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Hi! I'm Ron and I'm dang glad to meet ya'll! A lifelong saddle tramp who grew up carving lines and dragging my knees on the mountain roads of upstate North and South Carolina, I have owned quite a few bikes. My favorites were my old Yamaha RD400 production road racer and 1977 Moto Morini 3 1/2 Sport. Currently, I pilot a hoopty old 1980 Yamaha XS650 cafe racer/ratbike sidecar rig. I can stuff it like mad into left hand curves, but aggressive right handers can induce a sphincer tightening moment now and again when you find the sidecar making involuntary vertical departures from the road. Therein one finds the thrill of going to edge city.
Welcome Ron! Looks like a fun ride for both pilot and passenger. I'm in the midst of putting an XS650 project together with a '72 frame and '78 engine. See the Big Arse project area for details. Sounds like you and your bike will fit in here just fine
Thanks! And yea, a sidecar rig is quite different from a two wheeled, single-track machine. The asymmetrical handling characteristics are quite unnerving at first. The rig is also sensitive to road camber, cross-winds, amount of ballast in the chair, rate of acceleration, etc. I mounted a car battery behind the sidecar seat, replacing the bike battery under the seat, to add a little ballast to the sidecar to help it stay rooted to the road when negotiating right hand turns and curves. I also added an ammo box to the left side of the sidecar to store gear, etc. That bit of extra weight helps as ballast, too. Though the rig tracks well under neutral conditions, I do go through sidecar tires at an alarming rate. I think the toe-in is a bit off, but it is hard to determine the toe-in accurately with the tools I have at hand. I think that I may also stuff it into left hand turns a bit too aggressively sometimes, too.
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