Basic Sidecar Installation & Alignment
First the disclaimer!!! Since sidecars and motorcycles come in such
incredible variety I can only offer a very general guide to mounting.
This info is based on my own experience and others surely have different
ideas just as good or better. I am only trying to help!
Remember side car riding is potentially dangerous. Sloppy work at
installation time and not knowing how to drive a rig are the BIG hazards!
Read the whole darn thing before starting please!!
Tools/Resources Needed
The ability to follow the directions well, don't call asking me why you are
failing when you have made a bunch of changes on your own such as not using the
recommended dolly and using a bike lift instead. I am getting sooooo tired of
that!!!!
- The self training manual, "Driving a Sidecar Outfit", available through
Whitehorse Press,
phone: 1.800.531.1133
- Some way to securely hold the bike almost straight up, leaning out (away
from the sidecar) about 1/3 to 1/2 a bubble on a small level held against the
rear brake rotor.
- A sidecar dolly. Furniture dollies that have 4 castor wheels work real
fine for this. Most major hardware stores sell them. Get the longest one! The idea is that you put
scraps of plywood and 2x4's on top of this to block up to the bottom of the
sidecar frame. It is important that the sidecar frame be level when viewed
from the front or rear, when viewed from the side it can either nose up or
down, no biggie .
Be sure the sidecar tire is still touching the floor and bearing some weight!
Once the dolly is shimmed so the hack chassis level clamp the chassis to the
dolly using plumbers strap and drywall screws, or some such. This will allow
you to repeatedly roll it up to and away from the bike, for you shall do this
often!
- Two 8 ft. straightedges. Light ones work far better than heavy ones, I use
two 8' aluminum 'C' channels.
General Sidecar Installation
First things first! Your battle plan, easiest sequence of doing this job.
Uncrate the hack, remove the body and set it aside, trust me you'll thank for
that advice! Go ahead mock up the bike and hack chassis as described above.
- Breath !
- Be sure your bike and sidecar tires are fully inflated to max acceptable
pressure. Set the bike's rear shocks at full stiff on their adjusters. If you
have air front forks, air up to max.
- Be sure and set up on a nice, flat concrete floor, ideally where you can stand back
and eyeball the outfit from the rear.
- This job works best if you have 2 patient people with some skill with
wrenches. Don't be in a hurry! Take breaks! Play nice together!
- Use the supplied info to mock up the sidecar and bike with the sidecar's
axle form 8-10 inches forward of the bike's rear axle. This is called wheel
lead in sidecar speak. Eyeballing this mess should give you an idea where
the sidecar mounts need to be located on the bike. You now know where your
mounts need to be attached on the bike, do this now with the sidecar moved out
of the way. Leave the frame clamp mounts a bit loose because you will need to
swivel them some so that they line up with their matching mount points on the
sidecar frame. Any "hard point", solid fabbed mounts can be tightened up.
- Bring the sidecar and bike together, pivot, push, pull, and generally
wrestle with the mounts until you can bold them up and maintain an acceptable
wheel lead. Now is the time to tighten those frame clamps now that you know
how they need to be oriented, keeping the bike and sidecar sitting the way we
need them, not all catty-wompus!
- Check toe in (see below). If this is off, as
it will likely be, play with the adjustment in the arms and recheck until it
is right. If it's good, tighten everything with great vigor and attach about
75lb of ballast to the sidecar chassis and go for a test ride. I bolt three 25
lb. barbell weights to a body mount point, ideally in the rear. Steering
should be neutral, no ever-present pull to either direction.
- If it's easy to drive then life is good! Finish up by putting the body on
and checking all your bolts for tightness again.
Toe-In Measurement
This is a rather involved operation, so it merits its own section!
You are actually using the rear tire of the bike as the centerline of the
bike. This is because the rear is 'fixed' in alignment with the frame and is
usually wider than the front tire. You use 4x4 blocks to get your straightedges
up off the floor a bit. This helps when you gently press the straightedges up
against the outside rear tire bead. The front end of the bike needs to be
straight, you should have equal distances from the straightedge to the tire
bead--eyeball is good enough, don't go nuts measuring this. You put your other
straightedge up on its blocks out on the sidecar side and press it snug up
against the sidecar tire's outer bead.
Now! You measure the distance from the outside to outside of your
straightedges just in front of the bike's front tire, and just to the rear of
the bike's rear tire. This is measuring your toe-in within the length of the
bike. This spec varies but as a general guide for lighter sidecars approximately
3/8 to 5/8 inch is good--big double wide rigs can need as much as 1.5 to 2
inches. This number arrived at is from the front end measurement being 'X' inch less than the rear
measurement, making the sidecar wheel toed into the bike. A little too much
toe-in isn't the end of the world, not enough is a very bad thing. Wobble,
wobble, wobble, fear and loathing!
Note: ! After you make adjustments to the mounting arms to change your toe-in
you need to lift the sidecar wheel a tad a let it bounce back to the ground. The
idea is loosen the tires grip from the shop floor so your next measurement will
reflect accurately the change you made.
Measuring for toe in at the rear, this must be the large
measurement, the sidecar wheel must be 'toed in' towards the front wheel of the
bike.
Straight edge placement for the rear tire, snug against the
tire bead with the straight edge up off the floor . For our
purpose the rear tire centerline is the centerline of the bike.
Straight edge placement for front toe in measurement.
See above text to explain the gap.
Measuring the front end for toe in , this number must be
smaller than the one for the rear, hence toeing in the sidecar tire towards the
front of the bike .
©2003 The Wark Shop
Mounting Hardware
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