking for an enclosed trailer- a flatbed will be simple and less expensive, but regardless, don't overthink it. Trailers are pretty simple beasts. Make sure the bike will fit, and don't be tempted to overbuy. A trailer with a payload rating much higher than the weight of your bike (plus any additional gear you intend to pack in there) will make for a harsh ride. Good luck!
@miles-ladue has anyone transported a sidecar rig on the back of their pick up trucks? What if one gets a f150, ramps and simply transports (I have to go it twice a year, over 18 hour drives) the rig on the pickup?
Any ideas?
@laingdon how about on the back of a pick up truck? Possible? I realized that with my lifestyle, I’d have to ship it twice a year (approx $3k per year).
Maybe if the truck bed can take the sidecar rig, then my regular dual sport bike can be transported by the truck using a black widow hitch carrier. All problems solved? Maybe?
Unless the rig is extremely small (Vespa?) the pickup bed is going to be much too narrow to transport a rig. It’s also pretty steep up into the bed.
Im not saying it’s impossible, but it’ll be a challenge.
Illegitemi non carborundum est!
@thane-lewis thanks.. I guess I’ll have to look for a trailer that’s foldable (kendon has 3 rails, so I doubt the sidecar fits there).. or get a flatbed trailed … this just means that I will have to move away from living in apartment complexes so I can store a large trailer big enough to transport a sidecar rig + bike.
Alternative (and probably easier) is to transport only the sidecar rig to each place I stay at for 6 months a year and have a dual sport stored at each location (I doubt that storing a simple bike would cost more than $100 a month).
EDIT : my personality issue is that I’m a bit of a vagabond.. hence all these issues / questions..
Have you considered something like this:
pretty common around here for farm work because of the flexibility of the platform. Can get any kind of pickup and a variety of beds including aluminum to reduce weight.
Illegitemi non carborundum est!
@thane-lewis how cool !!!! That would probably fit a sidecar rig plus a dual sport…. How do you make that from a regular truck? Have a shop remove the sides and put a flat surface there?
also…. Seems quite high to hike the bikes up to the back. do I have to find a road incline each time to get the bikes up there via a ramp? I only have to do this twice per year (for sure) and maybe 2-3 more times a year even I bounce around between places..
Thank you guys so much for answering these newbie questions.. I don’t know anything but riding and driving. Zero knowledge about everything else “motorcycles”.
As I said, pretty common here in ranching country. Two shops on our small town do the conversions. The remove the box from a pickup (usually a ¾ ton or larger) and bolt the flatbed on and amend wiring. There are currently about 60 pristine takeoff boxes stacked like cordwood at one of the shops.
it might actually be a little bit lower than the standard box height with this conversion. The solution to ramp height is to install a winch at the front of the flatbed to pull the rig up the ramps and then use the cable of the winch as one of your anchors for the rig.
Here’s the phone number of the bigger installer here in Broken Bow - VBar Trailer Sales 308-872-2343. You would need to supply the pickup.
Illegitemi non carborundum est!
