Group,
First post - The Wife is very interested in us looking into building a side car rig. Current thought is to purchase a used V-Strom 1000 and put a Ural sidecar on it. Probably have Dauntless do the work.
Question is this - I would drive the rig most of the time - BUT the wife want to drive it as well. She does not have the use of her right leg. What would be the best way to rig up the brakes on this type of rig? Front brake - work on front and rear? Front brake lever work all three wheels? Some other arrangement? Since I will be driving it as well - any other thoughts on construction possibilities? What are the ramifications in control would we loose with these mods?
Thanks for your help.
Steve
Olympia, WA
With the tranfer of weight to the front wheel the vast majority of your braking power is from the front brakes. I have a 04 HD Road King with TLE sidecar. This rig has modern dual disk front brakes and as a paraplegic that is all I use. I've put over 7000 miles on the rig and have had full blown panic stops and I never felt I need more braking power.
My suggestion is your wife is probably good to go as is.
For your wife's use I would install a proportioning valve in the system and link the front and rear bike brakes to the front brake lever.
Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars
This may not really give all that much info to your wife's specific needs and may only muddy the waters.
I have an '05 Ural Troyka. It came with only one disc on the front wheel, so any real weight of the sidecar is transferred to that area for the most part. Although I do indeed use my rear brakes and sidecar brakes as well, the real stopping power seems to always be with the disc brake up front. Although the brakes are balanced, the absolute stopping power is with the disc brake, as best I can tell. The Ural hack probably outweighs most of the other add on hacks discussed, but the stopping power of my front disc seems to handle it all pretty well and I have used the front disc in a panic stop before with no use of the rear or sidecar brake.
The Pashnit site, I believe at Pashnit.com, has a section for handicap rigs, but I am not certain if the links there would take you to someone who knows more about braking systems or not. You may check it out though.
Good luck on it.
Hi Steve and welcome to the world of Sidecaring. I am missing my right leg and ride a Honda Shadow Spirit 1100 with a Velorex 565. The Spirit rear and the sidecar brakes are both drum so not much stopping power. I did have the rear brake moved to the out side on the left so I could pass Florida M/C driving test and then forgot to use it but passed any way. He he. So after all that what I am saying is the front disk does the work for me.
If you need some pictures let me know and I will take some.
Thanks,
Appears that with our situation no one is suggesting hooking up a brake on the sidecar.
We BOTH plan on taking a safety course before we decide on having a rig built. May even change our TUG choice since I just read that the DL1000 will no longer be made.
Again - thanks for your suggestions and keep the advice coming.
Steve
Olympia, WA
Hi Steve,
did you leave a message on my phone last week? I tried to call back, but got your machine
For your wifes situation I believe hooking up all three brakes to work off the front lever would be the ideal, but may be fussy to set up correctly.Plan on spending some time and money to get it to work.
This will be a compromise which will affect your ability to use some of the braking & cornering techniques taught in the S/TEP class.
It is not a good idea to plan on using the front brake alone. This will increase the rig's tendency to pivot left when braking, as well as increase the braking distance.
RedMenace
We did talk last week ;-} You mentioned auditing the class for the wife.
Thanks for the advice - We are still mulling over a bunch of options and will probably both take the class before we do anything to see how we like it. We have already purchased the book to read. We are also considering the purchase of a used rig to start with to see what we want when we have our own built.
Thanks again for the advice.
Steve
Hi Steve, I currently have a VStrom-Ural, rig, built by Dauntless a couple years ago. Great choice (both the combination and Dauntless). I would disagree a little re: relying only on the front brakes, for a couple reasons. First, the VStrom has a fairly narrow 19" front tire, unlike some of the cruisers. Therefore, traction is limited a little, particularly with all the additional wieght. More importantly, for me, is what happens in an emergency stop with just the front brake (don't ask how I know). The sidecar swings forward (with no braking) causing the rip to swerve to the left. Not a real issue in normal driving, but scary as hell in an emergency.Also dangerous since i had to ease up a bunch on the brakes to keep the rig in my lane. Thankfully the car which was pulling out in front was able to steer clear...I couldn't stop. Since "my experience" I have been trying to get a balanced system so the rig will stop in a straight line. My GoldWing/Hannigan rig has this and will stop fast without the swerving. I have not yet perfected the Strom, but the idea of linking the rear brakes to the front (for your situation) sounds like a great idea. Not trying to scare you in any way, just my experience.
If you decide you must link the brakes with a proportioning valve, be aware you may have to change your master cylinder. If you increase the area of the slave cylinders (by adding more brake calipers) the area of the master cylinder has to increase as well to maintain the same force applied to the lever. Just an FYI
Cheers.
How about a Left-hand Rear Brake System?
Seems simple enough and the stunters use them.
You can either hook them up so both the left hand lever
and the foot pedal will operate the brake or you can
make the left hand lever dedicated to operating the
rear brake without the foot pedal.
Anyway, just a thought.
http://www.cyclebuy.com/shopping/z-start/rear_brake.htm
Originally written by Kirk on 7/11/2008 3:40 PM
With the tranfer of weight to the front wheel the vast majority of your braking power is from the front brakes. I have a 04 HD Road King with TLE sidecar. This rig has modern dual disk front brakes and as a paraplegic that is all I use. I've put over 7000 miles on the rig and have had full blown panic stops and I never felt I need more braking power.
My suggestion is your wife is probably good to go as is.
If you apply just the front brakes hard (panic) on your 04 RK when in a left or right hand curve doesn't that want to make the bike go straight and possibly go across lanes???
Anyone please resond
Hard (panic) braking in a left turn with 1, 2, or 3 braking wheels can make the rear end of the bike lift and cause the sidecar to dip it's nose in the sand. Maybe even turn turtle.
Front wheel braking in a right turn will have the tendency to straighten the rig out due to right side inertia.
Best to slow down before the turns and accelerate out when past the apex to eliminate the need for panic braking.
Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars
Do you have the ABS3 on your LT? If you do, you can connect your sidecar break to the system and it will break with both of front and rear brakes. I have a 1200c Montauk with ABS3 and it works fine.
Uber
Lonnie....
Amen to the braking in corners. I am so glad my brakes are connected, as I am not a racer, but a cruiser, and I have had no problems after 52K miles.
Uber
