Sidecar Delay Factor: Please tell us YOUR experience(s)

Excellent story.

I ran into a guy from the Ukraine in the Lowes parking lot. He was all excited to actually see a 650 ural. Took pics with his phone and sent them to his brother. Says he use to ride his dad's around as a kid. He and his brother are restoring volgas.

My best so far was being corned by a guy in Chelan, who turned out to be a local reporter. Bruce's fame quotient increased.

At the parking lot car show, my dog keeps the gawkers at bay. My favorite thing to do is walk up and stand beside them and ask "what the hell is that?"

'75 Dnepr MT-9

glad that you finally posted
great rig
LOVE your story
i truly hope that you will become a much more active member of this fine community
please
thanks for sharing

Had quite a few UDF moments, and all of them enjoyable. Riding home on a 25mph neighborhood street...and knowing that there were cops -a-plenty...I stayed the 25 per the sign.....Hear a big ol hi-road 4 wheeler pull up behind me, rev the engine, gun, brake, rev, gun brake...saw in the mirror that the truck was tricked out with 'teeth' made out of sheet metal. bumper about neck high to me...and figured...oh boy...bubba doesn't like doin' 25!

I waved him around, he refused...kept honking, revving, gunning...and I figured...this guy is a major jerk.....and was ready to just pull into the nearest driveway to get out of this guys line of sight.....Come to a light, stop and bubba hollers out to me..."pull over' in the parking lot...pull over!...I knew the bar, was more of a HD roughneck biker hang out, and was gauging my options...The day was clear, plenty of traffic, so I didn't feel 'too' threatened...so I pull into the lot. Bubba comes into the almost on 2 of his 4 big ol wheels...he jumps out and starts ranting.....but then I realize that he is actually saying...holy sh#$ dude...that is the most radical set of wheels I have ever seen...I gotta take a picture...can I take a picture?....Then the guys come out of the bar...bikers and such...and out come the phone cameras...taking shots of every little detail, asking questions...Then they insist on me coming into the bar for a brew...then a steak...then the fries...then another brew...in and out of the bar to talk about the bike...I was 3 hours late getting home and loved it! Still ride with some of the guys...but I'm always at the back of the pack...picking up parts that they drop along the road....don't cha know!!..lol

Delay factor in Russia too:

Police:
I have been stop several time by police only to allowed them to have a close look at the Ural, the only half of the documents and nether one of them as checked the engine and frame numbers..

What to do when you are on your new Ural Gear Up (without license plate...) and you see those 2 bikes?
You stop to take pictures and talk with the two policemen
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In August just before the Bike Show, we decided to go on a place with a panoramic view of the city, just at the exit of the town, 3 cops were controlling the cars, when we arrived they just great us
But in fact they were supposed to stop us, no helmets and no licence plate for me... No delay factor...




"Public":
98% always the same question: how much it cost?
Even in the traffic some drivers will just open their window and ask for it.
1% will ask the year
1% will ask the brand (...)
People will horn to great you or even like recently with 2 guys, they slow down close to me, open the window and Little detail they were on a brand new S63 AMG...

I posted this in the stupid things people ask you when stopped section too. I'm leaving a store the other day with a fresh keg strapped in my sidecar. A guy comes up, oogles the rig, tells me about his friend who was killed on a "crotch rocket" years ago, then proceeds to ask me some questions.

Dumbass: "Does the sidecar have a quick release?"

Me: "Well, yeah, just these four bolts and it is off. It takes me about ten minutes to drop the car."

Dumbass: "Well that's not much help, is it?"

Me: "What do you mean?"

Dumbass: "You have to have a quick release so you can drop the sidecar and lay her down if you get in a jam."

Me: "Oh yeah. Thanks for telling me. I never thought about that."

Now, this wasn't some squid with a flat billed hat. This dude was in his 40's. Glad he knew what I needed to be safe. I'm going to get right on fabricating that James Bond quick release!

