what got you started with sidecars

i call the number the next day.i said i am calling about the sidecar for sale ...well the guy started yelling at me.i said wait i am just asking about the sidecar.he said he was sorry that "people" had been giving him a hard time about it. then he said he didnt have it in his possession but to call him him tomorrow. i said ok. i called the next day and he said i have it.but then he said that he has 3 sidecars but he may have more to call him the next day.well several calls later he was up to 7 sidecars .i said ok i will buy them all .i drove to pittsburg .when i got to the run down garage in the bad pat of pittsburg i was meet by 3 guys and thier wives.they had 3 police bikes [a rare 3 speed reverse electric start was one] i went maxed out my credit cards for cash. bought the lot of misery and rented a truck

well i figured i would sell the extra bikes ect and make a killing. well the guys had bought the entire lot of bikes at a police auction.one guy sold a bunch of stuff and bought drugs. this started a war with the guys and then their wives stepped in . the end of the story is i fixed up one harley /sidecar set for my ex.[ she got that]the other bikes sat for a year before i sold .then because the high interest and a recession i went under.but i still love sidecars and i have one again [not financed!!!] and if you go into my garage there is an old police seat hanging on the wall.i tell eveyone i want $25000 for that seat cause thats what it cost me .hopefully some of ypu will get a kick out of this story.

geek_law - 1/24/2011 4:09 PM

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

Hi Geek_law,
We have made the last two Chelan rally's, although the first one we didn't have a sidecar rig. I do remember your rig, I thought it was very nice. We should be there this year again. We plan on traveling up into Canada, so will fit Chelan in either at the start of the trip or after. Being retired I have lots of flex time.

WinginCamera - 1/26/2011 12:30 PM

Hi Geek_law,
We have made the last two Chelan rally's, although the first one we didn't have a sidecar rig. I do remember your rig, I thought it was very nice. We should be there this year again. We plan on traveling up into Canada, so will fit Chelan in either at the start of the trip or after. Being retired I have lots of flex time.

Hopefully we'll see you up there this time around. I had a campsite reserved and plans laid for the Rally, but in the end, I just couldn't pull it off. The kids were seriously bummed. They are already asking if we are going this year!

I wish I were retired.

I was influenced by Ed Johnson in N.IL in the mid 80's & bought an unfinished project, 1970 Guzzi Ambassador w/Velo 562. Another influence was sidecar manufacturer Kurt Liebhaber of SCF Sidecars, who lived close by where I operated the family farm. I was pulled into the Sidecar Training program to help out in N.IL. Have over 100Kmi on my current rig put together in 88, and a passenger tub in 93. An 86 Guzzi Cal 2 w/SCF TL hack. You get hooked on the sidecar feeling, which is not the same for every rider, some riders try it & don't like it. It is nice to have an active club around too The Georgia Sidecar Club guys are a great bunch.

Back in the sixties what got me started in sidecars was a lever I would kick down on.

Now it is a button on the right handlebar.

Phelonius

I have just gotten into a sidecar, after almost a year of not being able to ride, due to a bad knee, and wasn't able to hold up the 2 wheeler. I was looking for a trike or training wheel kits that I could put on my GL1100, but couldn't find one that I could afford. A riding buddy called one day, and said he knew of a GL1500 with a sidecar, that wasn't running that the owner wanted to sell cheap. To make a long story shorter, it turned out to be a 91 Goldwing SE with a Chanpion Escort sidecar, for less money than a new Voyager trike kite would have cost. I have a used fuel pump, and a carb rebuild kit ordered and hopefully will soon have it on the road. I have signed up for the sidecar riding class at the GWRRA rally in Knoxville in July. Hope that I can wait that long before making right turns. An intetresting side note, I rode BMWs in the 70s with a local BMW club in Michigan, we had a couple of sidecars in the club, one of them swapped rear ends with me, I had bought a used /2 with sidecar gearing, when I joined USCA and got the friendship directory I was very pleased to see that Cliff and Sam are still in the club and I really look forward to meeting them at a rally, or on the road soon.

