Doug wrote:
Hanging out too much with Claude Stanley ruined, ah, changed my mind.... Actually, I've seen the light; they're just too much fun! Thanks Claude.
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I rode with patina before it was cool!
1973 Triumph Bonneville w/ '74 Velorex 560
1983 Suzuki GS850
AMA #1075627
CMA #35059
USCA #7884
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Humph....I bet when Kim finds out you rode with Patina she won't think it's cool.
i had a chow many years ago that loved riding in a sidecar.the 130 lb rottie i got now cant climb and lifting him is out of the question.but i bought him an old station wagon that he can go places.
My interest started in the mid '80s when I was following a stranger on /5 BMW rig and we both turned right onto El Camino Real. The guy flew the chair through 3rd gear with a nice smooth set down. I was impressed and wanted to chat with him, but I got caught at a stop light and never saw him again. Fast forward to 1993 and I'm living and working in Egypt where I was supporting an airborne electronic warfare system for the Egyptian Ministry of Defense. Our base was way out in the desert with the ground-based elements of the system scattered over several square miles. They had several 1970's vintage Ural Military sidecar rigs that weren't running. After I helped get several of them running, they gave me one to haul my test equipment around in. When I got back to California, I bought a Goldwing/EML and started construction of my current BMW/Ural rig. Once I got the BMW rig sorted out and handling as good as or better than the EML, I sold the GW/EML rig to a guy from Palm Desert. Over the last fifteen years, I've had three sidecar dogs and racked up 90k miles on the rig.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sidecardog/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCPreupv5293EHg&feat=directlink
Way back in the sixties enduro competition was popular.
There was a sidecar class that was awesome to watch as those guys piloted their off road rigs through bogs and up and down forbidding hills occasionally getting big air.
Naturally my first was an off road machine.
I still have an offroad capable one as well as a road machine for more formal occasions.
Phelonius
Well, I'm new to this forum and my next sidecar will be my first. I just plain old want to ride all year and I live in a shall we say "snow inevitable" area. So, I figured a sidecar will allow that. Plus weekly gas for the car $45., the bike $10.
In 1978 My wife was expecting our son and she did not want me to go alone to BMW rallies without her and our soon to be son. So I put a spirit Eagle on my 1975 R75/6 , which I'd already changed to a cafe setup with short bars and a Hannigan fairing the year before. First trip was about 80 miles to Menomonie WI. for a Third Wheel Sidecar Rally. I quicklylearned that long handlebars were needed and my pregnant wife wasn't happy with only looking at my right kneecap and auto tailpipes. Also it rained a little and water came up the beautifully designed fender into the sidecar. But she survuved and I've had sidecars for 30 years, 11 different ones. When we motorhomed full time for 6 years, the sidecar rig was our only transportation then. She liked the Watsonians the best, Had 3 different models over the years. Doug
maxm - 1/19/2011 6:31 PM
Always interested but never made the move. Had my WA license endorsed for a 3 wheeler when they first passed the law and had a 6 month window to add it just by paying for the additional endorsement. Then wife decided she wanted to go to a FSSNOC lunch in MT with me and riding pillion wasn't in the cards. In an effort to have a rig I contacted the owner of the rig I had been parked next to at the seattle Int'l M/C show display,a Savage with Cozy rocket car. Called the owner and he was interested in selling as he had a new BMW project. Hooked the trailer on the truck and drove to Seattle. Drove it around the block and on the trailer. On closer inspection I didn't feel it was road ready so we used the the HD rig my brother keeps at our house. HD road king with a CA car, actually it is his wife's rig. We were hooked . Took some time but I felt it was finally ready for the road. Had leaks in both side covers, not a usual Savage problem so dropped the car and fixed the leaks and a couple other items while they were separate. When I went to reconnect the lower front stay broke off in my hand as I positioned it. Back on the trailer and off to Jay at Dauntless Motors for a sub-frame and proper mounting. A month later I drove back over to get it and tried it out. Much better. Took it back to Moses Lake, WA were we live summers and continued the fine tuning process. Brought it to AZ that winter as we had lots of room in the trailer. Had to leave it the next year as we didn't have a trailer to take it back. It went back earlier with relatives. Really missed it last summer and it will go back this spring. I've been recovering from 6 abdominal surgeries and colon cancer chemo since 05 and it has taken time to get my strength back. I was able to ride my other Savage but with some trepidation. It should be road ready again next week after the oops last Thursday. parts are on order and some of the cosmetic stuff I've done already. It will be the last one I get rid of. Had purchased a Velorex 700 here for the other bike but never got around to mounting it and finally sold it, had sellers remorse the minute it was cleaned up for the buyer to pickup, but he drove up from CA to get it and I couldn't back out. He put it on Burgman 400 and pics are on the picture page. It isn't for everyone but we sure enjoy it and having my brother and family with theirs here for a couple months this winter has made it even better yet.
