I have only been driving a sidecar for about three months so I am still a novice. My question relates to the bike slightly leaning to the right towards the sidecar. The lean improves when I am in the saddle however should there be any lean at all. The person who installed my sidecar did a great job and he comented on the lean when I picked it up. I would appreciate anyone thoughts on the subject. My friend Tub Maxson told me this was a great place to get help with my questions.
Most rigs track the best with about 1 degree or so of leanout from the sidecar with the sidecar level, wheel vertical and both bike and sidecar preloaded to road weight.
For checking leanout an inexpensive magnetic angle gauge (protractor) placed on a brake rotor works great.
Recheck toe-in after setting the leanout. 3/8" to 3/4" toe-in usually works depending on the track width of the rig.
This should put you pretty straight down the average road with minimal tire wear. Small tweaking later may be in order depending on the roads you travel.
Lonnie
Some installers when setting up a rig for an inexperienced driver, will use lean in to help prevent the sidecar wheel from lifting on right turns. Sidecars without sidecar axle suspension are sometimes set up unloaded with lean in so when the bike suspension is compressed by the driver it will go to a little lean out. As Lonnie says, rigs usually have some lean out. This is done to compensate for road crown. Crown in the road and drag of the sidecar on the bike will generally make the rig pull to the right without a little lean out. I set up my rig with no lean, but I have the bike on 1" thick boards when I do it. Off the boards it then leans out some. I played with the board thickness until the rig tracks straight in the areas that I ride most of the time. I can't tell you whethher it leans 1, 2 or 3 degrees, only that the rig tracks straight. I do measure toe in. The rig in my avatar only needs 1/4" to keep things gathered up.
he doesnt say the brand
IF its a hd unit its supposed to start with about 1 degree of lean in.. when the rear suspension compresses you end up with zero or a small lean out.
thats the case with any sidecar where the sidecar frame is rigid and the bike is not.
to
George R. wrote (regarding lean and toe in):
>>I can't tell you whethher it leans 1, 2 or 3 degrees, only that the rig tracks straight. I do measure toe in.<<
THIS is what it is all about! We can get all wrapped up in numbers which so many times will not be comparing apples to apples anyhow. Or, we can think of 'lean left to go left' and' lean right to go right' with toe in set to allow the best tire wear possible and then just ride the darn things ...lol.