I fell off a ladder and shattered my left hip and heel. Hips doing well (most of the time anyway) but the heel was shattered so bad that most of the bone is dead and not healing. Which means I cannot trust the heel/leg to support the bike. I've operated a few sidecar rigs before as well as a couple of trikes and the training wheel set up. I liked sidecars best. So I took the S/TEP course the first weekend of December 09 and I found the Motorvation Spyder T1 (at I believe a fair price) I contacted Motorvation and they were a great help - ESPECIALLY Gary their tech. Now I'm ready to embark on the next adventure of my life.,,,, Sidecars. Yea!!!!!

Hey Lloyd and Ol' Man, y'all keep us posted on your progress. FYI, there is are monthly (give-or-take) sidecar classes in Lufkin over in East Texas. Hopefully we will have an opportunity to meet up at the East Texas Spring Muster in May.

Swampfox, I'm looking forward to meeting ya. I took Marcus' class the first weekend of December. First time I'd been on a bike since Oct 09. It sure felt great.

Swampfox, thanks, if you could email me some info on the East Texas Spring Muster, location, dates, I would like to attend if I get the rig running by then. I have been looking for info here on the site about sidecar events in our area, and can't seem to find much except the national in Ohio. Thanks again. My email is: lloydberryman41@hotmail.com.

Had been riding for a while again and somehow just got the notion "can't remember how exactly". I was looking for a project/way to fill the void not being able to do any thing about,for,with the desire to "restomize" some kind of car or truck. Looking around on the putr ,I got into contact with Doug Bingham. Told him I was thinking of home building a rig. How to get started...etc. He told me to look into a production unit first . Very sound advise .Then I found an brand new old '89/90 Dnepr 2DW tub n frame massaged and mattified it into working pretty well. Take my two littlemonkeys out for ice cream or to the park or just running errands . 3 or 4 years now and about 2700 miles on it , still tweeking things as I am one to drop it sometimes for the 2w peg dragging need. Have had it loaded with every thing I neurotically need to go camping in the White Mtns. GOTTA LUV IT!!!
Miles n Miles of Smiles. OH yeah my bike is a less than ideal for the job '96 Kawasaki Vulcan 800 A model w/ so cal steering damper mounted on bedrail angle iron, trailer sway balls lowers and velorex upper universal mounts. on in 20/off in 5 . 5 fasteners + trailer wire harness. I know I know tmi

sheeeesh you guys sound like long lost brothers or somthing, I fell off a ladder broke my back, wound up with two metal hips and a metal ladder holding my back together, my elbows are shot, I went blind in one eye that year. spent three years in a wheel chair from one operation to the next. Any way through an aquintance I met Doug Bingham, he got me started in 2005, 60,000 mi later my present rig is a 91 gl 1500a with hd velorex 562. Had to have that wind in my face. Bringing that 91 back to life has been fun, but its running better all the time.

I bought an old Harley panhead 1951 74 in the year 1959 for $650. It was attached to a steel Harley sidecar and at the time wasn't too impressed with driving a rig except I discovered it was really handy for hauling things around and EVERYBODY wanted a ride in it. I ended up selling that bike but kept the sidecar and later put it on another panhead I rebuilt one winter. Then I got married, moved out of town and sold the bike and sidecar separately. We went through raising the family and ended up with a 1500 Goldwing and when the grandkids started coming I realized it is not wise to give them long rides on the passenger seat. That's when my daughter-in-law suggested I should get a sidecar to take them along. I had already been thinking the same thing so that was all the incentive I needed. I found a Champion Escort in Van Wert, Ohio and drove my little pickup the 1800 miles (one way) and picked it up. It has been five years and we really enjoy it. It is especially fun to take in the rallys and enter the games with it, especially with my 7 year old grandson guiding me in the blindfolded driver competition. That's my story and it continues.
Ralph

That's a great story. So far only two of my grandsons have been in the hack. Mucho fun! Mike