I am a beginner Side Car driver with a year and 10K sidehack miles under my belt. I'm running a 73 BMW W / Jupiter side car with conventional forks. The Jupiter is a smaller steel hack and not overly heavy. I tour with a passenger and fairly heavy loading. I've been warned a few times by non-side car folks about the dangers of using the stock spoke type rear wheel. I'm a conservative rider but any cornering with such heavy loads surely causes considerable side loading of the wheels. I have kept close tabs on my rear wheel and have not found any loose spokes after 10K miles and see no visible issues. Side cars ran for 60+ years without the benefit of cast wheels, how many of them were failing?
My question to all you Veterans out there is; What chances, if any, am I taking?
Should I immediately cease riding until a cast wheel is in place?
Is catastrophic failure of spoke wheels a possibility?
Have any of you folks witnessed a spoke wheel failure?
Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks, Doug Smith, MT./ AZ.
We've done hundreds of sidecar conversions about half of which were on bikes with spoked wheels and mostly with sidecars with spoked wheels. We have experienced no failures and no complaints of spoke problems.
As with a solo bike one should check for spoke tightness at intervals and adjust as needed but there is no reason to be wary of the stock motorcycles spoked wheels.
Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars
Thanks for your input. That eases my concerns. I am building another sidecar tug and was wondering if anyone is marketing sidecar specific wheels. Would like to run a smaller diameter wheel (16 - 17"). Would also like to be able to run wider tires. Anyone out there selling such animals? D. Smith
When I worked at an M/C shop in the early 90's, we had a Harley come in with broken spokes on the rear wheel. He came from San Antonio, Texas, said he had a half dozen spokes replaced in Oklahoma City, then had the entire rim relaced in Kansas.
Although he was carrying a heavy load, which was what the dealers blamed it on, we found the sidecar was toe'd out nearly two inches. We corrected that, replaced the broken spokes, and got weekly post cards from him and his wife touring Canada without problems.
That much toe out would cause constant side loading I would imagine, no wonder he wrecked his wheels. After 10k miles I've had no significant sidehack tire wear but my tug tires are at 20% or so. Pretty good run for a pair of tires. I'm running conventional Dunlop tires and usually only get 6k on the rear and 9k on the front. I change them when they get to 20% or so anyway. I could likely go to a cheaper, harder tire with the hack. The cheaper harder tires seem too "slick" on cornering on a solo set up so I've stayed away from them. Might be OK with the hack though. (?) Thanks for input folks, I love hearing others opinions and experiences as it adds to my knowledge base! D. Smith
