sidecar anyone?

Seems to defeat the purpose of riding a bike. Why not get a little car, and just stick your head out the window?
 
Hi Guys,

Might as well dive in, I suppose. I've got thousands of miles on my '77"D" and sidecar--a real sidecar, not a car with a bike for power. I love sidecars, but I have to admit I'm not overly impressed by the example. I mean, I bet it was a huge project, and I admire the engineering, but I want a sidecar that looks and handles like a sidecar.......I guess that's pretty narrow, but that's how I feel.

As soon as I know how to post pictures here, I'll drop in a few shots of my baby......she's dirty, road-weary, not very pretty and I love her!

Anyway, real sidecars are a lot of fun. Different than two wheels, but kids love them, and OK, I'll admit it: they seem to be guy magnets.....

Barb
 
Barb, I see you figured out how to post pictures in another thread. Have any shots of how you have that side car mounted up to the XS?
 
Hi Travis,

Well, I don't have a digital camera, so I just have misc. shots that friends have taken. The chair is a 1965 Spirit of America, and had been mounted to a Harley, so I had to dummy up the mounts. The front top pretty much worked as is, and the bottom was made up of 1/4" steel formed to bolt to the adjuster on the chair and the front engine mount on the bike. The top rear bolts to twin mounts to take up the strain, and the bottom rear bolts to an extension of the passenger foot-peg mount. Sounds a lot more complicated than it is....I'll paw through my pictures and see if any actually show the mounts.

My only major issue is that after 6000 miles or so, I had to replace two spokes in the rear wheel. I hate replacing spokes....but it's small price to pay for having the chair.

I'll look for some more photos.

Barb
 
Hi Guys, truth is there is a change going on in the sidecar world. They have been thought of in the past for older people or those who can't hold up a bike on two wheels :shrug: But now some are being marketed and built for younger folk or the adventure type. "hi performance sidecars" with center hub steering and car tire's all the way around. With such a large contact patch of rubber on the road these rigs handle like they are on rails! It's all a matter of taste but I am excited to see these new inovations and plan on building a "hi perfomace" outfit of my own.

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...truth is there is a change going on in the sidecar world. They have been thought of in the past for older people or those who can't hold up a bike on two wheels :shrug: But now some are being marketed and built for younger folk or the adventure type...

- ive been watching this too...combine this with the social changes that are currently happening in the US and other lands and i see interesting future market prospects for sidecars and motorcycles-was discussing this several years ago with honda management, i bet if they reflected on those discussions now they would wish they'd reacted differently than they did :laugh:

- my points were
auto market saturation...US 246 million cars, 206 million licensed drivers​
80 percent now live in cities-in DC only 63 percent of households have a car​
inner city parking space will become more of a tradeable commodity​
air quality issues will increase inner city vehicle taxes​
economic uncertainty is reducing new car sales...this has been made worse by the cash for clunkers program which has basically destroyed future demand...on top of which cars now have a longer lifespan which will be made longer as owners repair rather than replace​
although the US has its highest teenage population ever, less teens are getting their license...this peaked in 1978 with 12 million teenage drivers, currently there are less than 10 million​
popn demographics indicate that as boomers retire they will downsize and reduce the number of autos they own, eventually to zero as they go into retirement homes​
peak oil coupled with rising developing-land oil demand will put gas beyond the reach of many​

- so, all in all there will be, i think, good prospects in the multipurpose motorcycle industry for those that push the barriers...also in locally sourced spare parts for autos
 
and yet, in some places (like here) "they" seem to be doing everything thing possible to discourage motorcycle ownership...

- i wonder how much of that is due to what went down between the angels and the rock machine
 
possibly, though they blame it on the "rising cost of insurance", basically, there's been a lot of people getting bikes they can't handle, from the young guys who buy a super bike as a first ride, to small 100lb women buying full sized harleys (and similar), and a lot of accidents as a result, and the downside of our system is that everyone ends up paying,

not to mention that the SAAQ haven't been managing their money very well and are nearly broke.
 
- insurance is a scam designed to turn a good profit...like politics they rely on the big lie and that most people dont inform themselves
...their own statistics here show that the percentage of accidents and injuries has actually fallen over the last 30 years-the age distribution has changed somewhat due to older men returning to riding-even though more people choose to ride
...60 percent of accidents are caused by other road users
...66 percent of motorcyclist deaths involve other vehicles and
...66 percent of fatalities occur in daylight
 
Hi Guys,

By now most of you know I love sidecars. I especially like the British chairs of the late 1930's, which were designed to be lugged around by Panthers, BSA singles---whatever: low-power, reliable engines. They were utilitarian transportation for a population fighting a Depression: sound familiar? Back then they had sport sidecars, but most were "family" units, and had big windshields and folding tops--or even hard-tops in some cases. They got better mileage than an Austin "7", and the insurance and license was lower.

Once we in the developed nations of the world admit that we are hogging (sorry, H-D lovers) a large percentage of a dwindling pool of gasoline, the price will go up. Mileage will become more important, and although the strides in automobile mileage have been interesting, I think that a properly designed bike/chair outfit will be able to top a car for mileage, just due to weight, if nothing else.

It seems to me that what we need is a "Model T" of the sidecar world. No frills, basic utility, the ability to remove the car and ride the bike on weekends if you want, and room to haul groceries, or whatever, at about 75 mpg, in town. It needn't go 100 mph, and it needn't look like it came out of Buck Rogers.....what it would have, I think, is a low price, low maintenance, good mileage and simplicity, so the owner can repair it.

Hmmm.......I'd buy stock in something like that....but then, maybe that's why I don't have any money....:doh:
 
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