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First time sidecar mounting

While we're all isolated I'm watching WAY TOO MUCH VIDEO.

There's a series of videos on YouTube done by a guy mounting his first sidecar in September of last year.  He used other YouTube videos as reference.  He also got pictures from three other folks who had similar rigs with their mounting suggestions [some absolutely wrong].  They include input and photos from a lady who had her sidecar "professionally mounted" so maybe that one was done well but if it was he's ignoring it. Of course he's struggling with the infamous "Universal Mounting Kit".

To compound things, he bought his sidecar from the Redwolf guy in Oklahoma, a fundamentally bad idea, but how would a newbie know? He's mounting to a small HD so the sidecar isn't a total mismatch, but close.  At one point he says that his sidecar was Russian.  I wish EVERYONE who starts out to buy a sidecar came here first and read the horror stories.

Worth watching.  If you're an experienced mounter you sit there and nod repeatedly saying, "Yep, that's wrong" or "Not a good idea" or "Where did he get that from?" and the always useful, "No, don't do that".

I hope that in the end this guy ended up with a safe rig but I haven't finished the four videos yet and it's not looking good. Here's the link to the first video...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1_PINs1GHE

 

 

Deleted user has reacted to this post.
Deleted user

I would rather take my chances with the virus.

fly

Thane Lewis has reacted to this post.
Thane Lewis

We have this article posted on our site http://www.dmcsidecars.com/the-result-of-improper-sidecar-mounting-and-the-proper-fix/ The sidecar in question when we wrote the article we did not want to say that it was done by a professional installer however now that he is no longer with us, yes this was done initially by a sidecar shop. And it shows how not to install a sidecar and how we fixed it . The bike is a  "small Harley" in this case a Sportster.

On our video page are two video's showing how to install a Tomahawk SE onto an Indian Roadmaster. http://www.dmcsidecars.com/video This is useful to show how a well thought out sidecar installation goes and also shows alignment.

We hope that by the end of the week we will have posted several video's showing how to install one of our Expedition sidecars onto a BMW R1250GSA including brake hook up and steering and wheel modifications. Editing has been done just having some issues down loading it, one of my employee's is going to try and do it at home where he has faster internet, we are a bit rural and our internet is not the best, Comcast was suppose to be updating it for us however C-19 has put that on hold until August at best they say.

Its sad that any one with the internet can be an "expert"  or for that matter before the internet any one could become a dealer for several imported sidecars and be the "expert" even if the only sidecar they ever installed was their own. There is a lot of bad information out there. Of course it would be really nice if "Red Wolfe" "RK" Saferwholesale" "velorex" and others would do a video showing how their "universal" hardware is suppose to work. Of course they would need a "universal" bike for this to work. In general while we offer "universal" hardware and perhaps ever 5-6 years will ship a sidecar with it we go into it saying "universal" means it fits nothing universally but is a starting point.

My friend David Hough (author of the "yellow book" and much more) use to say about mounting, "when in doubt, built it stout our of things you know about" I would goad him with what I see far to often which is "when in doubt build it stout out of things you have laying about."

When I first started saying that around David, he had no idea what I had laying about which was a very well equipped shop. That shop in my garage after over 20 years has turned into a factory employing pre C-19 22 workers as such what I have "laying about" is above average.

Any one know where you can buy a "Universal" motorcycle so that you have the proper bike to go with the hardware supplied?

BTW, I am always happing to help with sidecar installations even if we did not sell the sidecar and their is going to be no money in it for us HOWEVER, If I feel that it is never going to be a safe match up I will tell you so and will not help. Safety must come first no matter what the budget is and no matter what you have already spend on a sidecar that will "fit" your bike and no matter if you already spent a bunch of time and money color matching it to your bike. 

Jay G
DMC sidecars

http://www.dmcsidecars.com

866-638-1793

 

Jay G DMC sidecars www.dmcsidecars.com 15616 Carbonado South Prairie RD Buckley WA 98321 866-638-1793 Hours Monday - Thursday 6-4:30

on this isolation the main thing is not to move your head

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