side car subframe

Scripto VU

Dukes Speed and Custom
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i have a nos easyrider side car, i need tips and pics of subframe mounts and ideas help !

Thanks, long winter in CT
 
Our local Cozy sidecar dealer can order the sidecar mounting kit.. various threaded rods, clamps, steering damper.. etc etc. Have no idea as to $ ? On the web there are several sites that friends have used to align the car to their bike.
I pick'd up a sidecar rig a couple years ago... They'r scary the first 200 miles.
 
i have a nos easyrider side car, i need tips and pics of subframe mounts and ideas help !
Thanks, long winter in CT

Hi dana,
remember that it ain't a bike no more, it only looks like one. A sidecar rig handles like a lopsided tricycle.
I built my subframe to be integrated into the bike's front engine mount at the front and plug into the centrestand mounts at the back P1020100.JPG P1020099.JPG P1020101.JPG P1020102.JPG P1020102.JPG
 
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thank you, going to try to duplicate a gordon scott design, similar to yours !
 
Like Fred said, with a sidecar the bike is no longer a motorcycle. I read part of the popular little pamphlet about safety when riding a sidecar rig. This is nothing like you have ever ridden/driven. The wrong maneuvers that can be easily made.......scared the hell out of me. Then I heard a horrible story of a couples first and fatal ride with a sidecar. The simple, low speed, maneuver that can totally flip the thing upside down, I just couldn't understand the forces at work to do such a thing. So, I quickly decided that this strange vehicle with it's strange ways was not for me.

Scott
 
Like Fred said, with a sidecar the bike is no longer a motorcycle. I read part of the popular little pamphlet about safety when riding a sidecar rig. This is nothing like you have ever ridden/driven. The wrong maneuvers that can be easily made.......scared the hell out of me. Then I heard a horrible story of a couples first and fatal ride with a sidecar. The simple, low speed, maneuver that can totally flip the thing upside down, I just couldn't understand the forces at work to do such a thing. So, I quickly decided that this strange vehicle with it's strange ways was not for me.
Scott

Hi Scott,
I bought my first sidecar when I was 22 years old so I could take my girlfriend to dances while she was already dressed up
rather than have her change out of her riding gear in the dance hall's women's washroom.
The seller gave me my first and only formal sidecar operating lesson:- "Watch it Kid, these things handle funny."
Got the rig most of the way home before I forgot to "watch it"
Only a sturdy iron railing stopped me and the rig from diving 30 feet down into the river Avon's low tide mudbank.
We rode the sidecar to a dance that evening, I only limped a little bit.
So yes, "they handles funny"
Mostly a rig don't lean over so it can't countersteer which means that the solo bike's "twitch the bars left to start
turning right" manouver will start a rig turning left which will divert a tyro's rig into oncoming traffic.
The rest is in USING a rig's non-symmetrical handling (braking turns left, acceleration turns right) rather than fighting them
And APPRECIATING not falling down when riding on slippery surfaces.
 
"Watch it Kid, these things handle funny."...

Absolute ditto.

Preplan any right turns. You can't lean right, and any decel/braking in a right turn can get you in trouble. A committed right turn, with too much speed, and you'll either flip, or *bonk* into what you're trying to avoid on the left. Common practice is to carry some ballast (bags of concrete) in the sidecar...
 
Absolute ditto.
Preplan any right turns. You can't lean right, and any decel/braking in a right turn can get you in trouble. A committed right turn, with too much speed, and you'll either flip, or *bonk* into what you're trying to avoid on the left. Common practice is to carry some ballast (bags of concrete) in the sidecar...

Hi 2Many,
situational awareness is always your friend.
How could I have forgotten about Almonsbury Tump when that Iron Age Hill Fort had been there for ~4,000 years, eh?
And more importantly, how could I have forgotten that the local road made a tight 120º curve around the effin' thing?
Came out of that curve flat out in 3rd sitting on the sidecar atop of my fiancée.
Amazing how having the sidecar wheel lift an inch or two off the road feels like the sidecar is tilted up at 45º.
Ballast is good at first. Perhaps always good if your sidecar is too light for it's tug.
You name it, folks have tried it. Sidecar frames filled with lead shot, steel or concrete slabs bolted to the sidecar frame under the body,
Gerry cans full of water or full of gasoline (you can dump the one and pour the other in your gas tank) Groceries, luggage or your overweight auntie.
 
My sidecar fender.... since I hated the stock turn signal and tail light.... so I scored a pair of 37' Chevy repop t-lights and a small headlight. Cut a hole, weld'd headlight in place... H/light and t/light bodies will be painted black.

Hi Mike,
nice fender. How about photos of the sidecar and the bike, you ol' teaser?
Here's my XS650/Velorex rig:-
IMG_0023.JPG
 
Fred,
Do you have any experience/opinions on the leaning sidecar setups? I've always wondered about the transition when you're leaning into a curve and reach your lean limit. Now you have to transition to steering through the curve. That sounds..... scary. Thoughts?
 
.. my sidecar rig.. Not XS powered.. but I did make a " performance " improvement. :)
 
Compared to other bikes that have been deemed "suitable" for sidecars, the XS650 doesn't have this kind of power or weight or sturdy frame and front suspension. At a certain point the bike stops controlling the sidecar and the sidecar starts controlling the bike.

This reminds me of a rally I went to where a guy and his wife had a popup trailer hitched to their Harley, loaded with their most wanted possessions. They were leaving the area to move south. NO ONE at the rally had the balls to tell these people how crazy this was and that the heavy trailer would pull the bike off the road. The next year this rally was dedicated to taking a ride to this couples gravesite.

Scott
 
View attachment 111443
this is my sidecar frame, added tons of weight on outside corners. hope is works

Hi dana,
your sidecar looks to be a Spirit of America Spirit Eagle.
My son has one on his XS650 and doesn't feel the need to ballast the sidecar with weights attached to the sidecar frame as you have done.
Mind you, he's a lot more adventurous than I am. Me, I'd have ballasted that particular sidecar with a car battery behind it's seat.
Nothin' like 500+ Cold Cranking Amps to give an XS650 an easy electric start on a cold morning.
 
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