As I think through my sidecar design, I am now thinking about wheel size, and looking for advice.
Someone told me to make the same diameter as my rear wheel, which is an 18". Now I am thinking about width. The rear wheel on my bike has a 5.5" wide rim, and I have a 200mm (8") wide tire, with plenty showing, as my fender just goes to the top of the tire. I use Metzler ME880 tires, so hoping that my sidecar can be similar series. On the front I have a 21" rim, and a 90mm tire.
Any suggestions on the side car wheel and tire size would be appreciated!
Thanks
Dave
PS Attached a couple of pre-paint photos of the bike, so you can see the theme!
A narrower tire causes less drag.
I assume you are using High temp paint on the sidecar from looking at the exhaust setup. Or is this to be a leftie?
Lonnie
High temp paint, chuckle chuckle.
I have a couple of ideas, including making a new exhaust that uses the same mount, but points backwards.
So on the sidecar tire, should I use as narrow as the front, or could I go with something like a 130 or 140? What about tire, should I use a front or a rear tire? Example, looking at the Metzler catalog, I could get a 140 front tire, or a 140 rear tire. Which should I use for the car?
The car in my Avatar pic has a rounded tread front 130x90x16" bias ply tire which doesn't drag yet has a fat profile to match the Harley.
The bike has a 100x90x19" front wheel and uses a 160x70x17" rear.
Lonnie
Given the look of the bike, which is really Cool, I think you need to go with a large dia spoke wheel with a MC type tire, a car type tire would take away from the look of the bike IMHO, one thing you Don't have to worry about is the license plate mount falling off 🙂
Thanks for the comment on the bike. WHen you say large diameter, do you think larger diameter than the rear wheel --- which is an 18". What about width. I am thinking like a 130 for the side car?
I'm not sure of the tire availability for the larger sizes, I think i would take a look and use this as a guide so you don't run into a tire problem in the future, most likely it's going to be the tires/size that Harley uses.
