For the folks who've asked to see my sidecar rig.
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03-16-2007, 01:41 AM
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RE: For the folks who've asked to see my sidecar rig.
Answers to the questions in the post,
No, it is not a H-D Sidecar. H-D has in external framework, mine is internal.
My hack is made by a company called Motorvation, Inc. out of Shelby Iowa. www.motorvation.com
This particular model is called the Spyder, but they have others. I liked the old school look of the Spyder. Everything (the bracketry) came already chromed.
The cost of the H-D hack is around $7500, this one cost me $5500 - and the H-D dealer wanted 1000 just to put their's on the RK Classic. My son, who is a H-D certified mechanic put mine on for me. Took him about 4 hours. Lots of aligning, truing, etc while trying not to scratch up the custom paint job. For his help, I bought him a air lift for his shop that he runs on the side. (Would have bought him one anyway, but he didin't know that.) The money the wife and I set aside for college, he used to pay for his Harley schooling. It has paid off several times already.
Motorvation said they would custom paint it to exactly to match the Cobalt Blue / Silver of my RK, if I would send them the gas tank from the bike. Again my son took off the tank, we wrapped it up, packed it up, Insured it for $1000 and let UPS take it to Motorvation. I was very pleased with the paint job.
It comes with a wrap-around windshield, which I took off. It made it more aerodynamic.
On the back is a lockable trunk, which can be made into a gas tank. I have the trunk. It can come with a brake. I declined the break because I am a right leg amputee way up above the knee. Since I can't work the foot brake, I saw no reason to have the sidecar brake.
As for tracking, yeah the hack has to be aligned so that it is toed very slightly into the bike and the bike itself has a slight lean to the left. All to make it track true and not pull to the right. Making a right turn is fun because, once you get used to it, you can lift the side car as you aggressively go into a right hand turn. First time it happened, it scared the crap out of me, but now I sometimes lift it just for the heck of it.
If you look hard you can see a shock absorber attached to the right side on the front wheel (on the bottom of the fork). This prevents front wheel shimmy at low speeds. High speeds are never a problem. I can cruise easliy at 75 - 80 mph, with no problems at all.
The hack gives you unbeleivable stabilty on a wet or gravel road. The Southern Cruisers and I went to on a dinner ride and about 1/4 of the restaurant's driveway was gravel. While the two wheelers had to be careful, I just charged right on ahead.
Well, I think I've responded to all the questions in the thread. Any more, let me know.
Bobby
No, it is not a H-D Sidecar. H-D has in external framework, mine is internal.
My hack is made by a company called Motorvation, Inc. out of Shelby Iowa. www.motorvation.com
This particular model is called the Spyder, but they have others. I liked the old school look of the Spyder. Everything (the bracketry) came already chromed.
The cost of the H-D hack is around $7500, this one cost me $5500 - and the H-D dealer wanted 1000 just to put their's on the RK Classic. My son, who is a H-D certified mechanic put mine on for me. Took him about 4 hours. Lots of aligning, truing, etc while trying not to scratch up the custom paint job. For his help, I bought him a air lift for his shop that he runs on the side. (Would have bought him one anyway, but he didin't know that.) The money the wife and I set aside for college, he used to pay for his Harley schooling. It has paid off several times already.
Motorvation said they would custom paint it to exactly to match the Cobalt Blue / Silver of my RK, if I would send them the gas tank from the bike. Again my son took off the tank, we wrapped it up, packed it up, Insured it for $1000 and let UPS take it to Motorvation. I was very pleased with the paint job.
It comes with a wrap-around windshield, which I took off. It made it more aerodynamic.
On the back is a lockable trunk, which can be made into a gas tank. I have the trunk. It can come with a brake. I declined the break because I am a right leg amputee way up above the knee. Since I can't work the foot brake, I saw no reason to have the sidecar brake.
As for tracking, yeah the hack has to be aligned so that it is toed very slightly into the bike and the bike itself has a slight lean to the left. All to make it track true and not pull to the right. Making a right turn is fun because, once you get used to it, you can lift the side car as you aggressively go into a right hand turn. First time it happened, it scared the crap out of me, but now I sometimes lift it just for the heck of it.
If you look hard you can see a shock absorber attached to the right side on the front wheel (on the bottom of the fork). This prevents front wheel shimmy at low speeds. High speeds are never a problem. I can cruise easliy at 75 - 80 mph, with no problems at all.
The hack gives you unbeleivable stabilty on a wet or gravel road. The Southern Cruisers and I went to on a dinner ride and about 1/4 of the restaurant's driveway was gravel. While the two wheelers had to be careful, I just charged right on ahead.
Well, I think I've responded to all the questions in the thread. Any more, let me know.
Bobby
