I bought my first sidecar about a month ago. I have some experience with sidecars because my dad has a Ural, but I bought one to mount to my 2005 Suzuki Boulevard M50. After getting it all mounted up and adjusted so it rides decent, I have some questions. It tracks straight very well. On sweeping curves it does pretty well. On sharp curves, such as starting out from a stop and turning, or turning 90 degrees onto a different street, I have to REALLY muscle it...more than my dad's ural. Could this be because of the fatter tires on my bike/sidecar, or because of more rake on the bike? I have a little leanout...maybe 0.25 inch when measuring on rear tire and I have about an inch of toe-in. Also, are there any forces being put on the forks that could cause damage such as warping? It just seems like a lot of unnatural side forces on the forks that a motorcycle is not designed for. I have taken the sidecar off for now because it is just for my wife to travel with me in. I can take it off an on in about 20 minutes. Two wheels is more fun for me, but the sidecar gets my wife to go on longer trips with me. Thanks for any advice.
The short answer is no. The reason your Dad's Urals steers easier, is because the front end was designed for sidecar use. Your front end is not. You have too much trail. Excessive trail is what makes solo bikes with a sidecar so hard to steer. There are a couple of solutions. You can purchase a new or used L.L. fork, or have the Steerite conversion done. The steerite conversion rakes your triple trees, which reduces your trail. The leading link forks are designed with less trail. Either is a good solution, neither is necessary, if you don't mind muscling the rig around.
My dad's Ural is a Bavarian Classic without a L.L. fork. Would the slightly less rake and trail make a big difference? Don't really want to change stock front end, since I'll be riding it 2-wheeled mostly.
So no damage to forks??? I would hate to damage them.
All of the Japanese Cruisers have a lot of trail. It works great for straight line travel needing little correction, hands off steering if you wish. Sport bikes have considerably less trail and quicker steering but need a bit more attention at the bars.
Solo bikes, monohulled boats and airplanes bank in the turns so little effort is needed for steering.
Sidecar rigs, trikes and all other multitrack vehicles require more effort to turn from a straight line of travel. Thus more steering effort must be applied. With autos the extra effort is usually added with power steering.
Reducing the trail on sidecar rigs and trikes overcomes the caster effect and makes turning easier (similar to power steering).
There is some tradeoff here because as the trail is lessened so is the tendency to travel in a straight line without having ones hand or hands on the bars to control direction of travel.
Hands off driving can cause a violent front wheel wobble (tank slapper) which may be uncontrollable and cause a crash.
This can be caused by even a small deviation in the road surface, a seam or pebble.
Installing a steering damper will control the wobble but then again there is a tradeoff. A steering damper, while slowing down the steering (from trail reduction) also increases slow speed steering effort somewhat.
Reducing sidecar wheel lead will also make steering easier. Like a lot of things sidecar wise, compromise will give one the best solution for the steering problems.
Not wanting a dedicated sidehack rig? Don't modify the steering to reduce trail. Get wider handlebars to reduce the leverage against you. Forget the damper. Move the sidecar farther back to reduce wheel lead. Put a narrower tire on the hack for less sideways scrubbing. Add air to the sidecar tire for a narrower footprint. Join a gym (lol).
Your forks are sturdy enough.
Lonnie
Wow! Great write-up, Lonnie. Thanks for the advice. Now that I'm sure my forks will be OK, I feel better about how the sidecar is set up. I'll try more air in the sidecar tire to see how that works, also.
I have put 36 thousand miles on Suzuki S-40 with sidecar with no problems. It did steer a bit stiffer than my Dr650 with a Ural hack.
I presently have a 750 Honda Aero rig and it steers stiff on short corners but I do not expect any problems with it either.
I put VW steering dampers on all my rigs for safety.
Phelonius
