Attaching my first sidecar an old Tomco to a Harley and am not sure about placement. We have to fabricate our own mounts so looking to figure best placement of sidecar before we attach it to the bike. I heard the sidecar wheel should be approx 10 inches ahead of the rear tire of the bike and the persons weight in the sidecar should be right about at the middle of the motorcycle. Is that a good formula and does anyone have any more suggestions, we could use them.
That seems to vary a lot by manufacturer. My Formula II is only about 4 inches ahead. Too far forward can cause problems, just as too far back.
You might wait until someone chimes in who has had experience with that model. Rumpstun, are you out there? I know Dauntless has mounted a few, maybe Jay will speak up.
Typically sidecars that are to be carrying a wheelchair and controls for the rig in them run more lead to make the outfit stable in turns away from the sidecar. You do not want to create a situation where the sidecar nose dips in turns away from the sidecar as that could become quite dangerous.
You may want to contact Life Motors Inc. out of
St. Marys, PA as they had purchased the Tomco deal and are now doing these types of conversions.
phone: 814-834-3043
800-948-5190
http://www.lifemotorsinc.com/wst_page4.html
We have done some handicapped rigs but not with the controls in the sidecar YET. When we do one of those we will probably do a left hand mount.
I have attached some pics below.
First one is a collage of Life Motors (Tomco)rigs.
Other 3 are pics of a rig we did for a wheelchair. In fact this family showed up at the shop yesterday on the rig to say hello right after we got 6" of snow. See last picture.
That looks like Rumpstun's Valkyrie in the top photos.
Originally written by SidecarMike on 11/22/2008 11:02 AM
That looks like Rumpstun's Valkyrie in the top photos.
Dunno Mike...pics at life motors:
http://www.lifemotorsinc.com/wst_page6.php
Thanks for the quick suggestions!
Called Lifemotors this morning and got little more info about attaching the Tomco including the swingarm on the sidecar should be about 15% ahead of the centerline of the bike.
It is actually rather complicated to attach a sidecar so that the bike still goes straight ahead!
