Almost there...

On Sat, 13 Sep 2008 12:45:39 -0700 (PDT), boxerboy

snip>

I also need to remember not to ride up onto a paved area in the garden
with my left foot on the floor because the sidecar bracket hits you on
the back of the leg if you clip the edge of the slabs with your toes.

It wouldn't have been too bad if I'd had a front brake that works but
the momentum of the bike bent my left foot into a position it really
shouldn't be capable of before I hit the back brake.

 

One cannot but admire a chap with such a forthright approach to the products
of digestion.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, platypus

I think it's just a man accepting the inevitable consequences of
accepting a lift in Bomber Bonwick's chair.

The one in San Quentin is less scary, but you do have to have your head
shaved first.

 

I refuse to believe that there's anything remotely worrying about being a
passenger in a competently-piloted outfit.

<thinks> Although you may have a point nonetheless.

 

At least the chair I've fitted has got a nice scratched screen so you
don't have to look at the road.

You're right - I'll clean the screen.

 

I've got the lead and lean sorted out but I think the toe in still
needs adjusting. I need a couple of decent length bits of wood to use
as straight edges otherwise I'll be putting chalk marks on the drive
and moving the outfit backwards and forwards over them to check the
alignment.

 

Don't much rate your idea of chalk marks. Really won't be easy.

From a Sidecar Federation guide line I've got:

"
Sidecar lead is the distance between the rear axle of the bike and the
wheel spindle of the sidecar. The value can be anything from zero on
some vintage outfits to as much as 50cm. As lead is increased the
weight distribution improves until a point is reached where the steering
becomes too heavy and tyre wear becomes excessive. A good compromise
will usually be found between 15 and 35cm. It is not critical and may
in any cas be dictated by where the fittings can be located.

When fully laden it is important that the bike should not lean towards
the sidecar; if it does the steering will be heay particularly when
turning away from the sidecar. The amount of lean-out is measured at
the steering head of the unladen mororcycle and is usually less than
3cm. Outfits with car tyres, particularly wide, low profile ones should
be set up with zero lean out.

Toe-in is defined as the amount by which the track width at the front
wheel is narrower than at the rear. It is measured using a pair of
straight edges, one along the motorcycle wheels and one along the
sidecar wheel extending forward to the front wheel. If the front and
rear wheels differ in width this should be allowed for. Too much toe-in
will scrub the tyres on turns towards the sidecar and let the outfit
drift towards the middle of the road under neutral steering. Too lttlle
toe-in and the outfit will favour the gutter. In practise it is usually
found that a well set up outfit will move slightly towards the kerb
under acceleration and slightly away on braking. A typpical value would
be 10 to 20mm, rately as much as 35mm. This measurement can be critical
to the steering bias of the combination and the more lead you have the
less toe-in you need."


So there you go. Lead and lean out affect steering, toe in pulling.

In my experience it's hard to adjust lean out without impacting toe in
and vice-versa. Maybe I just need to tidy up my mountings so they're
free and not under any 'static stress'. It's also felt like lean out
affected pulling towards the kerb/middle of the road under neutral
steering.

 

It's a nice pint:
http://www.beers-of-the-world.com/brands/detail/st_austell.55012220.html

 

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:49:57 +0100, wrote:

snip>

Not under any static stress? I had to batter the fittings on mine to
get them to move but I put that down to the thick layer of paint
gobbed everywhere.

I'll try and find two straight bits of wood when I'm next home so I
can check the toe in but when I said use chalk marks I meant mark the
centre line of the chair on the drive as one straight line then mark
the centre line of the bike and measure it then put a series of
calibration marks down so I can check where I'm moving the bike
relative to the chair as I adjust it.

Maybe my engineering background is making me overcomplicate this but
I'm used to marking things out so I've got a visual aid to where
things are. A plumb line tied off on the centre off the chassis front
and back is an instant indication of what's happening and having an
axle stand under each side at the front of the subframe means the bike
should stay still.

I'm going to have a look at how easy it is to lift the body of the
chair off the chassis to lighten things up a bit and make sure I don't
punch holes through the bodywork when I resort to the 7lb sledge
hammer...

 

heh - just what I was thinking.

 

You not going to do any more this year?

 

Is the correct answer.

The full answer is long, complicated, and not particularly
interesting/exciting.

 

you're going on a 6 month Saga cruise?

 

Did that a couple of times on a trailie, catching toe on a rock
with footpeg pushing into the Achilles' tendon. Even managed to take a
chip out of a slab of basalt that way, but I think it was already cracked.
Bloody _hurt_ thobut!

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

Penis extension?

Maintaining structural integrity and all that.

Oh. <twiddles thumbs>

Couldn't you do some made up reports with dinosaurs and jet planes?

 

You youngsters have got it easy. We had to learn castor, camber and
KPI when I was an apprentice (not just toe-in and toe-out), and it was
an absolute **** to set up on a car until the advent of the new
fangled optical alignment gauge. [1]

P.

[1] Lasers being part of science fiction at this stage.

 

You did all this with spanners didn't you?

 

Yep, blood, sweat, tears (usually of the Mechanic mentoring me)

We were a main Ford dealer, and had a bodyshop where all the locally
pranged Fords went to. We had to re-set up the steering geometry on
the alignment jig before it went to the panel beating monkeys.

The 'new' optical guage used incandescent lamps on to a graduated
screen to re set the geometry up. It's all (or was) adjustable in
several planes.

P.