Bought a California sidecar, have a 2008 Harley Ultra and wanting to know if all is well with this hook up. I have a little shimmy at below 15 mph if you let go of handle bars is that normal. No one around here is familiar with sidecars. The side car also has no brake of its own can that be added. Any input would be great just traveling with a 100 Lb bag of sand to make sure it will be safe for my wife. 🙁
Don't know which S/C you have but all CSC's except the Commutor have been hooked up to ElectraGlides. The ballast is a good idea with an Ultra.
You can expect a slight low speed nose wiggle. No problem but a sidecar rig should never be ridden hands off for safety reasons. A pothole or sudden jar could lead to a tank slapper before you could get back on the bars.
You have plenty of brake efficiency without a sidecar brake.
Lonnie
In January of this year I purchased a used 2012 Hannigan HMS-SP2 sidecar of a member. I traveled in early February to Murrary, Kentucky to meet the former owner and have my new sidecar mated to my 2008 Goldwing at Hannigan Motorsports. I'm glad I had the manufactuer mate up the sidecar as the manufactuer found that the sidecar frame was 6 inches shorter than needed to attach to my Goldwing. This sidecar was previously attached to a 2012 BMW K1600GT. This is my first sidecar rig and am looking forward to learning the new experience once spring arrives and the snow and Ice is gone.
After making sure the sidecar is correctly toed in and the bike properly leaned out, one of these will keep it safe from head shake at any speed.
On my rigs I can let go the bars at any speed without head shake. It is a steering damper from an old style VW beetle.
It uses a universal of my own making at the rear and a heim joint at the fork to allow for angle of steer and up and down of the forks.
Phelonius - 3/17/2013 8:13 PM
After making sure the sidecar is correctly toed in and the bike properly leaned out, one of these will keep it safe from head shake at any speed.
On my rigs I can let go the bars at any speed without head shake. It is a steering damper from an old style VW beetle.
It uses a universal of my own making at the rear and a heim joint at the fork to allow for angle of steer and up and down of the forks.
That is what I was going to ask do you have a steering damper. Even the Harley damper is a VW one. Here is mine on my 02 Ultra with a 06 HD sidecar.
No I don't have a damper but will get one. I like the idea that you have it hooked up under the triple tree and not bolted to the front fork. Great Idea thanks
warrenF - 3/18/2013 3:11 AM
No I don't have a damper but will get one. I like the idea that you have it hooked up under the triple tree and not bolted to the front fork. Great Idea thanks
The one on my bike is stock for a HD sidecar.
I always recomend a brake and seldom see any good reason not to have a brake. Loaded in loose surface conditions there are times when with out a brake you may have to chose to use your front wheel for steering or braking but not for both. The few poeple I know of that do not recomend a brake I have to wonder if it is as they do not know how to hook up a brake. A brake can be added to most CSC sidecars with out to much effort. You have increased the mass of the bike, why would you not want to increase the brakes?
If a brake keeps you safe just once it is worth all of the effort and cost.
We have found that we seldom need a damper on bikes like yours as long as the mounts are good and solid and the aligment is correct. You can slightly over tigten the steering head bearings to put a little drag on them, this some time helps. You can also change out your triple tree's to lower the steering effort, while this will not cure a shake it will make it much easier to deal with. We offer these tree's for $995
Jay G
DMC sidecars
866-638-1793
www.dmcsidecars.com
I sure would not run mine with out a brake on the sidecar. It is not a big brake as all you want to do is slow the hack down with the bike.
I am looking at raked tress and do to my situation I have found a very nice set I can get for just over $700 that are made in Georgia where I live but to get that price I have to get them from Alabama. That prices is including shipping. Retail is a little over $800. If interested look on eBay for the better price.
