Motorcycle with Sidecar
Discussion
I was in the beer garden at a local pub a few months ago when a chap arrived on an ancient bike and sidecar with an ancient looking black lab in the sidecar. It was superb and the dog appeared to be loving it! I had a brief chat, the bike was a 1948 Ariel something or other his dad had bought new. It made my day and seen him out and about a few times since and always makes me smile!
The Moose said:
I know my lab would love it - he loves having his head out the window of the car!
Stick to the car, sidecars are s
t.You can't filter, you can't lean, you still get wet when it rains, you can't listen to the stereo, you can't turn up the heater, you can't park easily, you can't carry proper luggage.
The dog loves the wind in his hair?
Buy a convertible...
Rubin215 said:
The Moose said:
I know my lab would love it - he loves having his head out the window of the car!
Stick to the car, sidecars are st.You can't filter, you can't lean, you still get wet when it rains, you can't listen to the stereo, you can't turn up the heater, you can't park easily, you can't carry proper luggage.
The dog loves the wind in his hair?
Buy a convertible...
Had a couple of sidecar outfits, and rode several others years back. Actually found a couple of 1980s Jap bikes to be better behaved with a chair and with no loss of performance.
There really is nothing like them, anyone who compares them to a car or a solo bike is missing the point entirely and has probably never experienced one. If you enjoy learning a new skill and having to use that skill each time you go out they can be really rewarding. A lightweight chair on a heavy bike will behave in a hugely different manner to a heavy chair on a light bike. As will a trials chair, low slung sports chair, narrow outfit, wide outfit, leading links, braked or unbraked sidecar, etc.
Brilliant fun once you've atuned your brain to accelerating round the chair on lefthanders and allowing the chair to overtake the bike on righthanders. Got it wrong on my first outfit when I tried to slow on a lefthander, lifted the chair, had a panic and instead of opening the throttle I hit the brakes and ended up in the trees...
Mine also knocked out swing arm bushes, fork bushes and destroyed chains, but I was a bit of a hooligan back then and they got used for all sorts of fun.
There really is nothing like them, anyone who compares them to a car or a solo bike is missing the point entirely and has probably never experienced one. If you enjoy learning a new skill and having to use that skill each time you go out they can be really rewarding. A lightweight chair on a heavy bike will behave in a hugely different manner to a heavy chair on a light bike. As will a trials chair, low slung sports chair, narrow outfit, wide outfit, leading links, braked or unbraked sidecar, etc.
Brilliant fun once you've atuned your brain to accelerating round the chair on lefthanders and allowing the chair to overtake the bike on righthanders. Got it wrong on my first outfit when I tried to slow on a lefthander, lifted the chair, had a panic and instead of opening the throttle I hit the brakes and ended up in the trees...
Mine also knocked out swing arm bushes, fork bushes and destroyed chains, but I was a bit of a hooligan back then and they got used for all sorts of fun.
Edited by spoodler on Saturday 1st September 09:06
I do and unlike Rubin; I love it. In fact I said after the last outing on it last month it was the most fun day’s motorcycling I’ve ever had, but like everything it’s horses for courses!
The Enfield’s a heavy old thing and it’s really physical to ride, so you can hardly move your shoulders after a day of riding!
Like you, filtering isn’t a concern for me as I only ride it on backroads and for trundling about the countryside.
They also make everyone (apart from Rubin I suspect
) smile when they see one 
The Enfield’s a heavy old thing and it’s really physical to ride, so you can hardly move your shoulders after a day of riding!
Like you, filtering isn’t a concern for me as I only ride it on backroads and for trundling about the countryside.
They also make everyone (apart from Rubin I suspect
) smile when they see one creampuff said:
Does the steering become all messed up when you add a sidecar? i.e. you need to turn the handlebars in the direction you want to go rather than counter steering?
Don't know if that's serious or not, but as outfits are an alien device to many...Simply speaking you steer like a car - turn right, steer right etc. Having said that tho, depending on the weight and power of the outfit you can drift them on opposite lock.
My favourite set up, a Z750 with a Watsonian chassis and Velorex chair, was very easy to drift on opposite lock once you got it sliding. It would dig in and flip if you weren't fully commited tho'.
Generally, except at low speeds you do not really need to steer.
On left handers you accelerate past the chair so that the bike, which is taking a longer route than the chair, rides around the outside of the chair.
On right handers, you shut the throttle slightly, or touch the brakes and an unbraked chair will try and overtake the bike forcing it to turn right.
It's a bit of a balancing act tho' as too slow (or too fast) on a left hander will cause the chair to lift, and on a righthander the chair may just want to go straight on. There's a lot more to it than riding a bike (in some ways), but great fun when you get used to it.
Above applies to U.K. set up with chair on rider's left.
Edited by spoodler on Sunday 2nd September 12:19
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