sidecars

My experience with S-i-L's HD Road King and Cal Car was just the opposite once I dialed in the electric trim. 65 on Freeway, cruise control on and I could lift my hands from the grips and in went straight down the road. In my experience it still steered hard but brother has a set of reduced trail trees to install next time they are down here. That said they ran it tipped in from the looks of the rear tire, when we had it right it was tipped out. We are waiting to fix our Suzuki Savage/Cozy rig and hope it will be as nice on secondary roads and around town. No way it can match the effortless cruising of that big F.I. twin.

Originally written by SPIKES on 8/18/2008 4:59 PM

I just returned from the worst 2000 miles I ever spent on a MC. I ruined a brand new tire in less than 1000 miles. I have a 2000 Roadking with a 92 HD side car. Is there a ule of thumb for the toe on the side car I keep getting different answers. Everybody tells me the bike should lean in but I have read that actually the bike should lean out at least one degree. I can't seem to get any two answers the same. On my trip I had a hard, and I mean hard, pull to the right. At times I could see a flex in the handlebars from the stress of trying to steer the bike especialy in a left turn. I wanted to go up to Alaska but turned around and came home from Rapid City, SD. This dilemma ruined what I had hoped to be a good trip. I have also heard that adjustable triple trees will make a big difference. Any suggestions out there? Thank You.

The Harley book states that toe-in should be at or around 3/4". I don't have my book in front of me and I can't remember the exact wording but 3/4" is the starting point. The lean-in should be 1 degree in to start so that when the rider's weight is added, the bike will be approximately at zero lean. The book shows this in a diagram.

It sounds like you started your trip with a poor setup. The HD book, 99485-XX (XX = your bike year) will show you the proper setup methods. Once they are set, the bike will run very straight on a reasonably flat road. There may be some right pull on a road with a high crown but you probably won't have that type of road very often. Some sidecars have electric lean available and they are nice but I don't seem to need one on my 2004 Ultra with 2007 TLE. I do have a steering damper also.

As far as I know adjustable triple trees are no longer available. Raked/fixed triple trees would make for easier steering but before you do that, you would want to get your setup normal. Generally when you change the trail setting on your bike, it won't be correct for a solo bike. It's OK if you never intend to remove the sidecar from the bike, however.

Good luck.,

I just readjusted a poor handling 1991 Ultra Classic with a Motorvation car on it today.

He claimed that it pulled hard to the right (sore shoulders after 30min riding), wore out rear tires on the bike in short order (worn down on the right side more than the left), and steering shook at all speeds. (This was his second attempt at setting up this rig before bringing it to me...)

The starting figures were just awful!
Toe In: 2-7/8"!!! @10-ft
Lead: 5.25"
Lean IN: 1.5 degrees.
Sidecar frame tipped down towards bike over 3 degrees.

Here are the final numbers that worked for that setup and had it running hands-free at 70mph on the freeway:
Toe In: 3/4" measured at 10-feet
Lead: 5.75"
Lean out: 2.5-degrees with normal rider/passenger load.

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With the HD brand sidecar there is no suspension on the sidecar frame/wheel, you need to set the bike with a slight lean-IN when unloaded, so that when the bike settles with the weight of the rider it will have proper lean out.

What I do is put bags of salt and/or sand on the bike to simulate the weight of the rider/passengers so that I do not have to guess at it.

I had the rider for today's setup step on the scale when he dropped the rig off, and he gave me an estimate of his 5-y.o. daughter's weight for inside the chair.

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Now, the Motorvation sidecar has a car tire/wheel, which has a little bit more rolling resistance/drag. So you will probably not need quite as much lean-out with the bike tire/wheel on the HD sidecar.

On your rig, I would start at 3/4" toe-in (measured at a distance of 10-feet) & 1-degree leanout, and the sidecar frame level when loaded and see how it handles. If it is pulling left or right, adjust the lean in the opposite direction. (pulls right, lean the bike farther left)
If you feel the need to go past 3-4 degrees, recheck your toe-in and make sure it is accurate.

Also, make sure that your springs/air-shocks are set so that you are only compressing about 1/3 of your total travel when static loaded. A sacked out suspension bobbing around can cause handling problems as well...

YMMV

Zenrider Sez:
"On your rig, I would start at 3/4" toe-in (measured at a distance of 10-feet) & 1-degree leanout, and the sidecar frame level when loaded and see how it handles. If it is pulling left or right, adjust the lean in the opposite direction. (pulls right, lean the bike farther left)."

That's about how I approach most Harley/Harley rigs.
I measure at the wheelbase so a little less toe-in is in order with my method but the outcome is the same. Neutral steering on normally crowned roads. Wheel lead is approx 8" to 8.5" with the TLE's.

Lonnie
northwest Sidecars