anybody here got a sidcar rig?

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goo

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i haven't picked up my '70 cdo from classic bike experience in essex vermont yet but i might like to configure it the same as my '08 bonnie.
i'm guessing the frame can handle the load. anybody know for sure?
thx,
goo
anybody here got a sidcar rig?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy00rO0Sbrk
 
Have a Velorex, but it was on my BMW until recently. I could be wrong, but a Sidecar on a Commando might put too much stress on the isolastics. Would worry about cornering forces overloading things.
 
A fact that seems pretty much unknown to most posters here, is that in terms of competition success sidecar MX bikes using Commando motors won several world championships, mainly using frames made by Wasp Motorcycles, who went on to build a 1000cc twin cylinder motor designed for competition and road bike use.
 
Carbonfibre said:
A fact that seems pretty much unknown to most posters here, is that in terms of competition success sidecar MX bikes using Commando motors won several world championships, mainly using frames made by Wasp Motorcycles, who went on to build a 1000cc twin cylinder motor designed for competition and road bike use.
Click to expand...

Not unknown, just not germane to the OP.

[edit: unless his intentions are to build a vintage mx rig, which I don't think they are based on the fact that he asked if the stock frame was strong enough]
 
A couple of outfits with standard Commando frames. The first shows a Commnando outfit used as a fire vehicle at one of the British tracks back in the day. I don't know where I got the pictures of the blue bike, or who owns it.

I've thought about doing a similar rig, having owned a couple other sidecar outfits (Ural and Yamaha), but had my doubts about the stress it would put on the iso system. Clearly, though, these pictures show it can and has been done.

anybody here got a sidcar rig?


anybody here got a sidcar rig?


anybody here got a sidcar rig?


Ken
 
A better question would be why? This is sort of like turning a sports car into a lorry. I will leave the argument as to whether the isolastics can handle the strain to those who would like to sort that out, but in reality there are so many bikes that are more well suited to a sidecar that don't handle as nicely as a Commando. Why ruin the handling of the Commando to get a questionalbe return. Seems like a bad trade off to me.

Russ
 
I'm the one that's collected those color side car photo's with rig on either side of a Commando. i have definite plans to do one on Ms Peel and highly recommend to over come the wibble/wobbles that could upset or break a hard ridden loaded rig, to put on the three rod links, ESpecially the low rear one as no issue of a center stand to foul. It may be the only way my wife might consider a ride with me.

I will be using the same hard points I'll create at frame corners for a crash cage w/o a car on. That's the main issue i see, how and where to attach too. I'm trying to do it so can be put on and off fairly easy. Wasps are not Commando isolastic chassis.
 
swooshdave said:
Anything can be done.

I wouldn't do it.
Click to expand...

me either, unless it was a road legal 'snail' (racing side car outfit, as raced in the TT) that would be cool, but then it wouldn't be a commando frame
 
When I bought my Commando from a guy in Chicago, it had fitments for a rig... the swing arm was bent and I never checked the frame but flimsy as it is I guess it was not straight !! there are are some guys with a Bonnie and a rig on the Adv forum:
http://advrider.com/forums/forumdisplay ... 6bcff&f=56

I am currently happy with my new Ural but is it slow and heavy with only one functioning arm!!!
Philippe
 
Maybe a dumb question but how exactly are the isos effected by the addition of a side car?
 
1up3down said:
Maybe a dumb question but how exactly are the isos effected by the addition of a side car?
Click to expand...

Folks probably aren't as concerned about the isos as much as the overall frame and isolastics, in that the frame was designed to be extremely lightweight (due to the isolatics) and thus would not be an ideal candidate for a sidecar.
 
ah thanks!

So a side car frame has to be significantly stronger, presumably thicker so it does not flex as much as a lighter.
 
There was a disabled chap used to ride a Commando outfit to the Isle of Man in the mid to late seventies, don't know what happened to him. The frames are just not up to the stresses involved, they're only just up to solo work. The down tubes are too small and the steel is not that thick. If you want some idea of what is going on in isolasticville, remove your head steady, stand the bike on it's wheels and turn the handlebars from side to side while watching the cylinder head relative to the top tube. Scary.
Putting a chair on a Commando is a bit like putting a towbar on a Dodge Viper, how you going to outrun a state trooper when your bike is four ft wide?
 
rvich said:
A better question would be why? This is sort of like turning a sports car into a lorry. I will leave the argument as to whether the isolastics can handle the strain to those who would like to sort that out, but in reality there are so many bikes that are more well suited to a sidecar that don't handle as nicely as a Commando. Why ruin the handling of the Commando to get a questionalbe return. Seems like a bad trade off to me.

Russ
Click to expand...

+1 (though i think it can be said for any bike w/ decent handling - (ok a ural probably not))

help i've fallen off and i can't get up! :shock:
 
Goo, I own a 2007 Bonnie black and am interested in your pictured rig. Been considering doing the same. What make sidecar, did you do it yourself and where can I locate a sidecar like that and how much am I looking at to do what you have done? thanks, Craig
 
Review the side car URL to see one rig that's hauls a family of four around to rallys and other places. Wouldn't suggest flying the car in turn or racing sliding it about or rough off road play but for normal traffic use seems quite practical. The fact it upsets reasonable people is just more inticment to prove em wrong. Hell even solo an untammed Cdo chassis goes nutzo if held in hard sweepers for long on power. As we almost never hear of complaints hinged horrors but from me, hardly anyone rides em that hard to damage chassis, so same goes for a side car rig, run reasonably. My main reason is safety not to be knocked over by big animals. Knocked out of the saddle maybe but not on its side.

anybody here got a sidcar rig?
 
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