Australian sidecars - happy & sad tales.

[TouringDave]

What say we (Melbourne-ites) all get together one day for meet and greet?

Just gimme a couple of weeks to get the Strom back on 3 wheels

[Precis]

Sidecars don't need to be three-wheeled cars:

[Precis]

can be ridden with screen closed or open:

["A"]

Originally Posted by Adrian V

There have been a some minor issues and there were a few whispers as it doesn't have a full sub frame, but it's been together since the mid /late 90's and shows no signs of falling to bits yet.

I posted on the hacks forum asking questions about what I had bought and was relieved to hear that Phyllis knew of it and may have had a hand in it's construction. The consensus was just ride the thing....so I am

So Adrian,
What's the go with the trip to Jerramungup to pick the brain of a known "Chair" guru who resides there?

[Clancy]

This could be fun

[Doonie]

There are a lot of guys on this forum who ride and build sidecars. They don't all follow the same criteria and that's a good thing. As yet, sidecars are a black art, and the truly good handling ones are coveted and not spoken about a lot. There are some piles of shit out there, more than the good ones. Some of these are commercially built and they stick to the, "that's the way we always make them" theory, which is a bullshit way to go. Some are based on science, good engineering, experience and a lot of thought.

So far, there is not a lot of Government interference, but this will not always be the case.

There is an undercurrent of thought that perhaps the people who most enjoy sidecars ought to think about jumping the gun and doing some kind of self regulating thing in order to banish thoughtless, slam it together in a back shed sidecars which will kill.

There is also an undercurrent of thought that there should be some kind of schooling to teach people how to ride a sidecar.

Personally, I agree with both of those schools of thought.

Doon.

[mcfear]

whats the advantage of the front end like this picture below compared to normal forks?

hytram hope you dont mind me using the photo

[AL-58]

Originally Posted by mcfear

whats the advantage of the front end like this picture below compared to normal forks?

hytram hope you dont mind me using the photo

Less trail means lighter steering.

Al

[TspeED3]

New here, but have already seen a few familiar faces.



Bought this as is abit over a year ago. Caused me plenty of grief in that time but that is more due to the clusterf@#k that is the ACT government than the fault of the outfit itself.

As can be seen, 1 1/2 HRD chair and CB1300 Tug. The leading link was done (by SRK) right before I bought it from the previous owner. The previous owner bought it from the guy who put it together.

Somewhere between it leaving SRK and me finally getting it legal in the ACT "something" happened with the front end and it wasand evil handling head shaking bastard of a thing - a baptist Minister friend of mine christened it the Devilbike and given his vocation I figured he knew about these things.

Now given that this is the only sidecar I have ever ridden and from the reading I had done and the few people I had found to speak to, I just thought that it was close to normal -not perfect but it sounded like most sidecars weren't perfect. ... Right up to the night it snapped the steering damper mount.

So after fixing that and trying to talk to more people (including Sean at SRK) I took it back up to Bathurst ostensibly to have seat belts put in the chair but I also wanted Them to have a look at the front end.

To their absolute credit, Sean took it for one brief ride and then completely rebuilt the front end under warranty even though I had not been the original customer. My one reservation was that I couldn't find out exactly what was wrong in the geometry of the front end - whether that was SRK keeping things close to their chest or them not thinking I would understand or whatever else I am not sure. But overall I was very impressed with their response to the situation once they realised what it was really like (as opposed to a green chair-rider telling them stuff over the phone).

I am pretty sure that it is now handling quite well, someone else that has ridden a couple of others but is not exactly hugely experience has said it is fairly confidence inspiring. But I still have nothing to compare it to and it seems to chew front tyres (admittedly I do tend to ride it rather ...uummm...enthusiastically, at times). Maybe too much lead on the chair wheel?

So far it is used mainly as a way that I can do the school run without degrading myself with a bloody c@r. Strangely my boy is not the only kid in his class that gets dropped off in a sidecar! and not even the only 1.5 HRD.

anyway that will do for now.

[AL-58]

Originally Posted by Hytram

I have a 91 GSX1100G with a double chair on it

Remember Marty?

[TspeED3]

Originally Posted by mcfear

whats the advantage of the front end like this picture below compared to normal forks?

Ask your Dad!

[mcfear]

i would ask dad but he is in WA at the moment. how do you know dad anyway

[TspeED3]

Originally Posted by mcfear

i would ask dad but he is in WA at the moment. how do you know dad anyway

aka Tsp3 FR#198

[RoadBandit]

bloody hell McFear... we know all about you

Be welcome in the house Ed .... nice chair too

[AL-58]

Started with a K100RT/HRD 1.5 in '94:


After a while the sidecar came off and the bike did solo duty for a while.
eventually got another sidecar and subframe and rebuilt it into this:


After a few years the bike got tired, I replaced the bike with a 16v K100RS and fitted a leading link and 15" front wheel. It looked like this:

That took us around Australia with a camper trailer, total weight 880kg with me and the dog. We sold the outfit and another bike and I got my TDM900.

Then a few years later someone sends me an email about a cheap K100RS outfit on the south coast:

It had a leading link when I bought it, but it was poorly engineered and snapped off one day.

A couple of years ago I got the opportunity to buy a K100 outfit built by Leigh Hollamby, it was sound but shabby. I bought it and between that and my existing outfit built this:

It might not look a lot different, but with the LH subframe, wheels etc its a much better bike to ride. I widened the LH chassis to take the HRD body. The leftover parts were assebled as a running bike/sidecar and sold to an inmate as a project.

Al