I agree with the abundance of trikes. They seem to be everywhere now and kind of have a "GeezerGlide" connotation to them. On the otherhand, there is just something unique about a sidecar rig. They seem to bring a smile to everyone who sees them and everyone wants to go for a ride.

I guess the trikes will handle better (around right hand turns anyway, left handers are a blast in a hack) but the side car is just a ton of fun. More storage space too. I'm building a custom box that will interchange with the car body so I an have a "truck" for carrying larger items.

 

Harleybass that is a good lookin sidecar rig you have there. Hope you are enjoying it.

Ronnie

 

send me an e-mail and I'll send you some nice photos of Heritage Trikes

 

pretty much nailed it .

 

I am. Starting to feel a little easier on it.

 

I just had Hannigan install their Hannigan Sidecar (Classic Twin) on our 2011 FLHTC. I have four years previous experience with sidecars (Ural).

First of all, depending on the sidecar and bike, your MPG will drop dramatically. I went from 44 MPG to 25 MPG. A whopping 40% drop. I was not prepared for that. I have read where guys claim much smaller MPG drops--I no longer buy it. They must not know how to properly calculate MPG. The weight, drag, etc is just too much to not affect MPG significantly.

Steering whether the sidecar is setup right or not is very heavy. I am a strong 6'2" guy and I find it a struggle. They sell triple trees that reduce the effort by 60% but then you CANNOT ride the rig without the sidecar. Period.

Wind buffeting coming off the sidecar can be very annoying at speed.

They are fun around town but I found our first trip (ride home from Hannigans) of 450 miles (one day) was not a lot of fun. The wind buffeting, the gas mileage, the heavy steering, not being able to out run the semi trucks, all led to a tedious ride. The day before when we rode the 450 miles down to Hannigans, we both said it was the best ride ever.

Never buy a sidecar without first testing the rig. It is a high effort affair. On the plus side, we rode the next evening and got caught in a rainstorm on a road covered with slime and mud from the adjacent road construction. Would have been hairy on two wheels.

So jury is still out on whether we are happy or not. Wife loves the sidecar, but it took 80% of the fun out of the ride for me. And if motorcycles are not fun, they have no use.

Jack

 

How about a pic of the truck when you get it finished? Be careful of the left handers, the rear tire of the bike will come up and the nose of the hack will go to ground.

 

I have trikes, hack, and 2 wheeler(see sig.). The trike is easier to ride as others have commented, feels safer also. The hack when properly adjusted will not wear your arms/sholders out, and is a blast to ride, seems most everbody likes to see a hack. one other thing is that the rear tire on the bike will wear out faster with the hack on it. good luck on your choice.

 

I am fond of both hacks and trikes. I took an MSF hack driving and riding course. I chose to go with trikes because of the body siting in the center of the 3 wheel triangle, thus having your body in the center of bike for gravitational purposes. We were taught that hack riding is very much different since your body stradles the bike and is not centered in the middle of the 3 wheel configuration. In fact, the hack wheel is staggered between the distance of the front and rear motorcycle wheel. On a hack, you might often need to get your butt off of the seat and lean to help take curves. Our instructor wore a cap that stated "get your a$$ off of the seat". In fact, we were taught that it is very common to lift the hack wheel off of the ground if you take a sharp curve. We even had to practice riding our hack rigs through a large parking lot and riding the entire distance with the hack wheel raised about 15 inches off the ground. The idea of the exercise is to get you used to the idea that one day you will take a curve or evasive action causing you to lift the hack wheel and possibly the rider in the air. You need to know how not to panic and safely sit the hack back on the ground without causing an accident. If you are handicapped and have leg problems that might be an issue for riding a hack. I would definitely talk to a serious hack rider if you are thinking of converting to a hack...which I dearly like. That is my opinion and hope it helps.