3 Wheel Motorcycle, Aka, A Side Car Hack And Things That Compare To Elio

[Jeff Miller]

I've been wanting to try a side car rig for the better part of 20 years and today I finally got a chance on this:

Apart from being able to haul things, the thing I really loved about side car rigs was the idea of "flying" them around corners. After much instruction and extra weight in the side car to keep it down I did manage to still get the wheel off the ground. It was fun but not the least bit scary; of course if I had a passenger they might have been scared.

So I learned a lot about how this version of a three wheeled vehicle operates and I have to say it probably has very little in common with an elio. This rig required tremendous steering effort that was very unlike what I experienced on a can am with its tad pole configuration that is similar to the elio. That is good because the effort and attention needed to keep this thing going straight or turning makes it an unlikely candidate for anybody but a serious enthusiast.

The very odd thing about this ride was getting to really understand the issues of drag on the third wheel. In the side care rig when you accelerate the drag from the side car pulls you to the right but when you slow down the momentum of the side car pushes you to the left. Anything but smooth throttle and brake make the thing dance all over the road. Before riding, the instructor said you need to sway or dance with the bike because if you fight it you will lose.

Turning left, away from the side car requires turning in that direction as you would in a car or in an elio; this is opposite of what you would do on a motorcycle. As I said, the turn itself required a huge amount of stearing input and not the light twitch of the handle bars and lean of a motorcycle. I have to reiterate that a can am with the tadpole configuration was much easier than trying to turn this rig.

Turn right, into the side car, is when the real fun happens. I'm not sure I got a good explanation and it really is't intuitive but when you turn right, and you do it quickly or in a very tight radius, the side car flys and the wheel comes off the ground - WHEEEE!!! Ok, so at that point the passenger hates you and as you are feeling the euphoria of flying the wheel you suddenly think back on what the instructor said about crossover. Namely, with the side car wheel off the ground the rig suddenly starts behaving like a motorcycle again meeing that you need to turn opposite the direction you want to turn but if you do that your going to slam the side car into the ground and head another different direction - not so much wheee . The cool thing is that if you just keep your head about you it will eventually land again. Breaking with the front break is bad - you end up increasing the lift leading to even more complications. You can accelerate to get through it but I wasn't quite ready for that challenge. When I asked the instructor how to handle this situation when you come into a corner to fast he mentioned that if proficient you get off the saddle and start leaning even to the point that you are most of the way into the side car. He said if you make it through head to the nearest place so that you can clean your underwear.

So taking this back to the elio, the tad pole front end vs a single tire doing the steering mean not only lighter steering but also no flying of that third wheel.

It was a great experience but I don't see buying a side car rig anytime soon. Besides, the side car rig is so big that I wouldn't have room in the garage once my elio shows up.

 

[Lil4X]

When I was 14-15 I had a Cushman motor scooter and a sidecar I'd occasionally attach just for fun. It came in handy for carrying a squeamish date who wasn't thrilled with riding on two wheels, or when riding drag for a troop of Boy Scouts on an overnight bike hike. I could carry all the "road gear" for the group in the sidecar as well as being able to "push" stragglers up to rejoin the peloton.

As Jeff says, it wasn't an intuitive vehicle to ride, or especially to switch back and forth between two wheels and three. The Cushman only required three bolts and about five minutes to make the change. My brain took a bit longer. On two wheels you steered to maintain balance and change direction - on three you no longer had to balance, those handlebars simply selected your direction of travel. Since the sidecar mounts slightly lower, you are always seem to be leaning to the right, so on the road, to pull the scooter under you, you steer right. Ruh-roh.

