right turns

Leaning the bike into the sidecar to keep the sidecar down while it does work by transferring some of the weight of the bike onto the sidecar this is not what it was intended for. If you are leaning the bike into the sidecar to keep the sidecar down then you are also choosing to run the rig out of alignment. Tilt was not intended to be used to transfer weight for cornering, it is intended as a trim device to trim for load, road, weather and speed conditions. If you feel that when the is trimmed to go straight down the road properly that the sidecar wants to lift to easy then you should be either adding ballast or increasing track width. Ballast is a lot simpler then changing track width. You can also transfer some of your own weight when turning to the right as out lined in the book "Driving a sidecar outfit" by David Hough. It is also covered in the sidecar trike safety programs classes S/tep. As a S/tep instructor I teach proper cornering techniques in class. If you are relying on the tilt for cornering to the right, what happens some day when you are heading into a right hand turn, needing the weight transfer to go around the corner safely and you find that the electric trim for what ever reason fails to work?
In short, using electric trim to keep the sidecar down on right hand turns is a poor choice.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793

Load your front wheel a little at first till you get fell.( appling the front brake a small amount) . And just steer with your left hand, so you have good trotted control with your right hand with a high torque engine( down shift tight curves) plus the weight shift on the side car. You get that then we can talk about torque the Handel bars.Rudy

I forgot the most important part, to do a right turn always go in high (on the center line) go to inside( shoulder of road) then back to the high side coming out of the curve now on wide sweeping 180 deg. Might need to do this twice.Rudy

People you my thinkI’m a little crazy for what I telling but think what I’ve said. like going into a right hand curve high then low when you or to the inside of the curve(fast or slow) you or set up for that curve you have 2 finger on the front brake with a small amount of pressure applied a foot resting by rear brake peddling (no aplied yet) you have geared down so you have power
for coming out of the curve and you did slow the bike down some. And also if the of the sidecar comes up you’ve got the whole lane you can turn to left to bring it down with out getting into on coming traffic. Also you can appli front and rear brake as need. And because you had down shifted be for the curve you got power to come out of the curve. The speed that all this has happed is up to you. But don’t over ride your skill but learn for each curve.Rudy

I think you're saying, start on the outside of the curve, inside at the 'zenith', and back to outside as you exit the curve...? Right? Pretty much just like they used to teach in 2W motorcycle class, but don't do that anymore.

I appreciate the info! You're like me, sometimes I put too much and it confuses people.

Yes Jeff that is what I meant, you got it. Like they would teach motorcycle races years ago Straighten out the curve as much as you can for speed it was game years ago.Rudyr

I've gotten into the habit of hanging off slightly when riding the twisties, just in case. Doesn't take much to hang all but my left bun off, putting almost all my 165 lbs on the right foot peg. Makes a real difference at keeping the sidecar down. I do the same thing when turning left as the thought of having the rear cycle tire leave the ground is not a pleasant one. One can "fly" the car with a little practice, but as of yet I've never heard of anyone to can "fly" the rear tire on the cycle. Should that happen, I don't think it would end well.

Now for those left turns I still load the front wheel but uses littel rear brake. With Down shift and some throttel. Now try this on wet grass turn hard to left and a lot for rear brake with a littel speed (that’s drifting) that’s what your rear wheel want’s to do on dry pavement. don’t try that on dry pavement you could flip the whole rig and end up with the gas cap on belle button.Rudyr

Very interesting discussion, Folks! Even though I am on my second outfit,that I have set up, and have been driving sidecars for over 7 years, it seems I always pick up some important tid-bit of information ,every time I browse through this great forum!

below is one example of  very useful info. from Jay at DMC :

"Tilt was not intended to be used to transfer weight for cornering, it is intended as a trim device to trim for load, road, weather and speed conditions. If you feel that when the is trimmed to go straight down the road properly that the sidecar wants to lift to easy then you should be either adding ballast or increasing track width. Ballast is a lot simpler then changing track width".

I always thought that its best to set the rig up as narrow as possible, so it would exert less "leverage" on the bike during both acceleration,and braking, not to mention fitting through tighter spaces in traffic, etc. That being said, I always strived to make my rig as narrow as possible. Now I realize that track width is another tool at our disposal to adjust the stability of the rig, and in some cases, going wider is better.

I have a Guzzi California II automatic that weighs about 550 lbs, I weigh 190 lbs, and my texas Ranger weighs about 180 lbs.

Any idea what average track width should be set at?  I am currently at 53" measuring from the center line of both tires. I have 50 lbs of lead ballast, but am thinking that if  I increase the track width I may be able to reduce the need for ballast.

What are the groups thoughts? How much track width is "too much"?

Thanks alot

Rick. D.

Quote from Bigbikerrick on December 5, 2019, 1:48 pm

... Guzzi California II automatic that weighs about 550 lbs, I weigh 190 lbs, and my texas Ranger weighs about 180 lbs....

track width.... currently at 53" measuring from the center line of both tires. I have 50 lbs of lead ballast....

Rick, I ran a Ranger mounted on a ±530 lbs Sportster + me at'bout 160 lbs with a 54" track width, generally riding with permanent ballast plus tools of not less than 40 lbs. This set-up handled well, but did require "attention" in right corners.  This combination was more settled with 120+ lb load in the sidecar.