I suppose I should introduce myself. I don't know where else to post this so here we go. My name is Mike Lydon. I'm old (76). I'm not saying I'm older than dirt, but it was still new when I was born. I live in Maine and am now the USCA Rep for Maine. A little about me....I am a retired mechanical designer (glorified CAD jockey). I have been driving sidecars for over twenty years. My first sidecar rig was a 1983 Neval (Dnepr) OHV 650 full time 2wd. Over the course of three seasons I put 1500 miles on the rig...at a cost of about $4/mile. The motor was just junk, so I decided to put a BMW motor in it. This was in the early 2000's. There was a guy in Canada who was putting BMW motors into Urals at the time. I convinced him to send me the required parts so I could do the swap myself. I believe I may have been the first one in the States to put a BMW motor in a rig from the USSR. The original motor was junk, but the cycle parts were very robust and gave me no trouble. I regret selling it. I had a brief break in sidecars when I bought a K100 after I sold the Neval. I couldn't stand being without a rig. I rode the K100 to the USCA Rally in Essex Junction, VT (2016 I think). That really put the fire in me to get back on a rig. My son was moving from Maine to North Carolina for work and did not want to take his 76 BMW R90/6 as he already had a Parts Unlimited Ducati 999S and a Ducati ST3 sport tourer. I bought the R90 and put a Chang tub on a Ural sidecar frame and attached to R90 with a subframe built by somebody in Germany. For trail reduction, I bought a Perry Bushong offse triple tree from an inmate on ADVRider. I have been improving it constantly. I love the rig. I have been hosting a Sidecar Social since 2021. This years Social will be the Fourth Annual Northeast/Southern Maine Sidecar Social. See my posts in Events. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible. You can contact me by text at (207) 318-9227, or by email at arbalest04062@gmail .com. In Tom Gerken's Northeast Update, he has my email as arbalesi@gmail.com. My email address is arbalesTEE@ gmail.com. If you have any ideas for events, get togethers or what have you let me know. It would be nice if we could possibly to some Regional sidecar events.
@michael-lydon, were you at this year's USCA National Sidecar Rally in Topsham, Maine ? Last month....
Two Million Mile Rider
Exploring the World in Comfort
Yes, I was. I wouldn't have missed it for anything. I was not the Maine rep at the Rally, or I may have had a bit higher profile. There were some specific folks I wanted to connect with.
Hello from Gray, Maine. Just bought my first sidecar rig two weeks ago. Still trying to make the transition from solo to sidecar. I would love to attend the social, but have a previous engagement. ☹️ Maybe next year 😀
Hello from Randolph ME. Hoping to put a hack on my 97 HD Sportster next summer.
Adolph, I reached out to Texas Sidecars (they bought all of DMC's designs). When you are ready to mount a sidecar to your Sportster, they make a subframe for your bike. Here is their response to my inquiry:
Yes we make bike side mounts for a 1997 HD Sportster. Cost is 1100.00 plus shipping. Allow 6-8 weeks as we make everything to order.
When the time comes, I may be able to help finding the actual sidecar.
Mike
Thanks Mike .. I met Kent at the USCA Rally in Topsham. Have seen some sportsters that attached a sidecar without the subframe .. Will be doing more research over the winter.
