Anyone ridden with a sidecar?
Discussion
I had a BSA A10 with a side car fitted in 1975... I kept the side car on for about one week after buying it... I could never sort the geometry out so when it came to corners it went everywhere except where I was trying to go, I even went through the neighbours hedge. And as you say it gave me no advantage in any shape or form...I got it to carry things as I had no car licence at the time ... silly purchase really.
I ride one regularly, but it’s a vintage one.
What era/speed/style are you looking at? Vintage outfits are literally bikes with sidecars attached. Later (classics) people went to smaller wheels on the bike to lower the centre of gravity a bit.
Modern outfits are far better engineered with leading link forks etc to aid with suspending the additional weight in a predictable way.
The 1928 Royal Enfield I ride is tremendously slow but is without doubt the most fun and smile inducing machine of any amount of wheels I’ve ever encountered!
What era/speed/style are you looking at? Vintage outfits are literally bikes with sidecars attached. Later (classics) people went to smaller wheels on the bike to lower the centre of gravity a bit.
Modern outfits are far better engineered with leading link forks etc to aid with suspending the additional weight in a predictable way.
The 1928 Royal Enfield I ride is tremendously slow but is without doubt the most fun and smile inducing machine of any amount of wheels I’ve ever encountered!
I've ridden a few, but not for years now, never actually owned one myself.
A Jawa 350 and fibreglass sidecar with four 20 litre jerrycans full of water in it was undoubtedly the slowest.
A BMW K100 with leading link front end was definitely the best, fastest and comfiest.
Worst was a Dnepr plot with the sidecar on the wrong side and twin wheel drive (bike and sidecar) owned by an asian tree-surgeon who used the car for carrying his kit (and also had a nice wee sideline in exotic herbs I now remember...).
You get into the habit of steering left as you slow down in a straight line so that the car doesn't try to overtake you (although you actually want this to happen on right handers).
For left handers you slow down in advance and then accelerate gently round the corner so the bike overtakes the sidecar.
Except none of this applies to a twin-drive wrong-sider.
I put the Dnepr in a ditch first time I rode it...
Honest answer is that sidecars are s
t; an anomaly, a throwback, a feature from a previous age where a young chap who got married and had a baby would bolt a sidecar to his Flat-Squirrel 250 sidevalve ditch pump because no one could afford a car.
Apart from sidecar racers of course; these blokes are fking mental...
A Jawa 350 and fibreglass sidecar with four 20 litre jerrycans full of water in it was undoubtedly the slowest.
A BMW K100 with leading link front end was definitely the best, fastest and comfiest.
Worst was a Dnepr plot with the sidecar on the wrong side and twin wheel drive (bike and sidecar) owned by an asian tree-surgeon who used the car for carrying his kit (and also had a nice wee sideline in exotic herbs I now remember...).
You get into the habit of steering left as you slow down in a straight line so that the car doesn't try to overtake you (although you actually want this to happen on right handers).
For left handers you slow down in advance and then accelerate gently round the corner so the bike overtakes the sidecar.
Except none of this applies to a twin-drive wrong-sider.
I put the Dnepr in a ditch first time I rode it...
Honest answer is that sidecars are s
t; an anomaly, a throwback, a feature from a previous age where a young chap who got married and had a baby would bolt a sidecar to his Flat-Squirrel 250 sidevalve ditch pump because no one could afford a car.Apart from sidecar racers of course; these blokes are f
king mental...Edited by Rubin215 QFSM on Monday 1st February 19:57
Edited by Rubin215 QFSM on Monday 1st February 19:59
I went to Merton tec in the 80's, they had a jawa 350 with a sidecar, one of our tasks was to get it running, I rode/drove it for about 50ft, the steering wobbled and when I first stopped I put both feet down and left them down when pulling off, never bothered again
Seen some in France that look cool, less of a sidecar bolted on more like the race one shown above
Seen some in France that look cool, less of a sidecar bolted on more like the race one shown above
On the flip side, one of the guys who drank in our local rode an outfit on L plates as back then you could have any capacity bike as an L rider on an outfit.
We eventually persuaded him to take his test so he could ride a solo his was a Z900
The day after he passed, he rode up to the pub and stopped at the lights in front on his now solo motorcycle and in front of about 10 of us sat outside having a pint, he, by habit, forgot to put his feet down with the inevitable result of us ambling over and lifting his bike up off him.
We eventually persuaded him to take his test so he could ride a solo his was a Z900
The day after he passed, he rode up to the pub and stopped at the lights in front on his now solo motorcycle and in front of about 10 of us sat outside having a pint, he, by habit, forgot to put his feet down with the inevitable result of us ambling over and lifting his bike up off him.
JohnnyJones said:
Friend of mine had aone of those sidewinders that were hinged, forgot about that, think it was on an XJ650
Gosh, yes, I forgot about them!My mate had a 350LC with 250 sidepanels that he rode about on L plates, when the learner laws changed he spent a fortune buying one of those instead of just passing his test!
I rode the bike a couple of times with it fitted and it really didn't make much difference to handling.
JohnnyJones said:
What's it like? I know the downside, it's like a trike you get stuck in traffic and get wet when it rains but how do they ride?
I've ridden a couple, back in the day when a Z1100 was my daily.I was left with the impression that they felt dangerous! I felt you had to steer with the handlebars (rather than lean) and that I was simply surviving rather than riding.
This was a very long time ago and maybe things have changed.
Sidecar Man said:
Red9zero said:
Fair play to her. What is her name. It's an amazing place.
They raced there a few times as well as club racing in the UK. I went to the TT with them once, I think my liver is still recovering. You are right though, it is amazing. The only thing I have been to that is comparable would be Le Mans.
Red9zero said:
At the time it was Gill Phillips, her husband was Vern.
They raced there a few times as well as club racing in the UK. I went to the TT with them once, I think my liver is still recovering. You are right though, it is amazing. The only thing I have been to that is comparable would be Le Mans.
Beat the magic 100mph in 97. AwesomeThey raced there a few times as well as club racing in the UK. I went to the TT with them once, I think my liver is still recovering. You are right though, it is amazing. The only thing I have been to that is comparable would be Le Mans.
https://www.iomtt.com/tt-database/events/races?mee...
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