HD sidecar ?

I have a 93 Tour Glide with a 96 TLE. I am not out to go real fast so the EVO engine (carb) has been good enough for me. Most of my riding is on back roads 55 to 60 mph. If you want to go on the interstate and travel 75 mph the EVO may not have enough power for you but I have seen other HD rigs on the highway going that fast. The TLE sidecar has no suspension on the wheel so that is another thing to get used to. The ride can be rough on a bad road. I do like it though, it is my first sidecar rig and I'm glad I started with the stock Harley set up. I am thinking about a new rig one of these days, a Liberty sidecar for my 2000 FLHTP. I expect the ride will be a lot better with a suspended sidecar wheel.

The EVO's are freeway and hills inadequate without major upgrades. The 88's just don't have the horse power.
Even the 96 inchers won't hold up against the mountains and headwinds with a hack and keep up with the masses.
The Blockhead 103's are the first to really be up to the task and even then 6th gear is too high for most higher speed touring applications.
Haven't tried the 110CI bikes but I know some have been known to have heating problems in hot weather conditions.

Lonnie

Thanks guys I don't do alot of highways but at that much investment I don't know if I want limited. Lonnie I know you have experience with HD rigs. Does the sporty do well with the lighter cars like the Texas ranger? Also what is you opinion of the Texas Ranger? they seem like a better rig than velorex, But still not too high priced.

A couple of things to keep in mind, for some reason Harley never got around to adding any suspension to the sidecar while pretty much every other company in the world had sidecar suspension before WW2, Yes the body is on leaf springs with out dampening but the wheel is ridged. So you hit a bump, you know about it on the bike and your passenger gets to be reminded of the bump as they bob up and down. And second the Harley sidecar is not an easy sidecar to get in and out of and the trunk is accessed from the cockpit rather then having its own trunk lid from the out side.
A few nice thing about the Harley is you can add reverse, steering modifications are readily available and if it is a 2009 or newer you can run an automotive tire on the stock rear wheel.
Have you considered keeping the Guzzi and up grading the sidecar? For most Guzzi's our sidecars come with proper bike specific mounts and we make triple tree's for many Guzzi's both my wife and my general manger ride Guzzi's
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793

Jay, thanks for the points to ponder, I have tossed around adding a new sidecar to one of the Guzzis. But damn those Ultra rigs look sweet. The sidecar does look awkward to enter.

WE have 3 Harleys 2 Road Kings and a Street Glide with Harley sidecars and a Sportster with a Motorvation Spider sidecar. We have put close to 300,000 miles on Harley Sidecars and love them. The springs on a Harley sidecar interchange back to 1924. I like the tradition. Most of my passengers wind up asleep with the gentle rocking of the sidecar. WE have had carburated evos up to a fuel injected 103 twin cam. We have been over the continental divide many times they all worked well.

I like them all and would love to have a BMW sidecar rig and a scooter sidecar rig also. I keep looking.

just my two cents.

john

I've an 2004 Electrglide with TLE Sidecar (original HD factory setup). All fine with engine performance. However, if you can choose between TLE without wheel suspension and a boat with wheel suspension, definitely go for the latter. Driving the TLE can be very rough for the driver (not for the side car passenger, since the boat has nice, even soft suspension). May even be unsafe, since the driver's attention may be 100% devoured by potholes and washboard dirt roads.

The bouncing and rocking of the Harley leaf mounted "Banana" also can make some monkeys seasick.
That is fact.

Lonnie

I have a 2002 HD Ultra with a 2006 standard HD sidecar. Being we are getting ready to catch our last 5 states and she had over 106K on her I freshened up the top (all work done by me including machine work) end and put some S&S 509 cams that are a very good Low to mid torque cam. She ran fine in stock forum but pulls much better now with the torque cams and I am sure the fresh top end helps quite a bit. I drive my rig just about daily as she is my only transportation no matter the weather. The last few weeks she has been water cooled as we have had nothing but rain. She had not problem cursing on the slab at 80MPH and would curse faster. The EVO is 80CI and mine being a twin cam is 88. Drive her for 20K in stock form but she had over 80K on it when I installed the hack.

My rig is a 2003 Ultra Classic with a 2003 Ultra Sidecar. Engine is an HD 95 'A' motor with S&S 510G gear drive cams, SE roller rockers, Vance & Hines true duals, and a California Sidecar EZ-Steer. Plenty of power - cruises nicely in high (5th) gear at 50-60 MPH and up...

I all so put on mine a power vision tuner with auto tune which require wide band 02 sensors, S&S touring quite mufflers, screaming eagle air filter and Jim s cooling fan. I can monitor up to about 30 things or more on the motor one being front head temperature. I all so can read error codes at a push of the button. I can store 8 different maps one will be for gas mileage on the road, one for around town and more takes about 2 minutes to change the map. With the Jim s fan I can keep the motor cooler sitting at a red light then going down the road. Since almost new I have run a oil cooler.

Thanks for all the helpful responses. I bought a 2006 Super Glide and added a Texas Ranger. SO far i am VERY happy with the rig