Sidecars?

silverbear said:

Aaniimoosh the Wonder Dog took her first ride yesterday just up and down the driveway a few times. She was a little tense at first since it was a new deal and not like her kiddie trailer. Today we took the bike out for a real run of an hour and a half or so and for the first time she rode with the doggles I rigged up for her. She didn't try to get them off and got lots of waves and smiles from admirers (people on my lake like her and are used to seeing her behind the bike in a trailer).

Gotta say, what a hoot it was to ride along through the forest with her sitting on the floor of the canoe, looking out over the bow through her shaded doggles. At 20mph or so her ears had enough lift from the wind that they were like little wings. Ha! She sits pretty still, tall and intensely watching the passing forest for animals such as Little Johnnie Pissoff, the red squirrel who seems to be everywhere, dratted chippermonkeys, killer bunny rabbits and white tailed deer. My pleasure in riding just got elevated another notch. Nice to let off on the throttle to give my little biker babe a pat on the head. Good dog, Aaniimoosh!
SB

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Ha, Perfect!

fasteddy said:

Well, here's another chapter in the saga of the sidecar build.
Took it out for the first run today and what a nice ride it was as far as it went which was about two blocks. All the problems I worried about were there.

First the good. My eZee geared hub motor was perfect. Powerful and able to do the job.
Didn't have anything to compare the 36V/14 amp lithium polymer battery to but I'm delighted with the power that it gave the motor and I'm glad I bought it. Doing it again I would have a 48v motor and battery.

So what's wrong?
Mounting the power wheel on the sidecar was, as I feared, not a good idea. The immense power in the battery/wheel set up caused the wheel/sidecar to turn into the bike as it tried to move it and me down the road. That's almost 300 pounds. Pedaling to start helped and once we were moving what a great ride.

As it did this it pushed the bike over into a left leaning position to the point that it was hard to steer and would only come upright when the power was let up. If I had welded solid mounts to the frame there would not have been a problem with the bike tipping but being bolted and rubber mounted they were able to move.

I think that the wheel will need to be on the back and the problem will be solved. The front mounted motor may work but I can see a lot of stress on the forks as it tries to pull the rider and sidecar along.

As of tuesday morning I will be full out to make the problems go away. What is this hobby other than a set of challenges.

Steve.

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I know this is late Steve, but this is how to mount up a motorwheel on a bicycle sidecar outfit. I know it's a Briggs & Stratton motorwheel in the picture, but an electric hub motorwheel would mount up just the same.

Intrepid Wheelwoman said:

I know this is late Steve, but this is how to mount up a motorwheel on a bicycle sidecar outfit. I know it's a Briggs & Stratton motorwheel in the picture, but an electric hub motorwheel would mount up just the same.

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I wonder if technically that would be considered a four wheel vehicle in the states and thus a motorcar and illegal. I've never seen a Briggs motor like that. There was a Smith Motorwheel in the U.S. many years ago used, I believe, to power a bike without sidecar.
SB

The Smiths Motorwheel is essentially the same as the B&S Motorwheel as B&S bought out Smiths at a later date.

I hadn't considered the 4 wheels = motorcar problem with this setup Silverbear because the motorwheel isn't carrying any of the weight of the sidecar outfit and is removeable without affecting the stability of the vehicle in anyway. With a motorcar taking a wheel off makes it tip over on that corner so the 4 wheels are an essential fitment. With a sidecar the pusher wheel can be left at home and all is still well (apart from having to pedal that is).

IWW,
What you say makes perfect sense. Unfortunately our motor vehicle bureaucracy often engages in nonsense, so who knows what the state of Minnesota would say? I'll never find out, either, unless someone else tries it.

I'm with you on pedaling. No thanks. I'll often see a grim faced spandexer pedal by and think, "that guy needs a motor". I tend to smile a lot while riding, thanks to my motors. Pedaling til yer pants catch on fire is not my idea of a good time. Besides, I can't even if I wanted to.
SB

Thank you. That is an idea that I hadn't thought of and it's nice to see how they mounted the sidecar.
I finally went to a powered, geared, rear wheel from eZee and it works very well. The problem is we are limited to 3 wheels on the ground here in North America.

The extra wheel somehow magically turns it into a car and given the way electic scooters become electric bikes with the addition of a pair of usless pedals, the government has good reason to have that rule.

