Hi all,
I'm considering a '07 Harley police bike, 103"motor for tug power, and ABS brakes for safety, would ride solo most of the year, but use the sidecar during the winter. What are your thoughts on no brake on the hack due to the bike having ABS? My current hack has a brake, quite frankly never rode a hack without a brake, but seems like the bike brakes should handle it?
thanx, Pauly
Originally written by uralpaul on 8/6/2007 3:53 PM
Hi all,
I'm considering a '07 Harley police bike, 103"motor for tug power, and ABS brakes for safety, would ride solo most of the year, but use the sidecar during the winter. What are your thoughts on no brake on the hack due to the bike having ABS? My current hack has a brake, quite frankly never rode a hack without a brake, but seems like the bike brakes should handle it?thanx, Pauly
As you are aware, Harley-Davidson (and other makers as well) haven't yet solved the problem of mating an ABS-equipped motorcycle to a sidecar. There is a note regarding this in my 2006 vesion of their sidecar manual in the secton on "Disc Brake".
In any case, it could be done with a separate master cylinder and brake pedal. Lots of non-Harley sidecar rigs have been set up with separate brake systems, using two brake pedals side by side or having the sidecar pedal operated by the bike pedal. Your sidecar experience will be much more satisfying with a sidecar brake, in my opinion anyway.
I'd suggest disconnecting the ABS and hooking up the sidecar brake. The ABS keeps you from dropping a solo bike but doesn't make for shorter stopping distances.
You won't drop the sidecar rig if you lock up the brakes.
Lonnie
Northwest Sidecar
Demonstrations or no, The traffic engineers say that ABS systems will not stop a vehicle in a shorter distance than one sans ABS. Perhaps safer in a panic situation but not in a shorter distance.
Originally written by Hack'n on 8/6/2007 7:58 PM
I'd suggest disconnecting the ABS and hooking up the sidecar brake. The ABS keeps you from dropping a solo bike but doesn't make for shorter stopping distances.
You won't drop the sidecar rig if you lock up the brakes.Lonnie
Northwest Sidecar
It would be OK if it were possible to disconnect the ABS on an ABS-equipped Harley-Davidson Police Model. It would probably still run, but I'm sure it would constantly display failure codes since the control modules are programmed to see all of the functions.
It would probably be better to get a bike without ABS. They make 103's without ABS but they are rather expensive since they are Custom Vehicles.
You say that an ABS bike won't stop faster than a non ABS? I've seen demonstrations at the CHP Academy in Sacramento. They were using a CHP BMW stopping from 100 mph on wet pavement soaked with a fire hose. It stopped very nicely. It would have skidded quite a ways and locked at least the rear wheel without ABS.
Maybe you mean dry pavement?
Hi all,
thanx for the replies so far, I've seen some have posted that they are not in favor of a sidecar brake, but don't remember seeing a reason? What would be the advantage of not having it?
thanx, Pauly
The main advantage of no brakes on a bike that has had a sidecar added is consistency in braking. Many sidecar brakes are poorly matched to the bike that is being used as a tug. Add the difference in sidecar brake efficiency whether going in a straight line or turning either direction and loaded or unloaded sidecar and you get erratic braking.
Some rigs like the URAL and Dnepr have used the same wheel, drum, brake assemblies on all three corners of the outfit and others like Harley have over a hundred years of engineering behind their sidecar rigs. Most of these also use the same size tires all around.
Lonnie