That's when you end up in the ditch, after the slow-motion shallow turn that put you there. You had to resist the instinct you were using only a few minutes earlier that kept you upright and simply steer the vehicle with the handlebars. Handling with the sidecar attached, as Jeff mentioned, was a little squirrely, even with experience. The leaf spring on the sidecar worked with the "hardtail" on the scooter to provide some interesting effects. As the spring compressed, your two-wheel instincts told you to steer right. About the time you got those instincts under control, the spring would rebound and all your senses told you to steer left. The first hundred yards or so were always a little wobbly until you got your two-wheel instincts under control. Oddly enough, the transition back to a two-wheel configuration never presented a problem.

Now on the scooter you had a rear drum brake and some semblance of a front brake (sadly, it was not well sorted and you had very little leverage to work with, so its effect was minimal). The sidecar had no brake, nor did it have its own taillight. I mounted a reflector on the outboard side to mollify my family, but I knew it wasn't very effective. Braking, never the scoot's strong suit was abysmal with the sidecar mounted. Fortunately for me, the thing was only capable of about 35 mph, so while it required a bit of concentration on traffic ahead, you couldn't achieve truly lethal speeds on your own; that required someone coming from the other direction.

Being young and dumb (something of a given for me at 14), a buddy and I mastered the art of sidecar management at speed (well if 35 can be considered "speed"). In a right-hander, I'd lean toward the sidecar as he, sitting in the sidecar, would hang over the side as far as he could without falling overboard. It worked pretty well as with experience I could keep all three wheels on the ground. "Flying" that sidecar wheel in a hard corner required experience - and we enjoyed plenty. It's strange, but left hand turns required the opposite set of gymnastics. Without a passenger, a hard left would unload the drive wheel, causing you to lose speed as your grip went away and the wheel spun. That would have the effect of tightening your radius as the remaining contact patches stopped sliding and began to travel in the direction selected by the handlebars. To correct this, my passenger crawled over the luggage rack behind my seat to transfer weight to the rear wheel and keep it firmly planted. (Yes, we learned the technique from watching sidecar racing films).

I imagine a trike would exhibit some of the same handling quirks, but the reverse-trike configuration of the Elio should not. Another friend of that era had a "service scooter" - a modified Cushman like mine with two wheels forward and one aft that were sold to serve as rolling toolboxes and delivery carts in industrial plants. His trike was modified with a seat in front of the engine that lowered his cg considerably, and the steering wheel moved forward and slanted back to meet the driver. The throttle was moved to a pedal and the resulting vehicle was amazingly quick and stable, if even a bit slower than the two-wheel scooter.

The Elio, with its FWD should perform even better, even if unable to perform the lurid tail slides the Cushman trike could in the wet.

 

[Jim H]

Cushman owner and rider in summer of 1961 in Nashville, TN

 

[Jeff Miller]

Great write up Lil4X. I have always had a healthy respect for the quirkiness of a sidecar rig but even after everything I've read and watched it didn't prepare me 100% for what I found when I actually drove one. It is amazing that so many people feel a sidecar rig is safer than a 2 wheel motorcycle; are people really that afraid of having to put their foot down?

In any event, I do believe that the elio will not have these issue and that it will indeed drive much more like a car with great stability, easy steering, and no wheels flying off the ground.

 

[TrikeGuy]

Hi..Thought I would add my 2-cents worth !! I have been a HACK owner,dealer&installer over the past 26yrs. Yes the Beemer(Ural) you rode was a handful,not any fun !! The rigs we build today,when PROPERLY setup,handle like a Vet,ride like a Caddie. I presently own a 1800 GoldWing w/Hannigan GTL Hack. If your ever in NE Oh,stop by and take it for a spin,you will be impressed. I also owned a '08 Spyder for a yr.,it was OK but not very comfortable. Probably old age was part of the problem lol !! Looking forward to the Elio,can run it yr. around.

 

[skygazer6033]

A sidecar rig is not for everyone. Alignment and rigging is critical. Best one I've ever ridden was an early 60's BMW 60-2 I think with an Earles fork. Others were all downhill from there.

 

[Smitty901]

Elio and a Hack have nothing in common.

 

[skygazer6033]

Yeah Top, 3 wheels dirty is the only thing in common.