Last fall, I posted that I had an issue with the steering on my rig, a lot of wear on my arms and shoulders. I had no problem with the pulling on acceleration or pushing on deceleration. It was so slight you hardly noticed it. The issue was the steering felt heavy and stiff. Adjusting the toe-in or lean-out made no difference. I posted that I was moving the sidecar body backward on the frame and it had made it better. Over the winter, I moved the sidecar back another 1” (total of 6.5”). Riding without any weight in the sidecar, I’m now completely satisfied. I’ve ridden 1800 miles this spring. I can aggressively take corners and have traction with the front tire. With a passenger I’m also happy but I noticed the very first time my son (260 lbs 6’ 3”) rode in the sidecar, I had a noticeable pull/push. Not bad but it is there. The center of the sidecar axle is 1.5” ahead of where the back of the sidecar seat meets the bottom of the seat. Has anyone else noticed this?
I also posted I had an issue with pulling to the right at speeds over 40 mph. The fast I went the worst the pull got. Adjusting the toe-in or lean-out made no difference. So I put the adjustments back to what tracked straight up till 40 mph. I felt that the resistances at higher speeds (road, wind, aerodynamics, etc) must be causing the sidecar to loose its toe-in becoming toe-neutral or toe-out. So I attached a turnbuckle from the front of the sub-frame diagonally to just in front of the sidecar tire. Now I don’t feel any pull to the right (it’s not bad) until 50 mph and regardless of higher speeds the pull to the right stays the same. Just so I know that it does make a difference, I rode a 40-mile course with it on then rode the same course with the turnbuckle off. I COULDN’T wait to get back home and put the turnbuckle back on. Does that make any sense?
The sidecar has a torsion bar suspension. I’ve added a 750 lb mountain bike coil over shock to the sidecar suspension. The frame is slightly above level so when there is a passenger, it’s level. Also made a difference,
My remaining issue has to do with when I carry a passenger, the bike seems to track/handle differently. I’m going to look at the rear suspension of the bike. I’m thinking a tilt control is what I probably need but will need to look at some and talk to people at rallies.
The good thing is that everything I’m doing can be moved to or changed on a 1100 Virago, if the decide to move up in size. The 750 is a little lacking on the interstate but I just run at higher rpms to compensate.
The turnbuckle makes sense in the light that it is probably making a corection for mouts that are flexing at a given laod due to speed.
The tilt adjustor makes sense for many reasons. A stiffer sidecar suspension may also do a lot of good for you. Or..a swaybar of some type.
