Track width

Most of my rigs have been between 40 inches and 42 inches center of wheel to center of wheel.
The Honda with Kenna presently is about 44 and is probably the best rig I have ever had.
My 2002 Ural patrol was about 41 and my Dnepr MT11 was 42.
The 40 incher was the Webley Vickers.

My center to center track is 56" on my HPS rig, on my XS650 with a Velorex it was 45". The 56" handles much better, it all depends on how big of bike and how big a sidecar. I think you should get or build the sidecar first with SOME but not strict attention to the width and you can make adjustments to the entire oufit for handling from there, IE raked trees, automobile tires, steering damper and of course correct alignment.

I have the sidecar, it is one of the Chinese cars Dauntless sold in the early days; according to the info I have and the appearance (seats still have plastic covering over the upholstery) it has never been put into service. I have a Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 Classic, (2000 model) and a HD FXR and I'm planning on putting it on one of them, leaning towards the Kawasaki at present. I'd rather get something else, but domestic politics indicate that it will be one of the ones I already have; any thoughts ( on the choice,not the politics)? I'm starting another thread about the hookup to the bike; please offer comments on that if you will. Time is on my side; I have a mountain trip planned for early May, and want to be ready to install the car as soon as I get back if I'm going to still put it on the Kawa.

I've found through the years that by maintaining an appproximate 12" space between the bike frame and the sidecar frame works well regardless of the bike/sidecar combo. This allows plenty of room for the pilot and clearance for panniers and guardian bars if present. Some saddlebags with flip open tops or sides will require more clearance for access.
This spacing also keeps sidecar mounts from being excessively long which will make the mounting less susceptable to flexing and twisting.
You didn't state which sidecar and bike your DMC mount set were for. As the frame length of the CJ car is long and both of your selected tug bikes have a short lower frame, the lower rear mount on the CJ frame may have to be relocated to accomodate for the difference (easily accomplished). Some mounts may be usable as is and some may need alteration or fabrication due to the large differential in frame height of 5" or more.

Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars

I was told that they were for a Honda nighthawk, not sure, though. I will post pictures of what I have next week. If it becomes apparent that they all have to be remade, I may decide to buy them, depending on my work load. Thanks, Lonnie

The recomended track width is over simplified and comes from a day when bikes were all about the same lenght more or less and were on tall skinny tires. It is one of the "rules of thumb" that are way over simplified such as the 1/3 rule as to how heavy a sidecar should be. Or wheel lead should be "X". Putting these "rules" out is really for the most part doing a diservice to people trying to learn as they come from a different time and are way over simplified. We go with as narrow as possilbe and practical for the most part. However when attaching a light but strong sidecar to a long bike such as mounting one of our Kenna sidecars to a GL1500 or GL1800 we will mount it wider as it still handles well but requires less ballist in the sidecar. Saddle bags also make a big difference in track width. When we are doing BMW GS bikes as they tend to have very large saddle bags we end up going with what it practical. Meaning you may not be able to open the saddle bag lid up much but you can still take the bag off of the bike to fill it or empty it. One "rule of thumb" that we have found to be true is we try and keep track widith to less then 80% off wheel base.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
866-638-1793