Hack! A sportbike with a sidecar!

I'll be straight about this issue - I had never given sidecars a second thought. Yes, I would see them on the street occasionally and while they looked neat I just moved on. But now, they have really captured my interest. I was looking for another way to enjoy motorcycling, and sidecars seemed like a diversion that would give me an entirely different perspective on the sport. Sportriding really lost the luster for me, and sidecars seemed like just the thing to re-ignite my old passions for riding.

My girlfriend Tammy was probably the driving force behind this new perspective. She had wanted to get more involved with motorcycling, but she didn't want to ride. She has her license, and had owned a 883 Sportster for a few years but stopped riding and sold the bike. She found that she spent more time worrying about other road users, and was not enjoying the ride. Not wanting to ride two-up everywhere, a sidecar was an obvious choice.

A quick trip to EBay had me searching for sidecars. I found quite a few, but most of the prices were out of my range. After a few weeks, one came up that matched my needs perfectly. It was an early California Companion. The unit was sold through Harley-Davidson as part of a package for a dresser. It was a smaller car, but since my 2002 Yamaha FZ-1 was the donor for driving this car, it would do just fine. The car itself was very clean, and had several nice mods including a disk brake and a shock absorber suspension. The tough part was that it was located in Sioux Fall, SD! Luckily, the seller was a great guy and he knew of a guy heading back this was to upstate NY delivering classic cars. A few phone calls later, a weeks wait and I was off to Utica, NY to pick it up!


	Here is the hack just before it shipped. Overall, it was in good condition. It needed a tire, and the seat was in serious need of re-covering. The wear and tear wasn't bad at all for a unit this old. The carpeting on the inside was in good shape, and the fiberglass was perfect. A good buy!

On the way home, I made a call to the man who was going to make this unit work with my Yamaha. I had found Stacy through Sarge of Sarge's Cycle in Ludlow, Mass. He was involved with a local sidecar group called the New England Three Wheelers. Stacy had done several sidecar fabrication projects for various members and was more than willing to tackle this job. Stacy Engineering was in Windsor, CT and I dropped off the unit. We talked for a while and a time frame and I was off. The bike was already there, so now I just had to wait for him. I took the sidecar seat with me to get it recovered. A local shop made a nice slip-cover for it and it was a steal at $45.00. Looks brand new!

I called Stacy a few weeks later and he was moving along. The Yamaha was a very different unit for him to mount a car to, but the frame of the bike made the job a bit easier. The lower cradles of the frame bolt to the main frame spars, and he used those bolt points as sidecar mounting points. He was forced to create a small sub-frame for the front lower mount, as this point doubled as engine mounts. And with those points rubber mounted, he felt that directly attaching to them would over-stress and destroy the rubber mounts. What he made was a very neat and simple little frame that used both side of the lower motorcycle frame for strength. The last issue was the rear mounting point. He wanted four points, but so far only had three. Stacy felt that the rear passenger peg bracket would not be strong enough to support the car, and wanted to weld a bracket to the frame. I was not at all comfortable with this, because the Fazer would not be a sidecar machine forever and have welded brackets hanging off the frame would look like hell. What he ended up doing was welding a small tab behind the tube frame just under the seat. The car bolts to this point. And you can't see it! Perfect!


	Here's the bike and car being mated together. Every mount on the bike was custom made. It was quite a feat!

Finally, the big day was here. Tammy and I hopped in the Subie and went to pick up the combo. He was just finishing it up and the unit looked great! When we rolled it out, it was a sight to see! I was still thinking " I hope I made the right decision!" when I took a wonderful streetbike and turned it into a hack. There was big parking lot across the street from Stacy's shop and it was time for my first ride. As I climbed on board and began to move, it was very evident that this was no longer a motorcycle! And when I approached the street and stopped to check for traffic, I put my feet down - 18 years of habit is hard to break! I hear Stacy yell at me "You don't have to put you feet down! It's a SIDECAR!!!!!" . Yes, I felt a little stupid! After about ten minutes of riding it around, I realize that going to the left is hard, but the bike can't flip over sideways. But going to the right.... I'm afraid to "fly" the car initially, but soon get used to it. Tammy then goes for a ride with me and is absolutely grinning. She loves it! I ride the bike home, just trying to be smooth, safe and slowly learning how to ride it.



Here's the bike completed. It really is a head-turner, and a lot of fun to ride!

After a few weeks and about 500 miles, I am having a great time with it. Tammy and I have been riding every weekend and its been a lot of fun. The sidecar gets looks wherever it goes, and it always has a crowd around it when we stop somewhere. As for the handling, I'm going to have arms like Popeye when I'm done!

Empty, the car is easy to turn right, but much harder to turn left. I have been told this is the nature of the beast due to the front end of the bike. Most dedicated sidecar rigs use a leading link front end for easier handling. With Tammy in the car, steering is much heavier and going to the left is really hard. I find myself accelerating into a left and then rolling off the throttle to make the corner. Going to the right is much easier, and a little throttle helps the turn along, too. Still, it's much, much tougher than a motorcycle should be! There is also a slight wobble around 30MPH, but nothing I can't handle with a firm grip. I've had the unit up to 75-80MPH on the highway in the rain and it was fine. I also now fly the car on most right handers just for the fun of it, but especially if cars are around. The looks on their faces is priceless! Learning how to balance the car and shift made for a really good time.

As a sidecar driver, the Fazer does a fine job. Blessed with a powerful engine and great brakes, it does quite well in a capacity that Yamaha never even gave a second thought to when they designed it. The wide power band of the engine helps a lot, though a bit more low end grunt at take-off would be nice. Thankfully, the engine revs so quickly that you hardly notice that issue, and the bike will cruise in top gear at 40 mph effortlessly even pulling the weight of two passengers and a sidecar.


Here are some photo's of the mounting system. We tried to use as many factory mounting point options as possible. However, the rear mount to the seat sub-frame is a lug welded BEHIND the frame. The mount then screws into the point. This way, with the sidecar removed, you can't see the tab. We needed this mounting point, and this was the cleanest option to get it done. I thin k it came out great.

The search is on now for a dedicated sidecar. This was just an experiment, and I will be selling this car soon. The FZ-1 is just too nice of a bike to relegate to sidecar duty. Also, I'm worried about long term stress on the front end, and especially the handlebar mounting points. The bike was not designed for sidecar use, and I'm afraid that I may break the upper triple clamp over time. I will get my money back on the car, so this whole experience shouldn't cost too much in the end.

What I'm looking at now is a Ural Tourist. The bikes have come a long way, and are equipped with many modern features including electronic ignition, Japanese CV carbs and quality paintwork. No longer are they cheap BMW knock-offs. And a 750 model has just been released. I'm trying to arrange for a test ride within a month or so.

I'll keep you posted!

May 26th, 2003

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