Up to you.

DO NOT DELETE or leave this site.  Yours is precisely one of the reasons this group exists.  Not just the forum but the USCA itself (sponsor of this forum).  One of the many things you will hear from members is that they want to continue riding, but one thing and another has gotten in the way of that desire.  I, for one, got into sidecars because my wife had a stroke and getting onto a bike or trike had some serious issues for both of us.  Sidecar was the solution and here I am, somehow elected president of this wacky consortium!  Then, POOF!  I had my own stroke and probably can't (wont?) go back to two wheels. 

Please go into detail about the handling of your creation.  It doesn't follow normal sidecar design "rules" and that is going to intrigue many of our members.  

I am forced.....forced I say.....to agree with every word posted by our El Presidente' in the post above.

Not solely because he is right, but because he stated it more politely than I would have.

I would have said something like:

Yo, you demented H-D whackamole in Woodland, CA, what do you take us for, some weak-kneed wankers that can't handle the reality of life.

Yeah, that is what I probably would have said, if my friend above had not been so polite.

Ergo, Chris Murphy @not-bob, keep posting this stuff, as we welcome this kind of information.

Interesting approach here. 

Looking at the seat mudguard it seems to be a hard tail frame?

If it's not a soft tail then a traditional hardtail sidecar used to have zero lead.

Still seems way more than the 9 or 10" lead that is more typical  on a sprung frame.

If you keep the sidecar unsprung then suspend it's load/body instead.

Great to see the efforts made so far.

Looks VERY HEAVY DUTY construction, and your fabrication skills are exceptional.      How much bees and honey did it set you back   ?  

Cool!  I dig when people do things differently.  Maybe inspire someone else to get out of their comfort zone. 

Yes, please keep posting about the build.  What, why, how. 

One of the things I like to read about is how it measures up to intent, and then modifications in evolution.  I get some great ideas from these type posts. 😎  

Thank you. This is the bike I mounted it to. It has a 100cu.in. aftermarket engine and a 6 speed transmission. The frame is a stock dimension, reproduction 1948 Harley, so it has factory sidecar mounting lugs. I utilized those, but I didn't mimic the factory mounts. I estimate it weighs about 500 lbs.

It truly is a training wheel, built just for short rides in town to test the foot and hand control mods. The lead measurement I picked out of a hat, I wanted that wheel in my field of vision so I wouldn't forget it was there.

Handling, well I was a bit shocked that it handled so well, no head shake, very easy steering. Although it has only been up to 50 mph so far. When the wheel lifts, it has been very easy to get it to land.

Since it is a rigid, on rough pavement, the rear wheel, (and now the other wheel) will bounce off the road and dance around, but I probably have around 20k miles on it (this has always been a play bike, not one of my commuter bikes) and my first Harley that I had for 12 years, was a rigid. so it seems normal to me.

How much? No clue.

I started with the one inch rear axle from my Wifes Dyna, and the front wheel from my Street Glide. I had done swaps to 25mm wheels on both bikes so these parts were out in my shed. I later installed a tire that matches the bikes rear tire.

Garage floors are not level, so I built an adjustable height assembly table. Just a piece of MDF, and plastic adjustable feet from Closetmaid.

I didn't build the bike for this, so I had to work around things I didn't want to change. Like the exhaust I had spent many, many hours building.

The table helped to locate where the lower mounts would go, ground clearance was set at 7.5 inches.

The hardtail while not making for a soft ride probably has advantages. 

Stability when lifting the 3rd wheel and likely less headshake.

You've done some miles so it works for you.

Any idea what rake and trail it's got?

Not making suggestions about what you should do at all.

Just my own thoughts if it were to be wider and more utilitarian. 

Reverse,  sprung seat, lead reduced to minimal,  (there were reasons back then)

Passenger/cargo body to suit owners idea of style if he has any, .

Otherwise what she said. LOL.

Well, while I was lacking in my knowledge of recommended width and lead length, I was aware for the need of alignment adjustments. So when I rendered this in PAD, I designed it with adjustability for lean out, toe, and the axle block is adjustable for camber and height. I was a Combat Engineer in the past, but never a mechanical engineer, so I did my best imitation. There are six 5/8" spherical rod ends holding this on the bike. Since the basic chassis is one piece, no slip joints, u-bolts, or clamps, and the bottom 2 chassis to frame mount rod ends are clocked 90 degrees from each other, there is 0.0 movement fore and aft. But they do have movement up and down for alignment adjustments.

The link bars from the upper mounts to the chassis are unequal length, at different angles, and triangulate inward to their mounts on the chassis. It all assembles easily, nothing is really bound, they all just work against each other in the mounting, so there is 0.0 play in the chassis when mounted.

Chris, your head was in the right place when you designed and built this. I like what you have done, and that you think 🤔 🧐 

The bike side mounts. The pics were taken during fabrication. Before my involuntary retirement, I made my living working on other peoples motorcycles, I was not a metal fabricator. It is something I got into after losing half the use of my hands, including the MIG and TIG welding. I also have minimal fabrication tooling, so whatever I make is very rudimentary.

All of them bolt on, no mods were done to the bikes frame. The upper and lower mounts are tied together, and the front upper mount includes a steering damper mount.

The rear mounts are pretty straight forward, the plate just needed to dodge the exhaust a bit. The front mounts had to get more elaborate since I wanted to use the factory sidecar mounting locations. All critical fasteners were replaced with socket head cap screws and grade 8 nylock nuts at final assembly.

Kind of like exoskeleton, then?  Since you don’t have a passenger on the side, mounts don’t have to handle the forces associated with that shifting mass altering the center of mass on the right.  Boy does that make it a lot simpler!

Looks pretty stout. 

I like the bracket around the exhaust.  Custom touch. 👍  I'm a fan of the rat rod customs, because of the ingenuity.  Your whole build has that kind of a flair to it, with the frame cleared instead of painted.  Any thoughts to bobbing the sidecar fender, to match the bike fender? 

A few decades back I got a call from a friend to help get a '54 running (what he called it).  Knowing nothing about HDs I was really impressed with how smooth it was compared to my expectations of a hardtail.  How is your S&S build in that regard?  That engine sounds very healthy.  😎 

(@scott-h) Thanks, the frame is something I started using in 2006 after this engine broke the shovelhead frame I had it in first (the bike is registered as a 2006 SPCN) I've never had the heart to paint it, as it is the only fully tig welded reproduction frame I've ever seen, in fact the bike has spent it's life in bare metal until recently. Just scotchbrite, WD40 and wax.

The side fender is part of my ballast program, it is very thick and with the four threaded bungs for mounting, it weighs over 7lbs. The first test ride with the bare chassis and wheel it weighed 100lbs. I have added 55lbs. of ballast since.

The engine is unique, a 100 inch 4x4 that S&S made to fit in a shovel frame. Much shorter than a standard evo, and tilted 3 degrees forward. I purchased it in 2003. I've done thousands of test rides on customer bikes and this engine is the smoothest v-twin I've ever ridden.