Jeff Miller
Elio Addict
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.
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.
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