I have an 1989 Ultra Classic with Harley Sidecar. I am getting more wear on the inside of the bike rear tire (the side closest to the sidecar). Handling is good but the tire wear concerns me. Air pressure 40 psi. All comments are welcomed.
How is the rigs alignment?
It's possible that you've been making a LOT of left turns and hardly any right turns, but it's more likely that you don't have enough leanout. The best way to measure leanout is by using an inclinometer against the rear rotor then comparing it to the rotor on the sidecar tire. If you have no sidecar rotor, then do your best to measure the sidecar wheel. If you don't have an inclinometer, you can download an inclinometer app to your smartphone--Apple or Android.
Checked lean and it's off. Suspect it may have slipped. I will correct this and get the trusty torque wrench out and torque the retaining fasteners to the specified values. Might as well check all fasteners while the wrench is out. Thanks to Drone for confirming my suspicions about the gremlin. Hopefully catching this early will prolong the life of the rear tire.
Make sure the surface your using is flat and zero the inclinometer on it before measuring the rotor. When adjusting mine I put my weights equivelant of sand bags on the bikes seat. Some folks strap the bike down to actual riding height instead. Since the lean out is off and it still tracks straight which you imply the toe in may be off as well.
On my rig, leanout doesn't change if you add weight to either the bike or the chair. It also doesn't change if I'm on a level surface or a tilted surface. Maybe the Ultra Classic Harleys are different in this regard.
Ned may well be correct about weight or height reduction on the bike not affecting leanout. I was just repeating the standard overall sidecar setup instructions. An inclinometer must be referenced against the surface it is being measured against.
DRONE - 8/13/2017 10:57 PM
On my rig, leanout doesn't change if you add weight to either the bike or the chair. It also doesn't change if I'm on a level surface or a tilted surface. Maybe the Ultra Classic Harleys are different in this regard.
True IF you measure lean-out relative to the sidecar. Not true is you measure lean-out relative the the surface the bike is sitting upon. The idea of lean-out is to adjust the bike relative to the road surface. There's a nice illustration here http://www.sidecar.com/Files/SC%20Manual.pdf scroll to page 43. The inclinometer is OK to use IF you remember to zero it relative to the surface that the bike is sitting upon. A previous poster mentioned that but I believe that it bears repeating.
