Here I am again with a technical question for the sidecar community.
Bike is a 2001 Yamaha V-Max with a 165R15 rear car tire (on car rims) and Stern subframe with two lower sidecar mounts. It has also a Steerite modification to its triple tree.
Sidecar body is an “International” (copy of the Watsonian Swallow Flight but without the rear fin in the back)
I built and welded a new sidecar frame from 1 3/8” D.O.M. tubing with a custom swing arm and 1 1/16” size wheel spindle. The sidecar wheel is a Center Line 3.5”x15” aluminum wheel.
I invited some motorcycle friends in my garage for get their opinions on how to position the sidecar body on the frame in relation to my bike style and dimensions. Their unanimous impression was that (considering that the “International” sidecar has a vintage look with a nose that points up) the rig would look much nicer if the sidecar body were tilted with its nose tilted down toward the floor. To accomplish this, the rear of the sidecar frame would have to be about 2 ½” higher (from the ground) then the front frame and mount. This will result in an overall incline of the sidecar body of 5.2 degrees from the pavement (clearance from the ground of the rear of the sidecar frame = 7.5”; clearance from the ground of the front of the sidecar frame = 5.0”; distance front the rear to the front frame tubing = 27.5". I understand that with the sidecar body tilting forward on its frame, I would have to……adjust the sidecar seat to make it more comfortable for the passenger. But, in my opinion, this should be the ONLY inconvenient of my installation Or…….do you guys see other complications related to the overall handling and performance of the rig?
Thank you again for your valuable suggestions and...if you wish, I could easily attach pictures.
Piero Bassi
Minneapolis, MN 🙂
I posted this just to make my original message more visible.
Piero
Mount the body as it was intended by the manufacturer. From your description of having to tilting the seat to compensate for nose down attitude, the manufacturer intended the body to be mounted level.
George,
I totally agree with you that my intention is flawed. However, forget for a moment the issue related to passenger comfort and focus on the tilted frame? Would it interfere with the overall handling of the rig?
Piero
Technically it would change the bump angle to the suspension on the sidecar. Practically you will never notice any difference in performance. Doing hot left turns, the nose of the car would dig in sooner (cartwheel) than with the nose up. BTW, Why not set up the frame parallel to the ground and mount the body at various attitudes until you get what you want.
Piero,
I can't really speak to this combination, but years ago we had a HitchHiker on my GL1200. The body had three sets of mounting holes. For whatever reason, you could mount the body fore or aft about 6 inches on the frame. Moving the body would increase or decrease the shimmy effect of the front forks. At one position, it was almost impossible to control the bike. Unfortunately, I can't remember if that was full foreward or all the way back. That was 18 years ago. 😉
Changing the angle of the body might have a similar effect.
Actually the bump angle does not change much as it probably averages between the higher point of the frame in the back and the lower point in the front. The bump angle itself, with the sidecar body on the frame is very similar to the bump angle of my oldest rig, a 1983 Honda GL1100 with EML Tour T sidecar (around approximately 80 degrees).
If things end up......not working satisfactorily, I can still revert to the original position of the frame (parallel to the ground) by welding different sidecar to bike lower mounts.
Thank you George and Mike,
Piero