Hey Max, good to hear you are still in the saddle.
Phelonius
When I learned I was going to become a grand-papa, I started looking for the quickest way to get the new kid on a motorcycle and thought a sidecar should make the daughter in law happy.
I started looking for a rig on the internet ads and could not find anything to fit my second ride, an 1983 Honda Silverwing 650. Then I remembered that I had seen such a rig drive by my town a few years earlier. I had spoken extensively with the owner of that rig and had even taken him to my house to talk about our bikes. He had put on a sidecar to continue riding after having had 2 work place accidents that left him without his right hand and only the index and thumb on the left hand. He had relocated the front brake master cylinder to a right foot actuator he put together, along with a foot pedal for throttle and had a yoke installed on the right handle bar to rest his foreram into and could handle the clutch with his one finger left hand so he could keep on riding. Pretty ingenious!
So I give him a call, but end up talking to the widow: seems that cancer got the best of him the previous year. I expressed my sympathy to her and, by the way, asked what happened to the rig. "It's in the barn and my son is trying to sell it" was the reply. By the time this was over, I had picked up a working unit Velorex with a low mileage Silverwing, plus a spare bike and parts for $1400! I have had the rig for 4 years now and use it mostly in the early and late cool seasons, the missus prefers the weather protection and the relative safety while riding on dirty or black ice roads.
I have now rigged the Honda intercom system for three way communication and get to sing along with the grand kid when we go out for a ride. All of us enjoy the ride.
I expect to keep this rig for a while, as I now have 3 grand kids to take for rides.
I am looking at modifying my rig to turn it into a leaner this winter, but if that does not work I expect I will still keep the fixed rig for a long while.
The attached picture of the first ride tells it all.
I became interested years ago while years ago while watching WW II movies with the Germans riding all those sidecar rigs. All us guys who had fathers in WW II watch every "war" moving that came out! Started riding solo bikes when I was 17. Rode for 48 years and suddenly became interested in sidecars again. Can an old dog learn new trips? That was the question. Took Vernan Wade's Side car class in Hood River, Oregon and was hooked. Purchased a '99 BMW R100RT w/ EZS sidecar two years ago and have been having a ball ever since. Still ride two wheels though find myself thinking of hacking it, too. The old dog's learned a lot of new tricks and is still learning. I'm having a fabulous time!
Karl
For me it was the most interactive way to get my children involved in my classic motorcycle hobby. Now it's hard to sneek out for a ride without them. I'm on my second sidecar rig and I see there's no turning back!
Hank
Back in the mid 70's I decided to try sidecars so I could take my kids with me. My first was a Ural on two different Moto Guzzi's, then a Vetter on a Kaw 1300. Next the kids grew up and the wife and I went our separate ways. I went back to two wheels. Fast forward to two years ago when my wife (got married again) broke both her ankles in different accidents. We ended selling her Goldwing and she was unable to ride double with me because of her ankles. I talked her into attending a sidecar rally in Lake Chelan, and before the summer was over we were a three wheel family. We have traveled all over Washington, Oregon and east to Montana & Glacier Park. Even took our little dog with us on one trip to Montana.
Definitely the kids. It got harder and harder to go for rides because of all the little ones. Now I can load up two kids in the hack and one as a passenger too!
My wife is now going to get a scooter with a sidecar. Soon we'll be able to go out to eat or something with all 5x kiddies without having to take the minivan. How cool is that!?!?!
Best decision I made. The kids love it and I know for sure that its going to be a fond memory for them when they are older.
WinginCamera - 1/23/2011 9:21 PM
I talked her into attending a sidecar rally in Lake Chelan, and before the summer was over we were a three wheel family. We have traveled all over Washington, Oregon and east to Montana & Glacier Park. Even took our little dog with us on one trip to Montana.
When were you in Chelan? I missed last year, but was there the year before. In the orange and white rig with all the kiddies. Were you there in '09?
-GL
I downsized to a Kawasaki Versys since the toddler left me little riding time. My old boss was selling his Harley which got me thinking of getting back on a HOG. I ended up getting one on eBay. Shortly thereafter last year, it came to me that a sidecar would let all three of us make ice cream runs. I found a Harley TLE sidecar on craiglist which Mr Seller brought up and which I set up.
i think what really got the sidecar hook in me was in 1973 i went to the Indian Come Home Rally .there i saw a few indians with sidecars.i had wanted sidecars before but after that i was ruined.i kept seeing indian and harley sidecar setups at swap meets for years.i didnt get a sidecar till the 80s. then i bought that infamous truckload of pittsburg police sidecars. i saw a 88 soft tail [which i had the time] with a sidecar.the guy had put an early steel tub harley on his bike.i like it so i started looking for a sidecar .i was looking through walnecks and saw a little ad for a 1969 harley sidecar,$1000. i should have run screaming into the night lol
