Why do I ride a sidecar outfit?

[Steptoe]

and then there is riding them

g,day Fred, that should've made 'em sit down & think.
pretty good starting ground measures to start from.

get all that set up & wet weather is an absolute blast, & and mountain ranges take on a whole new dimension.

In the corners, lift the chair up, you've got mum on the back shaking her head [you just know she is] and you have the kids in the chair looking @ you when it lands with a bump, rolling their eyes, & of course a huge smile on the face. [only lifting it 4" or 5 "] it just something you've got to try to realise how much fun they can be.

MIND YOU IF RIDDEN WRONG OR TAKEN LIGHTLY THEY ARE A MACHINE TO BE RECKONED WITH and will make you pay

[fredintoon]

It ain't a bike no more, it only looks like one.

Steptoe's post reminds me to write this one. It's important.
Remember as a kid how difficult it was to learn to ride a bike?
That's because you were transitioning off your tricycle and whichever parent or caregiver was running behind the bike holding the seat did not know that tricycles do NOT countersteer and that bicycles MUST countersteer. Not that technical jargon would mean much to the average 6 year old but saying that a bike steers backwards to a trike may have helped the tyke to understand things.
So, you are an adult now and have many miles of solo motorcycle experience and are about to take the first ride ever on your sidecar rig. Start it up, pull away, need to go right, give the bars that instinctive leftward twitch that would have leaned a solo bike right to turn right and the rig turns left instead. Hopefully not to bury itself into the radiator of an oncoming Kenworth. Like the headline sez, it ain't a bike no more, it only looks like one. A sidecar rig does not steer like a solo bike. It steers like a quad or a snowmobile and a lopsided one at that.
There are sidecar riding courses to take; good luck finding one in your area. What you should also do is very carefully ride your rig to a big empty car park and do figure 8s and donuts. Start slow and make a right-hand circle. Tighten the circle until the sidecar wheel lifts a bit. See how tightening the curve lifts it further while opening the curve drops it down. Learn how to controllably do this and more importantly how not to do this. You can steer with the throttle, too. Especially with an XS11's horsepower. Go straight and crack the throttle open and the rig will pull right. Slam the throttle shut and the rig will pull left. Use the rig's lopsided dynamics rather than fighting them. Enter left turns at highway speed and roll the power off to make the turn. Slow down before reaching a right turn and accelerate round it. If the right turn is new to you, slow way down in case it unexpectedly tightens up. Practice-Practice-Practice-Practice!
A final social note, referring to your wife as "the ballast" may be accurate but will not improve the relationship.
If you reallywant to sour things between you, refer to her as "the monkey"

[fredintoon]

The last word

The above posts try to show that anyone with ordinary mechanical ability and a modest amount of equipment can attach a sidecar to an XS11 and have the rig operate successfully and safely.
One last photo



THE END

[fly]

good job Fred

Fred, great pics. those are some good lookig mounts. excellant summary on sidecar handling. the track on my 78 xs11/hitchhiker rig is 49 1/2 in.
fly United Side Car Association midwest director

[fredintoon]

Oops!

I guess Mr Stupid should not have rearranged his photobucket site, eh?
I will try reinserting them all here:-

[MaximPhil]

Hi Fred,
While I have no intention of getting a side car I have enjoyed your series of posts and pics. You have obviously had a lot of pleasure designing and building yours. Having just XS on the licence plate is cool too.
Thanks
Phil

[CatatonicBug]

Fred - What're the things that look like a parking brake handle and foot pedal mounted to the bike-side of the black box in the center of the space between the bike and the sidecar? Right along the 10 o'clock position in this picture:

[fredintoon]

Fred - What're the things that look like a parking brake handle and foot pedal mounted to the bike-side of the black box in the center of the space between the bike and the sidecar? - - -

Hi 'Bug,
they are exactly that.
The sidecar's wheel & hub were salvaged from the back of an early Honda Civic.
The backwards-mounted XS650 pedal and m/c works the s/c's ex-Honda drum brake.
The salvaged Toyota parking brake handle & cable works the mechanical parking brake mechanism in the Honda hydraulic drum brake.
The black box is a Canadian Tire marine battery cover that keeps the rain (and dropped wrenches) off the 550CCA car battery that'll take you 100 miles after your alternator dies and a fair distance further if you unplug the headlight.

[saddo]

Fantastic engineering in those rigs.

[fredintoon]

Fantastic engineering in those rigs.

Hi Saddo,
well, I had fun with it, anyhow.
Which way are you going with your trike project?
Easiest route would be a foretrike, XS11 with the forks off, front running gear off a Hillman Imp and two lengths of RHS aught to do it.

[saddo]

Trike

Fred,

I'm using both centre hub steering and rear axle off a Reliant Robin three wheeler. The axle will be live using five links and a pair of coil-overs.

I've got all the components, just need to glue them together now!

I'll put pics on my website as it gets going.

[fredintoon]

For the want of a nail - - -

- - - and we all know the rest of that cautionary tale.
Well, the 2 year old patch job on the XS11's exhaust finally let go and it needs to be rewelded for sure and replacement mufflers considered too.
Hopefully the Red Deer Swap Meet will yield good bargain mufflers.
The welding will take perhaps an hour.
But first, the exhaust system has to be removed.
But it can't come off because the sidecar attachments are in the way.
So first, the sidecar had to be detached. There's the morning gone.
Then the attachments had to be removed. Got that done by the afternoon coffee break.
Meanwhile the exhaust fasteners have been soaking in penetrating oil since the job started.
5 inside-out nuts came off and 3 studs unthreaded from the head. Yay for Gunk penetrating oil!
#3 & #4 exhausts then fell off as the crack goes all the way round on that side.
The rest is still hanging there, fasteners still soaking.
Stop playing bike, get cleaned up, walk the dog and cook supper.
After supper my beloved needed to go to Canadian Tire so I tagged along to get a length of exhaust pipe to weld into the bike's system.
Tomorrow the rest of the exhaust comes off and gets the weld treatment.
But, you ask, WTF has all this got to do with a sidecar attachment string?
After I completed the XS750 rig I realized that my work on the XS11 rig had way too many angles, corners and swivelly bits in it.
But there it was, completed and working.
But now the chair is off I can get at all those things and do a neat and elegant re-design.
BTW, I LOVE air tools! Brrrrrrrrrp, whizzzzzzzz and bring on the next fastener.
Pictures to follow.

[xs11jack]

First, let me congratute you on a fine piece of engineering, and secondly I have never driven or road in a sidecar rig so this might a dumb question, but I thought the car would be closer to the bike, yours and your son's seem to be a couple or 3 feet away from the bike. How come?
Ole Jack

[fredintoon]

- - - I thought the car would be closer to the bike, yours and your son's seem to be a couple or 3 feet away from the bike. How come?
Ole Jack

Hi Jack,
Stability. The wider the track is, the more righting moment the sidecar's weight has. My extremely used sidecar came with no attachments at all and these days you gotta build your own. But OTOH, these days you can look things up on the 'net. The (now defunct) California Friendship 1 site said the minimum track for the CF1 should be 54" so that's what I built.
I stuck with 54" on the XS750 rig because the Spirit Eagle sidecar is somewhat lighter than my own American Spirit
and needed even more righting moment.
That and so it'll also fit on my custom trailer.