Thank you again for the wonderful idea. It may well turn up in an off road build.

Steve.

I should add that golf carts are legal in some states and can be licensed as low speed vehicles. In Canada we're not so lucky.

Steve.

I have posted photos of the mounting points and means of attachment for the 1950 American Flyer with sidecar...
http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=41458
...in posts three & four.
SB

And for bigger bikes .......................................

After a lot of thought as well as pleading, moaning, *****ing and general griping I've decided to convert the Monark and sidecar to a 48v midmotor. It is a 36v hub motor at the moment and since I'm asking it to move close to 400 pounds all together I'm just asking too much of it.

KCvale, another member here who builds gas and electric bikes for customers was asked to build an electric trike for someone and used a 36v midmotor from Sick Bike Parts in Duvall, Washington. He was more than pleased with the set up and his customer was thrilled with the trike so I decided to purchase one.
S.B.P no longer has the 36v controler for the Cyclone midmotors but has now gone to the 48 volt controller and from all accounts it will be more than enough to move us down the road at a comfortable speed.

What is a midmotor? It's an electric motor that clamps onto either the down tube or behind the lower seat tube, near the chain ring or the drive sprocket if you prefer. The supplied chain ring and crank/pedal assembly has an extra sprocket that the motor drives instead of you pedaling but allows you to pedal along with the motor in use at the same time.
You can pedal the bike and not use the motor if you wish to. The motor then drives the bike forward through the rear wheel as if you were pedaling the bike.

I have to give a tip of the Fast Eddy Hat of Excellence to Paul who is the owner of Sick Bike Parts for answering all my many questions promtly and in great detail. Top notch service indeed.

You can contact him at,
[email protected] or 1-206-817-6901.

He doesn't have them listed at the time I'm writing this so you will have to contact him directly to ask about them.

Here are some photo's of the package as I opened it up.

Steve.

Steve,
I think you made a wise choice that will make all the difference with the Monark. And you also made a good choice in vendors. The boys at SBP are among the best out there selling top notch products, with quick shipping and great customer service. They have always treated me right.
SB

Silverbear,
I was very happy as you can tell. I would post about any supplier that I my opinion gave crappy service or shoddy goods so in turn I also want everyone here to know about the suppliers who go beyond what you would normally expect.
Paul was one of those suppliers.

Steve.

Kestrel Motors Inc. said:

Here's the pics of my dad's Kawasaki...

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Cool sidecar KMI, whats that Yamaha next to it with the red tank? At least I think its a Yamaha.

And is that some kind of gimongus chain ring & pedal crank hanging on the wall?

Hahaha, thanks guys, Yeah, thats a Yamaha 250. Not too fast, buts it's good for chasing the cattle . Yeah, that's an old Hawthorne pedal and crank on the wall.

A good friend of mine Mike built a sidecar for his Yamaha xt600, I thought at the time, I want a sidecar for my MB.
A couple of weeks ago I was walking my dog Nelly and saw a vintage motorcycle with sidecar, I thought I have to have sidecar, I can take my dog with me on a ride. I asked my mate if he would bring his XT600 over and I went in the sidecar with my dog and she was really good, she was really cool with just sitting there.
So I have made a start, I found this really cool chair on the side of the road, I really liked the shape of the curve at the top and it is made of one inch steel tubing. The whole sidecar frame is going to be made out of the chair and tubing I already have.

Cheers,
DaveM.

DaveM,
Welcome to the sidecar thread. I see Nelly is giving the chair the stare of approval. Please keep posting photos as you go along.

Steve.

Thank you Fasteddy, I have taken more pictures and will keep posting them as I go along. Nelly will keep appearing she likes to be involved.

Cheers,
DaveM.

Cool, - I wondered how you were going to use that chair. It should be a nice tidy sidecar outfit when you've finished.

I like the way the frame is resting on your 'research' in the first photo

Thank you for your interest Intrepid Wheelwoman, I set it up on the books to get an idea how it would look.
As others have said on this forum, you have to sit and just look, I do lots of sitting and just looking, I think I am really good at it.
Two of my friends have said well that won't work, well that just makes me more determined to prove them wrong. What they don't know is I can already see myself in my mind riding my MB with the sidecar, so I know it will work.
It always makes me chuckle when I show something to my friends in this instance this chair and then tell them that I am going to build a sidecar with it, they just can't see it.

Cheers,
Dave.