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Sidecar help! Please!

Joined
Nov 11, 2013
Messages
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Location
Calera, Oklahoma
First Name
Brad
Last Name
Williams
New Okie here!
Anyone with any experience aligning sidecars? Got a 2000 Electraglide UltraClassic w/Harley Ultra Sidecar can't keep back tires on the back. Anyone do alignments? Thanks
 
Aloha and welcome to TWT. No side car but some riders here do have them on Guzzis and Triumphs. KP
 
New Okie here!
Anyone with any experience aligning sidecars? Got a 2000 Electraglide UltraClassic w/Harley Ultra Sidecar can't keep back tires on the back. Anyone do alignments? Thanks

I have a little experience. What do you need?

And welcome to Twt

Sent from some jerk texting while riding.
 
Pm swampfox or on advrider there's a hack section under bikes. Lots of good info there. You could also give Claude a call at freedomsidecars.com. He does exceptional work (located in Pennsylvania I believe) and can point you in the right direction. There's some vids on YouTube.
 
The Harley is pretty easy to do alignment on since the sidecar does not have suspension on the wheel. You will want to do the alignment with the bike loaded as you tipickly load it.
Is it pulling one way to the other ?
Is one side wearing more than the other ?
Are any of the other tires wearing or just the rear on the bike ?
Are you running a bike tire on the rear ? Of so it's not going to last long car tires will last MUTCH longer !
Most of the HD hacks I have seen also do not have brakes so most people tend to over use the rear brake to slow the rig. If so wearing the rear tire much faster also.
Hacks are fun, but they are hard on bikes and parts, nothing is going to last as long as it will on a solo bike.
 
Hi Brad. Welcome to TWT. Generally speaking, excess rear tire wear is a result of too much toe in. I will post up more references/info when I'm back at home.
 
Thanks any info is appreciated. The back bike tire is the only one wearing excessively, about 3000 miles or so. It doesn't pull any direction and the hack does have a functional disc brake. Been running Dunlop 402 rear tires on all wheels including the front. Last set tried a set of Avon vintage bias-ply which seemed to ride and handle better. Thanks again!
 
Here's another one that may help: http://www.sidecar.com/mbbs22/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=11713&posts=17&start=1

Look here http://www.sidecar.com/links3.asp for a link to The Sidecar Manual by Hal Kendall that includes a section on set-up and alignment.

Sidecar rigger Lonnie from Idaho succinctly summarizes toe in & lean out as follows (from: http://www.sidecar.com/mbbs22/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=11706&posts=2&start=1):
All multi track vehicles use toe in. Without it the wheels tend to splay out giving toe out and a bunch of wobble. Uncontrollable sometimes, ending in a tank slapper with a bike.
Having the sidecar mounted too far forward can cause scuffing problems in right handers.
Toe out will cause scrubbing and wear the tire unevenly. Look at the tread and check if the tread is scrubbing from one side.
If the car is mounted level and the wheel is vertical, about 3/4"toe in with a degree or two of lean out should give even tire wear.


For what it's worth, the rear tire on my relatively light weight Sportster rig generally lasts +/-6,000 miles.
 
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