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I am just about finished restoring a Sidekick Sidecar that I attached to my '75 Wing.

Items remaining:
- Tonneau cover from a local auto upholstry shop (any day now).
- EdgeLok trim
- Wire up the sidecar's tail light.

I spent most of this year working on the sidecar intermittently. First the frame had to be cleaned up and reinforced. The wire wheel was rebuilt by Buchannan. Then I had to come to terms with how to attach and align the sidecar chassis. The struts and clevises are from Motorvation. A local shop fabricated two clevis adapters. Along the way I also came to terms with how to work with fiberglass for some sidecar body repairs. The paint is a rattle can job that turned out much better than I expected. The seat came from BassPro on sale. I restored the bike last winter. It rides and handles very well.

Nice! Practice a lot before you go into busy places...it is waaaaaay different driving a rig...

Very cool.. You guys with side cars best stop showing them , I just might catch the bug.

Greg.

i think i'm catching it as well

Practice a lot before you go into busy places...it is waaaaaay different driving a rig...

It certainly is. I had a serious pucker moment the first time I made a right hand turn. Then I saw the light. I read the "Driving a Sidecar Outfit" book several times and have practiced with just the sidecar chassis attached and a sandbag for ballast for the past couple of months. I have developed a pretty good feel for the rig and turns and maneuvers have become very natural. I managed to get the alignment right and the rig tracks straight. The sidecar wheel is a bit farther forward than I would have liked so I get some tire scuffing on turns. I also added a VW steering stabilizer between the fork and a strut to tame some shaking on irregular road surfaces.

I do all I can to keep the shiny side up

I ended up taking some lead out of my old sailboat and casting a plate that fits under the seat for additional ballast. It has done wonders for my confidence level riding...

I had a 3/8 steel plate welded to the tubular chassis to add ballast and reinforcement. It added about 80 lbs of weight. The sandbag I mentioned previously was to simulate the weight of the sidecar body - which is actually only about 10 - 15 lbs including the seat.

Nice outfit.

Nice! Do you know what the whole sidecar, chassis, body and link arms weighs?

I think mine is between 70 and 100 kg, but I'm intending to put a car battery in the boot to help keep it on the ground.

wow, that sidecar wheel is a long way forward, sort of like a calif car. Stable in the staright, but sire makes turing harder. although it is fairly close to the bike which will make turning easier.... and easier to fly the chair.

sidecars are always so many comprimizes

From what I've read, Harley rigs have the sidecar wheel level with the rear bike wheel, but they are in a club of one.

Normally the chair wheel is 8 to 12" ahead of the bike rear, am I right?

you are right that the HD (and the chang and urals) are equal. Usually the wheel is somewhere around 8 to 15 or so. The California car I had was more like 20" (or more-it was a lot of years ago). I actually had Calif car make me a couple of "offsets" for the lower mounts and moved it back 4". the further forward, the more you fight that wheel in a turn (especially right hand turns). the further back, the more likely the car "tips" toward the non existant front right wheel.

Also, the closeness of the sidecar wheel to the bike makes it easier to turn in general, but sure makes it easier to "fly" the chair.

Hah! Yeah....I hadn't thought of the 'tipping' aspect!

The sidecar wheel is a lot forward of the bikes rear wheel. I don't recall the exact measurement at the moment. It results in a lot of tire scuffing in turns. I wish it was farther back but the mounting points on the sidecar chassis do not allow that. I will probably be looking for a different sidecar sometime next year, something that allows mounting farther back.

The overall weight of the sidecar, including chassis, body, struts, etc, is probably in the 65 - 70 KG range. I have honed my riding skills and rarely lift the wheel on right turns.