Hi, I am looking at the possibility of buying/building a sidecar outfit to be able to take my wife out in the event her medical condition deteriorates and she can no longer ride her monster. Hopefully that is a fair way off yet but I want to have options in hand. It seems sidecar outfits are a bit of a black art in terms of set up and handling with all sorts of mods to steering ranging from using the solo bike suspension unmodified after attaching a sidecar to custom leading link forks. I have spotted a set of the latter on flea bay which were used on a triumph bonneville 865 of which there are a huge variety. Can anyone identify the exact model of bonneville (and approx year) from the attached photo which was taken when they were fitted to the bike? Any thoughts or advice on outfits or dealers who have a solid reputation and knowledge would be very helpful. Thank you in advance.
Looks like it’s water cooled so post 2016. IIRC, Triumph did 2 models, the 900 being the smaller of the 2. Andy
Wasp sidecars still operate I believe - they will be able to give you alot of information about your project.
I have been in touch with wasp, very helpful about £2-2.5k for a set of custom leading link forks hence my interest in the eBay item. Triumphs seem to be an ok bike to fit to for most sidecars s they are easier to fit to because of the tubed frame, they are not too heavy or too powerful. Saying that I saw a video of a chap that has built an outfit using a 1050 as a donor but he has amazing fabrication skills. He has previously made a monster sidecar outfit but sold it as it was more suited to the race track not A/B roads!
Buy a 2 seater convertible. A nice MX-5 would do the same job as a sidecar outfit. Unless you insist on the Wallace and Gromit look. More Wensleydale?
I've also toyed with such an idea and the perverse nature of such a beast does have it's attractions. The bits and bobs I gathered are outfits do benefit from earls forks but as you have discovered can be quite pricey. All sidecars will shake their head at some speed, depending on the set up angles and such when attaching the chair, and this can be minimised by using a damper between the chair & the bikes front forks. Shaft drive is often recommended as chain maintenance can be a hassle with the chair attached. Torquey lumpy motors also work well - hence Guzzi's, Beemers, Pan Europeans etc. Have you though of brand new ready made i.e. Urals? They now do a right hand sidecar with two wheel drive see https://www.ural-uk.com/ And one of their dealers is very well thought of in the sidecar world and in addition to sales of outfits & chairs they also offer passenger & rider experiences. A bit out of the way oop north above Newcastle in Cresswell mind. see https://www.sidecarexperience.co.uk/sidecarsales
Hi, had one of those but a bugger to get in and out off, interesting you suggest it though as I am having to get my head around how an outfit behaves, it’s not simply a bike with a sidecar handling like a bike, it is something else entirely!
It’s early days yet and hopefully we will be riding solos for a while longer - if not an outfit is an option because it’s a bit unusual - to say the least. I have been looking at BMW’s and guzzi’s as I have not owned either and have quite fancied one. Leading link forks are expensive options for them but I had not considered the the shaft drive benefits but they are obvious now you point them out! I have seen lots of online stuff about urals - old and new. They certainly have “character” but there is lots of commentary about reliability from some though there is a lot of long distance users that speak quite highly of them. They are certainly worth a good look over but as you say they are not exactly local to me. I have enquired about their experience days (currently suspended after a move) but have not heard back yet. I am going to find it challenging moving from a multi to an outfit but it might be very engaging if it requires a lot of input to ride in a straight line or get around corners safely! Thanks for the input it’s given me food for thought.
This may be of interest to you. https://www.midwalestours.co.uk/ Sean has organized for years tours of Wales on his Triumph Scrambler XC 1200 equipped with a Watsonian Squire sidecar. Former police rider and a great guy.
Or a Lomax. Its a 2cv chassis modified to 3 wheels with a 2 CV motor. Doesn't sound quick but they are holds its own 2 up on motorways
Maybe you could find a trike? This one currently forsale on FB Marketplace for £3K Or the Honda for £2500
Birmingham £3840 1500CC mileage 18000 Manual Petrol Heywood Lancs 2005 Honda gl1800 goldwing csc california side car trike £2,500 Liverpool 1990 Honda Goldwing GL 1500 Trike Champion Conversion 9508 miles from new (15214 ks), recently serviced and fitted new cam belt £1800 Just search Motorbike Trike for sale on Marketplace on FB. These are the price (or less) of the forks you were looking at. Bound to need a few things looking at, but they're Honda and you can probably get all the parts. Low miles too. Something to think about eh?
Hi, thank you for taking the time to post these, much appreciated! They look like you would need a have a hgv licence to “drive” one! Just tried my fb account and I have to either pay a subscription to go ad free or put up with ads for free but disclose loads of personal stuff for targeted ads. Seems big brother to me but probably showing my age!
Where are you? My FB is free. I do get ads but very few. I haven't disclosed anything. And if I had to I would lie (they do so its fair).
Having had an outfit, it's nothing like riding a bike. You don't ride an outfit, you drive it. Right handers are ok as you're leaning on the extra wheel. Left handers are not so much fun when the chair lifts. There are some guidelines on how to set one up. Depends a bit what you want from it. Make it wider and it's more stable, make it narrow and it nimble. Sidecar wheel position and angle of the bike also have an influence on handling. Then there's tow in of the sidecar wheel in relation to the bike. In my case it was trial and error as I did it all myself. A good steering damper is a must. Otherwise it may well shake the bars so violently you can't hold on to them. I know because mine did at about 5 miles an hour. Standard forks are ok with stiffer springs, not ideal but ok. Driving mine was quite physical but easier at higher speeds. As a passenger you feel very exposed. You sit very low with you head next to a noisy engine, cars look very big and a truck wheel next to you is terrifying. For me, it wouldn't replace riding a bike in any way. There is a reason you hardly see any outfits, they're not very good..