Sent from my Droid 2 Global using Typotalk 2

I lay 'er down on the other side with the chair in the air. Damn amateurs.

I had a positive delay factor experience today while out doing some personal stuff. An elderly gent in his 80's came up to me in the carpark that I was in and started chatting and complimenting how good my outfit was. Turns out the guy used to have a early Triumph Thunderbird and Tilbrook or Murphy combo ( can't remember which one, was made in South Oz anyway). Anyway in my stupidity of being in a hurry I forgot to ask him if he was interested in a ride someday. Now I feel bad for not asking.

Two words of wisdom: exploding bolts................

Keep yer finger on the trigger.

I don't know about exploding bolts, but I did have an exploding castle nut two weeks ago. I almost lost the sidecar wheel on the Bonnie rig. :eek1

The wife and i went to an airshow in plymouth ma. labor day weekend, we were in my bmw with ural chair and this old guy with a walker comes up to me and says, bmw huh, i shot a german in the head in africa riding a bike just like this. i replied i don't think it was like this one, he said yup, just like this, then his daughter said, come on dad, lets go, kinda freaked me out and i'm a combat vet.
marko

I was struck with some SDF this weekend...and I wasn't even on the sidecar.

MrsDonkeys and I decided to head to Lowe's, and took Bryson (our furry child) in the Jeep. We were walking him in and someone stops us.

Them: Hi. Beautiful dog. What is he?

Us: He's a giant schnauzer

Them: Oh! That's the dog that rides the red sidecar!

Us: Yep, this is him.

After twenty minutes of sidecar questions, we finally walked in the store.

Sent from the voices in my head, and transcribed by their drinking
buddy.

On dual-sport rides, peeps telling us that we can't get this up an option then the long chats after we do it

I can contribute a little to. Great thread, fun to read.
This last summer I was taking one of rides around Mt Rainier and stopped to take a picture (all ready have lots) when I was approached by another bike rider also stopped. He had lots of questions about the rig and stated he had always wanted a ride in a sidecar. He asked if I was coming back this way? I indicated I was doing the loop around & through the park. He wanted a ride, so I dumped the water out of my two plastic water containers I use for ballast, he secured his bike and off we went. We went through Mt Rainier park, out the other side, back up HWY 12 to the the other park entrance and eventually back to his bike which was still thee on the side of the road. I think it was a little longer ride than he planned on, but he didn't complain.

I just suffered from SDF...on the phone. It started with a call to USAA about my Ural. After some quick verification that all was OK with my policy, the person on the phone gets a bit chatty. No big deal, USAA reps are typically very friendly, so I don't think much of it. Then he asks "I see the motorcycle is a Ural Gear-Up. Do you mind me asking exactly what that is?" A few minutes of conversation transpired, and next thing I know he's googling to pull up the Ural website.

Sounds like I may have just recruited Soviet Steeds next member.

I got one. Thanks for the tip.

Awesome!

Sent from the voices in my head and transcribed by their drinking buddy...

Last Sunday afternoon my pre-superbowl preparations were interrupted by the arrival of our two neices, aged seven and five. The girls ran into the house chanting, "sidecar ride, sidecar ride!". So, after outfitting the girls in their pink helmets and riding jackets, I loaded them into the seat of my 1980 BMW R100/EML Touring car and set off on a tour of the town. The combination of a classic rigid hack, custom chameleon paint job, and the two cute little girls in the sidecar drew big smiles and waves all over town. Unfortunately, three times during our ride, admiring drivers were so distracted by either craning their necks to stare or leaning out of the window to wave and holler at the girls that they steered their vehicles out of their lane and nearly caused accidents. One guy was so intent on waving to the girls that he drove his pickup up and over the curb in his right turn lane. After we had been out for half an hour, Abbi ( the older one ) sighed real big and asked if we could head for home now cause she was getting tired of waving!