Having a chat the other day about bike touring ect ect.

Not thinking of doing this but im wondering, could it be done. Whats your thoughts.

Seen U tube vids of softails with flat deck sidecars for carrying a large esky ect, on the deck.

So could you install a U channel piece of steel and carry a 650 road trail bike on the sidecars flat deck and tow a motorcycle camper trailer behind. Would it be possible on a softail.

The camper trailer tow bar would have to be installed between the rear of the bike and part way along the rear of sidecar otherwise youd have the sidecar sticking out one side and half the camper trailer out the otherside sort of.

I think it could be done with perhaps an upgrade to a drive chain, heavier clutch, left side engine bearing upgrade, ect.

But the real question is do you reckon a 1580 twin cam and the standard gearbox would handle it. I presume the bikes horspower and torque would, but not so sure about the bikes drivetrain with that load, remembering youd be towing up hills, across the snowys ect ect. You wouldnt do this if you were restricted to just flattish type road touring, ect. The idea would be to ride somewhere, where ever and take the trail bike along the trails in the bush, ect. A type of best of both worlds touring sort of thing. Of course, your not setting up for sport riding, more like putting along smelling the roses type of touring.

Whats your opinion on twin cam 1580s capability and/or if it could be done, what would you upgrade.

EDIT example, a 2016 klr650 with a full fuel tank is 194 kgs, so with extras maybe 220 kgs.

Camper trailer weight, 190 kgs, thats the camper with fold out tent same as car camper trailers but not allowing for your camping stuff so maybe 250kgs.

and weight of sidecar, No idea

Micky Boy, have you been drinking early today?

I think the suspension would be a problem with a Softy mate.
Maybe a standard suspension big twin or a Rigid

I'm sure someone posted a picture on this site of the very thing you are looking for. A bike, (think it was a Harley) with a sidecar and adverture tourer on it towing a small caravan or similar. Someone else may remember it.

Have a look at what drive train parts the factory trike uses. Blokes in the USA are towing and doing all sorts of things too so have a look at yank forums.

Softail frame not designed to carry or tow heavy loads. Same with dyna. Touring frame is. Not saying it can't be done by this is what HD says in its own manuals.

Cheers for reply.

Nah Houndoggy, Been off the plonk for a while. Tyring to develop some, Oh allright, plenty of undeveloped stomach muscel.

I think thered be no issue with a sidecar on a softy, or towing a trailer behind a softy as towbars are made for softys, Doing both at same time is above me to know if it could work.

Especially as the trailer towbar would have to be mounted on the rear extended bar on the sidecar to keep all in line.

I can see issue of setting up bike to carry 220kgs on sidecar and then riding bike without trailbike on sidecar deck as i wouldnt have a clue how to set up sidecar for no weight and weight.

Mick the weight you're talking about carrying on the sidecar isn't any more than a double sidecar can carry (and I had a double sidecar on my Suzuki).

You'll need to position the sidecar wheel forward of the motorbike rear wheel and angle it a little towards the front wheel of the bike for best results.

How much depends upon the width of the outfit and the weight carried but the angle is intended to counteract the drag that pulling a third wheel off to the side of your bike creates. Think of it as 'steering' the sidecar wheel towards you to offset the drag of the unpowered wheel.

I'd also suggest a leading link front end to reduce steering pull and changing the rear tyre to a flat car tyre type (or at least one of those fat 240 tyres).

If you don't fit a leading link front end then a steering damper is a good idea.

If you haven't ridden an outfit before I strongly suggest you find someone to give you some real life instruction, they're VERY different.

 

As for towbar location there are 2 different schools of thought, some people mount the tow bar on the bike which makes for a wide rig but others mount them on the sidecar frame.  If you mount to the sidecar frame I reckon you need trailer brakes otherwise the trailer pushes the sidecar which makes the bike want to turn right when you brake and left when you accelerate (and all that careful sidecar setup you did with angled and forward wheels goes out the window).  Electric sidecar brakes with an adjustable brake controller works best.  For unbraked trailers I'd tow behind the bike and put up with the width.

 

 

Sounds like it might be a handful on the road.
Might be better to buy a troopy and whack a Harley sticker on the back window.
Roo.

Having a bit more more of a look at this. 

It can be done. This is an 07 Springer in Germany. The bloke says it sits on 90 MPH ok, Im presuming thats without the trailer. The article was in the USes Barnetts HD Magazine hence the MPH reference.

Of course 140-150 KMS/H is irrelavant to me as I wouldnt tour at that speed anyway. The article says the bloke did this just after he bought the bike new in 07. He liked the retro look so built the retro style tank. The chrome stuff at the front of the sidecar passenger shell are softail "style" shocks to match the bikes softail shocks. Its the mid mount tow bar that interests me, Seems to look pretty good. All in all, hell of a job.

 

 

 

Very clean outfit!

Looking at the front end it appears to have a springer front end fitted (which would help the handling a lot like a leading link would)

That is a sweet bike Mick.

Geoff3DMN, I see you mentioned the suzi with sidecar you had, so I can see your well experienced in riding a sidecar setup. I never have, so got a question for ya. I see the bike above has a reverse gear fitted to the standard gearbox which seems simple enough (the eight ball stick) as there just a right side gear box extension with some gears in it. I see there around $1500 from US trike conversion shops. That's $1500 US. Would you consider a revers gear worth it for probably around $2000 Aus considering the bike with side deck and trailer.

The reason I ask is that I've sorta thought about getting a flatdeck sidecar you can carry a 650 road/trail setup that can tow a camper for a couple years now but not seriously. But I'm in getting keen to look into this a little more seriously. So another query, I see you can get magnetic wheel brakes for just about any size wheel now. What's your opinion on side deck wheel brake type.
Also, I thought about getting use out of the side deck whilst still using the bike as a daily rider by making a marine grade plywood lidded box with a raised bit on box bottom that allows box to sit over sidedeck u channel and tied down. Same as the old marine grade tucker boxes that 4wdrives used to carry on there trays years ago. So as to use it around the area I ride as you could fit 4 or 5 bags of potting mix, dog food, whatever in them.

I see there's a specialist sidecar builder on mid NSW coast that builds everything from racing sidecars to everyday sidecars. There called SK engineering and can mod plate whatevers needed. I'm not after show quality looks like the bike above, just good quality build. Any thoughts.

Cheers

Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/272379972838

Motor Trike reverse with plug and play engine cut in case fwd and reverse are selected at the same time.

$1644 plus $110 delivery

Cheers Nomada.
Will do.

I never had a reverse gear and I didn't really miss having one but it did mean you had to reverse the bike into car parks by hand (I never found it an issue to push mine on the flat but uphill was another matter).

Most times it was possible to ride past a parking bay and roll back into it because most roads slope from the centre towards the edges so the front of most parking bays is higher than the back so the outfit rolls towards the back easily.

I also had plenty of space to turn my outfit around in my shed, if you've got a small city garage it'd be harder.

I'm not familiar with SRK engineering personally (although I've heard of them) but they seem to have a wide range of builds already done and they can do leading link front ends so that all looks good.

To be honest there are a lot less sidecar builders than there used to be because these days trikes are more common than outfits.

There is a Victorian Sidecar rally once a year at Strathmerton, if you could get along to that then you'd learn a lot I reckon.

My outfit was practical but nothing flash (4 kids meant not a lot of spare money at the time but 3 have moved out now so I can afford a toy or two!).  Jacob on the pillion seat now rides a Triumph Daytona 675.

 

 

 

And for your last side car adventure ! This day out Leon had a esky full of refeshments.

www.foryourlastride.com.au