http://hawghalters.com/triple-trees/trike-triple-trees/fl-trike-triple-trees/prod_451.html
When shopping for tree's make sure that they will work with your fairing and lower leg covers installed. Some of the tree's that are lower priced are for a "custom" look with out these items installed. Also make sure that they come with fork tube extensions. Not all do, when you kick the front end out, the front of the bike drops unless you space the fork tubes back up or go with longer tubes. Also not all tree's come with bearings. Ours for the FLH have bearings, fork tube spacers (the spacers do not work with air fittings on the forks) and will allow all stock front end parts to be installed.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
jaydmc - 3/18/2013 1:43 PM
When shopping for tree's make sure that they will work with your fairing and lower leg covers installed. Some of the tree's that are lower priced are for a "custom" look with out these items installed. Also make sure that they come with fork tube extensions. Not all do, when you kick the front end out, the front of the bike drops unless you space the fork tubes back up or go with longer tubes. Also not all tree's come with bearings. Ours for the FLH have bearings, fork tube spacers (the spacers do not work with air fittings on the forks) and will allow all stock front end parts to be installed.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
Not only did I read what they say but I talked to them and all the faring and such will work or at least on my 02 Ultra. These trees are made for sidecars and trikes. All so you can get them in different degrees. from what I was told 5 degrees are best.
Jay I would get them from you no matter the cost but I live on in a month what most live on in a week two weeks for sure. I will not use champions because of past dealings with them. You would not hurt my feelings looking at the like and give me your expert opinion. Even at $700 is most time more then I live on in a month and is why I do not have a set of raked tress now.
Jay I do thank you for all your expert advise on this any other questions.
Thanks for all the good information. DMC, I did get all my mounts from you that did work out really well. With regards to the brakes because I think it is like a VW axle so I would just get a disk brake kit for a bug or you have these. My bike also has anti lock brakes. Does that matter?
46u - 3/18/2013 9:33 AM
"I sure would not run mine with out a brake on the sidecar. It is not a big brake as all you want to do is slow the hack down with the bike."
Agreed! Seems to me, just chin scratching and not applied mechanical engineering: The bike should already have correctly engineered brakes to stop it, should that is. So the sidecar brake would only need to be enough brake to stop a bike of the same weight as the total weight of loaded sidecar alone. With a dedicated pedal that's easy enough to modulate when unloaded and without dedicated pedal then a proportionator could be added.
That would be a brake equal to the sum of both brakes on a similarly weighted bike. What you'd want is to know the total swept area and use that for calculations or comparison.
.
Not that easy to add a brake, The VW one would be way to large and srtong. The way CSC did this was they welded a ring to the back side of the standard trailer hub. They then used a modified Citeron GSA rear car rotor on it as this rotor is about 7 inches in diameter. The problem with doing this is that they often machined the rotor to the hub as the hubs were not always perfect so when replacing rotors, you often have to then machine the new rotor while on the hub. The way we do it is we use the same rotor as it works well however we make a new from billet hub that mounts the brake rotor. We also CNC on our plasma cutter a calipar mount that can be welded to the swing arm.
As to VW based. It is not. The springs look similar to what VW used but they are wider and thicker and other then looking about the same they are not. No VW parts were used.
Anit lock does not matter. On your bike the sidecar brake is tied to the rear master. ABS on the bike will still work fine. Of course the sidecar will not have ABS this way.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
jaydmc - 3/19/2013 12:31 PM
Not that easy to add a brake, The VW one would be way to large and srtong. The way CSC did this was they welded a ring to the back side of the standard trailer hub. They then used a modified Citeron GSA rear car rotor on it as this rotor is about 7 inches in diameter. The problem with doing this is that they often machined the rotor to the hub as the hubs were not always perfect so when replacing rotors, you often have to then machine the new rotor while on the hub. The way we do it is we use the same rotor as it works well however we make a new from billet hub that mounts the brake rotor. We also CNC on our plasma cutter a calipar mount that can be welded to the swing arm.
As to VW based. It is not. The springs look similar to what VW used but they are wider and thicker and other then looking about the same they are not. No VW parts were used.
Anit lock does not matter. On your bike the sidecar brake is tied to the rear master. ABS on the bike will still work fine. Of course the sidecar will not have ABS this way.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
Those of us talking about VW is to do with the steering dampener not the brake which is what is stock on a Harley. The brake rotor on my stock Harley sidecar is about 9 inches. It only has 2 piston calipers where the the 3 on the bike has 4 pistons per rotor.
