I picked up a 2001 electraglide with a Hannigan Astro 2+2 as a winter project. The bike is finished and on the road. It came with raked forks and a Seet ezsteer in a box. As per John Sweet, if you want to use ezsteer, you need to unrake the forks. I really don't have any problems with the way the rig runs now. Has anybody had any experience with going from raked forks to Sweet ezsteer? Is it an upgrade? By way of perspective, I have had about 10 rigs. Currently I have this Harley and a Honda CTX700 with a Vetter that I stripped down and rebuilt a couple of years ago. I have never had raked forks or ezsteer on anything. I have had a couple of BMWs with earl's forks. I have never been bothered by steering problems. So, I don't know if this raked forks and ezsteer are just hype or what. Any opinions are welcome.
Richard @dickbrandt, I may be wrong on this, because the older I get the more I realize how often I am wrong, however...having said that...I believe that the "raked forks" on your H-D are basically the same as the Sweet EZsteer. The entire point and purpose of modifying the front forks of a motorcycle used as a sidecar tug, is to make steering easier. On most motorcycles with the typical front forks, i.e. your H-D, the general way of reducing trail on the front end is to replace the triple trees with ones that canter the front axle forward roughly 2" to 3"...depending on the specific bike.
In the days of yore, or the olde days, that was called "raking the front forks". We sidecarists call that "reducing the trail".
I believe that the Sweet EZsteer is their model, their brand, of doing the exact same thing.
By moving the front axle forward 2 to 3 inches, means reducing trail, which makes it much easier to steer a sidecar rig.
IMO, if you are happy with how your H-D sidecar rig handles and steers...leave it alone....and sell that SweetEZsteer to someone else that may need it.
Two Million Mile Rider
Exploring the World in Comfort
If you have no problems with the way, it steers leave it along. As far as the Sweet EZsteer goes I install one for someone and I did not impress me both the way it was made and the way it drove but that's JMO. It's a go idea but it can use a couple refinements. It's off my list for my own bike. The owner does likes it. I have someone else that is going to try one on his bike. I have to wait and see what he says. He new into sidecars.
As I said in my first post, I am not new into sidecars. I started when I was in my 30's. It was a good way to take the wife and kids. I bought my first sidecar from a Farmer who had it in his field. It was a Steib. He had it on a BMW R60?. I put it on a BMW R69S. Bike wouldn't pull more than 50. That is when I learned about rear end gearing on a BMW. In those days you could buy a new sidecar gear set from BMW. So, that solved the problem. Bike easily held 70 on the highway with a load after the gear change. Probably the most interesting rig was a Honda 500 with a Velorex. I bought it in LA from a Danish couple who had bought it in Boston. They then rode it to Argentina and back up to LA. They were selling it and were going to go to Russia and ride the trans siberian rail. They were pretty young. But, they took a year off to do their adventure. Sad we don't think of doing that in America so much. We loaded the two kids in it and put the wife on the back. We did 2 weeks from CA to Colorado. When we came back, I sold it and got another BMW. This time with a two seat watsonian installed by "Mr sidecar" Doug Bingham. Now I am 83. I did the 3flags on the ctx700 for my 80th bday. Then spent a winter refurbishing and installing the vetter you see on my posts. I am not sure why I got the Harley. I got a good buy on it and thought it would be a cool winter project. It has been. But, and I know there are some here that won't agree, it rides like a piece of farm equipment next to my ctx 700. Unfortunately, my wife is in love with the hannigan vs the vetter. So, I guess I need to bond with the Harley. Back to the subject at hand. I probably will package up the Sweet easy steer and give somebody a good price on it. I got very little help from Sweet in terms of installation instructions. I suspect it isn't too bad a job. They have a facebook group with a bunch of pictures.
As I said in my first post, I am not new into sidecars. I started when I was in my 30's. It was a good way to take the wife and kids. I bought my first sidecar from a Farmer who had it in his field. It was a Steib. He had it on a BMW R60?. I put it on a BMW R69S. Bike wouldn't pull more than 50. That is when I learned about rear end gearing on a BMW. In those days you could buy a new sidecar gear set from BMW. So, that solved the problem. Bike easily held 70 on the highway with a load after the gear change. Probably the most interesting rig was a Honda 500 with a Velorex. I bought it in LA from a Danish couple who had bought it in Boston. They then rode it to Argentina and back up to LA. They were selling it and were going to go to Russia and ride the trans siberian rail. They were pretty young. But, they took a year off to do their adventure. Sad we don't think of doing that in America so much. We loaded the two kids in it and put the wife on the back. We did 2 weeks from CA to Colorado. When we came back, I sold it and got another BMW. This time with a two seat watsonian installed by "Mr sidecar" Doug Bingham. Now I am 83. I did the 3flags on the ctx700 for my 80th bday. Then spent a winter refurbishing and installing the vetter you see on my posts. I am not sure why I got the Harley. I got a good buy on it and thought it would be a cool winter project. It has been. But, and I know there are some here that won't agree, it rides like a piece of farm equipment next to my ctx 700. Unfortunately, my wife is in love with the hannigan vs the vetter. So, I guess I need to bond with the Harley. Back to the subject at hand. I probably will package up the Sweet easy steer and give somebody a good price on it. I got very little help from Sweet in terms of installation instructions. I suspect it isn't too bad a job. They have a facebook group with a bunch of pictures.
Here is an explanation of the difference between "raked" trees and John Sweet's eZsteer from John's eZsteer Facebook page
Modified triple trees/ Rakes trees only move the front wheel forward 2 1/4". As you know the front end is still tight and hard to steer. It takes 4" of trail reduction to get the feel like you have power steering. When the bike was stock the trail number was 6.7". When the modified triple trees were installed the trail number was reduced down to 4.45". It helped but not much. If you installed my Ezee Steer to the 4.45" of trail that you now have the trail would be .45". You never want to go below 1.5" of final trail. So it would not work. What you could do is go back to a stock set of triple trees and sell the raked trees. Then with a stock set of trees, you could install my Ezee Steer bringing the final trail done to 2.7". Right where you want to be and into the future you would have what will feel like power steering in the handlebars.
Thanks for that post. That should be very helpful for anyone wanting to install EZ Steer.