Finally, after an unbelievable number of interruptions to my work progress, I had a day of trial runs. Everyone was so right, it is different and I mean different, than 2-wheeling. It's hard to break free from all those ingrained habit patterns that keep wanting to take control of my rig. Without realizing it, as I stopped, I even started to put my left foot down several times. The first ride felt very, very weird, but what a pleasure not to have the back spasms start up after several test rides.
My first ride was around the neighborhood where the speed limit is 20 mph. I had a bit of front end wobble at very low speed which went away at around 12 mph and it was easily countered and controlled by the steering dampener. There was no noticeable pull in either direction so I returned home and checked all the fittings which were still tight. Then I left the neighborhood and ran the speed up to around 35 mph and cruised the local streets a while. I returned home and checked over everything again and all was well so I headed out to the highway. Did a couple of runs up to a little over 60 mph and all seemed OK. I got home and all the parts that I had taken with me were still there and where I had put them and the toe-in, lean-out and torque settings were still spot on.
I'm still playing with positioning the steering dampener because I understand that by favoring either the 90 degree position to the front fork or the keeping the dampener as parallel to the ground as possible can affect the steering somewhat. I haven't raked the front end, so my steering is a bit heavy. Heritage Springers have a long trail anyway and not opting to shorten it makes for great stability going down the road, but it does take some effort to coax her into a turn. I did ease the steering effort a little by positioning the dampener more parallel to the ground, but at the cost of causing more wobble and considerable handlebar shake as the dampener reacted to the bumps and dips in the road surface. Personally, I think I'll go back to the 90 degree positioning to the front fork and just live with heavy steering for now.
I still have a ton of work to do, mostly re-installing the interior, electrical wiring for the lights, and tweaking the hack's brakes, but I'm at the stage now where I can stop working when I want to and go get some wind therapy when necessary. And I do have a lot to learn, but that's going to be the best part, practicing and training and re-programing my brain for the sidecar's quirks while de-programing what's left over from 2-wheeling. Not that turning a wrench isn't fun, it's just that I keep finding major muscle groups that I had forgotten I had, that don't react too well to getting into (and subsequently, out of) some rather odd positions in order to torque a fitting.
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