Question on behalf of John Stanley

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Question on behalf of John Stanley

Beitragvon motorang » 28. Februar 2006 09:40

Good morning!

John was at the Tauerntreffen, as navigator in the sidecar of Roger Bennett. The vehicle was a BMW 1000cc Boxer with a Squire sidecar.
Apparently he liked it, writing:

(outfit = Gespann)

(...) I said formidable about Thoeny because as you have pointed out she apparently had no real driving experience on an outfit before setting out for the Tauerntreffen.

This raises a very good point, because for a long time I have wanted to drive an outfit.

I have many hundreds of thousands of kilometres under my belt as a professional motorcycle courier. But my so called friend and side car pilot Roger "Mr Klaus Enders" Bennett will not let me drive his B.M.W R100 outfit?

Well that's not completely true? He said he will let me drive/practise, as long as it's in a big Desert and he is not in the chair at the time?

I think the idea is that I cannot hit any thing in a Desert?

Would you please try and explain the mystery surrounding driving as sidecar outfit?

It all looks very very easy to me, and surly the lovely Kerstin has proved that you don't need to drink a lot of beer have big muscles and a beard or for that matter like ZZ tops to drive a sidecar outfit......


I found that one in the SCT mailing list:

Good tips? my only sidecar lesson not quite 50 years ago.

"Watch it young fella, these things steer funny"

Remember, it's not a bike anymore, it only looks like one.

Bikes go round corners by countersteering.
A rig can't lean over to corner so it can't countersteer.

Steer it left and it'll turn left. Steer it right and it'll turn right.

The damn thing is lopsided with most of it's weight and it's driven wheel
off to one side.
Left turns are fun, power into them and shut the gas then it just turns
nice.
Right turns are scary, slow down before the turn and power round it.

Practice practice practice.

Find a big empty carpark with no posts in it and pull figure 8s. Discover
the difference between left turn & right turn techniques. Learn what it
takes to lift the sidecar wheel on a right turn. Don't do this on the road
it ain't smart but you need to know how to do it so you can learn how not to let it happen.
Being in the middle of the Canadian Prairies I have no idea about sidecar
courses in NYC but if you can find one it will be a real good idea to take
it.
Fred Hill, S'toon.


Careful - this applies mostly to sidecars mounted on the right hand side :D

Maybe anybody else wants to polish his/her English a bit and give some more information and stories to our Yorkshire friend?

One from me: have a friend lift the sidecar while you sit in the drivers seat of the parked vehicle. Just to get the feeling, how far it can go up before it falls over ...

Kind Regards,
Andy
Es gibt zwei Arten von Daten: von den wichtigen hat man ein Backup, und der Rest ist halt unwichtig.
:476: [Impressum] [motorang.com] [Die AIA]
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Beitragvon dreckbratze » 1. März 2006 16:46

hi john!
i´m sure, you´re an excellent motorbikerider-but even that´s the problem. you are used to ride normal bikes since thousands of miles-and the first thing you have to do: FORGET ALL, what you´ve learned about it, when you´re starting ride with a sidecar. :-D
i think, it might be easier for someone, who never did motorbiking before.
a friend of mine told me years ago:"sidecars are for chicks"--but when I offered him a testride, he was not able to get away from the pavement, he just didn´t know how to use the handlebars...
but it´s not a big secret, you´ll get it, i´m sure, in a short while. but do not do your first ride in traffic!
all the best--and tell us about your experience!
achim
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Beitragvon halflive » 7. März 2006 19:30

knowing how a sidecar behaves i can tell it only gets harder when you have more solo experience.
you have to forget everything you have learned on a solo and re-train your mind setting to a completely differend vehicle with the same controls as what you're used to.

a very good source of information are the books Hal Kendall wrote.
they are in pdf file on: http://www.sidecar.com/links3.asp
all books are worth reading.
to modern standards Hal is rather old fashioned.
to his standard a sixties beemer with a factory sidecar is top of the bill.
bearing that in mind ist rather good reding and helps you to understand why your friend doesn't let you ride his outfit.
i think when he's a realy good friend he will let you have a try on an empty parking lot.
but don't think you are a natural, having much solo experience is not an advantage
Guzzi/velorex, was sonst?
deutsch ist schwer, können wir auch auf holländisch reden?
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