Snow plow......Reminds me of when I bought my Mazda 3 and called my insurance company. The rep on the phone said "I figure this is going to be a no, but I still have to ask- are you going to be attaching a snow plow to the vehicle?" Made me chuckle.I found the discouraging words in the owner's manual: page 14 states that the CBR250r is suited for neither trailer pulling nor sidecar attachment. Oh well...at least it didn't say anything about not mounting a belly-mount mower or attaching a snow plow or front end loader
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Very cool.
Thanks for the link, Wynne.Or like when my homeowner's insurance rep had to ask if my Basset Hound was vicious
You're welcome. You used to be able to pick these up for peanuts, second hand, years ago. I have a soft spot for Eastern European bikes. I've owned 3 x MZ TS 250's over the years. Very simple, practical, bulletproof, easy and cheap to service and great on poor roads.Very cool.
MZ TS 250-1
Scroll down about 3/4 of the way and see one advantage of a sidecar rig, try snowplowing with 2 wheels,
Best Side Car Rig?
Doc
Best Side Car Rig?
Doc
By golly, these things are just more practical than I would ever have imagined...until you come to the end of your driveway and have to back up your snowplow-moto rigScroll down about 3/4 of the way and see one advantage of a sidecar rig, try snowplowing with 2 wheels,
Best Side Car Rig?
Doc
$1300.00
DMC Sidecars Complete Sidecar Frame for the sidecar hobbyist | DMC Sidecars
Just remember - a light sidecar is a DANGEROUS sidecar. Very easily flipped when turning in the direction that the sidecar is mounted if the sidecar is empty. Less so with the big cars (mine was not...
).
Motorcycle Funerals, UK Wide Motorcycle Hearse Service
This is also a good example of a proper front end for a sidecar rig. Leading link, sometimes called a Earles Fork.
This particular one might be a Unit Fork. http://www.hedinghamsidecars.com/Unit-Leading-Link-Forks.php
Yes, I see what you mean. So does that mean deliberately adding ballast / dead weight is worthwhile when coach building to counter this?$1300.00
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DMC Sidecars Complete Sidecar Frame for the sidecar hobbyist | DMC Sidecars
Just remember - a light sidecar is a DANGEROUS sidecar. Very easily flipped when turning in the direction that the sidecar is mounted if the sidecar is empty. Less so with the big cars (mine was not...
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Haha!I found the discouraging words in the owner's manual: page 14 states that the CBR250r is suited for neither trailer pulling nor sidecar attachment. Oh well...at least it didn't say anything about not mounting a belly-mount mower or attaching a snow plow or front end loader
The day after I win the lottery, I'm going to cruise over to the nearest Ural dealer and pick up a 2WD motorcycle with sidecar just so I can take my German Shorthaired Pointer with me on the road.
I'll definitely need a pair of Doggles!
I had a huge weight that came out of an old IBM mainframe disk drive (think 1980). Well, it was compact - about the size of a concrete block, cubed - but it weighed at least 75 lbs, if not more.
In the winter I had a full size car battery over there with long cables that came over and hooked up in parallel to my bike battery. That gave me some ballast and ensured easy starts at 8 in the morning when I was leaving work.
One of the fun aspects of sidecaring is all of the exaggerated body english one uses in driving. Lets assume we are driving a rig set up for USA roads:
with the sidecar mounted on the right, when you go around a left turn, you need to hang off to the left of the bike as much as possible to unload the sidecar wheel, because that is where the weight is going.
Around a right hand turn, and it is a totally different story. The sidecar wants to rise up as the weight on the vehicle is transmitted to the left.
The "weight" is always transmitted to the side opposite the turn. Think of a bread truck in a turn. The top leans opposite.
So on a right-hand turn, I always took my right foot off of the foot peg and put it on the sidecar frame and leaned as far into the sidecar as I could, in an effort to keep the sidecar wheel planted.
Under normal circumstances, you will slow the vehicle enough so that you don't lift the wheel, but after a while you learn where that "edge" is. Great fun.
And then there is the 'S' curve!
I found that if I lifted the sidecar on my way into a S curve, I could pilot the rig all the way through as if it were a 2 wheel motorcycle - which it was, albiet with a huge growth on one side.
And that was just one little piece of road in my neighborhood that ran alongside the interstate. It didn't get much traffic and I certainly didn't make a habit of these stunts. (But snow is a BLAST!!!
)But what we really want to know is this: did you pop a wheelie with your sidecar??I had a huge weight that came out of an old IBM mainframe disk drive (think 1980). Well, it was compact - about the size of a concrete block, cubed - but it weighed at least 75 lbs, if not more.
In the winter I had a full size car battery over there with long cables that came over and hooked up in parallel to my bike battery. That gave me some ballast and ensured easy starts at 8 in the morning when I was leaving work.
One of the fun aspects of sidecaring is all of the exaggerated body english one uses in driving. Lets assume we are driving a rig set up for USA roads:
with the sidecar mounted on the right, when you go around a left turn, you need to hang off to the left of the bike as much as possible to unload the sidecar wheel, because that is where the weight is going.
Around a right hand turn, and it is a totally different story. The sidecar wants to rise up as the weight on the vehicle is transmitted to the left.
The "weight" is always transmitted to the side opposite the turn. Think of a bread truck in a turn. The top leans opposite.
So on a right-hand turn, I always took my right foot off of the foot peg and put it on the sidecar frame and leaned as far into the sidecar as I could, in an effort to keep the sidecar wheel planted.
Under normal circumstances, you will slow the vehicle enough so that you don't lift the wheel, but after a while you learn where that "edge" is. Great fun.
And then there is the 'S' curve!
I found that if I lifted the sidecar on my way into a S curve, I could pilot the rig all the way through as if it were a 2 wheel motorcycle - which it was, albiet with a huge growth on one side.
And that was just one little piece of road in my neighborhood that ran alongside the interstate. It didn't get much traffic and I certainly didn't make a habit of these stunts. (But snow is a BLAST!!!
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