Wheelchair sidecar build

[IsAnOzzie]

So the frame is orange.
I think I just passed my eye test.

[downunder123]

Originally Posted by Medic

Is this the same machine I saw last week at Haighslea?

I feel like I've already read the last page of a good book.

Keep it up mate!

Christo.

G'day mate, yes, Haighslea was the outfits first trip up the motorway at speed. Power was no longer a problem (compared to the 125) but the windblast was. I'm trying to get back to Dave's soon to fit a screen of some sort.

Great museum isn't it. I'd heard about it but was my first visit. Frustrating not being able to get around all sides of the bikes from the sheer number but was great to see in the flesh many i had only seen in books. The new / old Vincents blew me away amongst many many others.

[bk brkr baker]

Fantastic design and execution !
Enjoy your new rig !

[downunder123]

Skip forward a couple of weeks from these last shots taken in febuary to mid March. I took delivery the day of the 1st test ride, a trip around the block, adjust the steering weight to position 1 from 3. Another spin around the block and pull in to adjust the relative position of the throttle / brake adaption I use. Final spin and all is good, I’m off home, 16km in a Brisbane summer downpour.

A couple of fine tuning sessions over the following two weeks to adjust the toe-in. We ended up with 13mm over the bikes wheelbase. With this there is the very slightest run to the right hands off but no major movement under power or off power at any speed. No headshake and tracks straight over all pot holes that I have hit so far (no steering dampener is fitted). I really can’t say enough about the handling.

Four weeks from delivery and I have a mudguard fitted, about 1200km on the clock and the brake problem sorted. The following is a series of photos taken last weekend, late April 2011.























I love this outfit! Cheers!

[Medic]

Very nicely turned out mate! Very smart looking unit.

[cleatusj]

The frame color matches her dress so well.

[btcn]

Man, thats just AWESOME! When I first saw it's pic over at Battlescooters, I thought you had just built it for a cool wild scoot, didn't know it was to ride with a wheelchair! Just looks so cool!

It just amazes me how well it was built. I could only imagine the difficulty and hard work that went into designing and building it.

I'm glad it worked out for you and that you can still enjoy riding! Have fun on it!

[woody's wheel works]

G'day downunder123,,,,

have been keeping an eye out on your awesome progress from up yonder in the rockies,,,

you have made me re-think the entire 'chariot' sidecar/on-board wheelchair controlled solution,,the rigs of yore were truly death-traps/accidents waiting to happen.

FYI,,,my entire career,,i have used my skills not just building designing/repairing wheels but also creating solutions for any of my wounded/physically challenged road-racing buddies at first and then all motorcyclists and eventually anyone that wanted to do X,Y n Z again....
some fun stories are in the 'about 'link..you'll chuckle 'cuz ' many of my journey's have led me down under on numerous occasions
www.supelite.org

...anyway,,,long story short,,,as i mentioned ,,i may have threown the proverbial 'baby out with the bath-water' by dissing this concept,,

when the gimps in my life wanted to 'ride again' or go 'skiing again',,well i was dissatisfied with the prevailing solutions,,,IMHO and BWOE,,,riding one of those contraptions or getting a trike and/or a sidecar was not riding your motorcycle again,,nor was sliding down the mountain on a fiberglass toboggan with an ice pick in each hand skiing...

do you see where i'm coming from,,it was like 'hey!!,,don't tease me with that crap!!!i want to SKI!!!,,,, i want to RIDE!!

hence ,focusing my energies on designing a mono-ski that had suspension[what aconcept!!] with self-loading capabilities or a variety of shifting sytems for amputees,,stabilization systems that take the roads surface/angle into account etc.

participating in the 'first transcontinental solar car race in '87 from Darwin to Adelaide,,,proved what works and what works better,,,,there is a pecking order in what designs are mor stable then others,,,,the trick is figuring out how fast you wnt to drive again and over what kind of terrain and accepting the limits of what ya have mother nature is a cruel mistress if ya go outside her boundaries
nuff of that,,,go enjoy that mount of yours,,,

somewhere down the highway of life ya may want to look into the on the fly sidecar ride height adjust system,,,essentially a torsion bar system aka old VW bug suspension,,,with the torsion bars anchor point being capable of being rotated a few degrees via an arm that is attached to essentially an RV awning actuator drive/worm gear...when,ya push the 'up button it raises the side-car and vice-versa...so on the fly you can instantly adjust the stability and pull of the handle-bars....currently you compensate via your toe-in...Now visualize cruising down the road and instead of the rig pulling this way or that depending how heavy it is loaded,,,and instead with the push of the button you neutralize the effects of the load and can cruise in a straight line at whatever speed you choose with your hands off the bar

just for grins i learned i could actually steer the rig with just touching the ride height button...

so here's to ya
woody

[TouringDave]

Downunder, fantastic effort to all involved. Your daughter looks very happy with the results.

[downunder123]

Originally Posted by woody's wheel works

G'day downunder123,,,,

have been keeping an eye out on your awesome progress from up yonder in the rockies,,,

you have made me re-think the entire 'chariot' sidecar/on-board wheelchair controlled solution,,the rigs of yore were truly death-traps/accidents waiting to happen.

FYI,,,my entire career,,i have used my skills not just building designing/repairing wheels but also creating solutions for any of my wounded/physically challenged road-racing buddies at first and then all motorcyclists and eventually anyone that wanted to do X,Y n Z again....
some fun stories are in the 'about 'link..you'll chuckle 'cuz ' many of my journey's have led me down under on numerous occasions
www.supelite.org

...anyway,,,long story short,,,as i mentioned ,,i may have threown the proverbial 'baby out with the bath-water' by dissing this concept,,

when the gimps in my life wanted to 'ride again' or go 'skiing again',,well i was dissatisfied with the prevailing solutions,,,IMHO and BWOE,,,riding one of those contraptions or getting a trike and/or a sidecar was not riding your motorcycle again,,nor was sliding down the mountain on a fiberglass toboggan with an ice pick in each hand skiing...

do you see where i'm coming from,,it was like 'hey!!,,don't tease me with that crap!!!i want to SKI!!!,,,, i want to RIDE!!

hence ,focusing my energies on designing a mono-ski that had suspension[what aconcept!!] with self-loading capabilities or a variety of shifting sytems for amputees,,stabilization systems that take the roads surface/angle into account etc.

participating in the 'first transcontinental solar car race in '87 from Darwin to Adelaide,,,proved what works and what works better,,,,there is a pecking order in what designs are mor stable then others,,,,the trick is figuring out how fast you wnt to drive again and over what kind of terrain and accepting the limits of what ya have mother nature is a cruel mistress if ya go outside her boundaries
nuff of that,,,go enjoy that mount of yours,,,

Hiya Woody

thanks for the interesting reply. I was bummed off for a lot of years after the accident that put me into a wheelchair, not really participating in life and pissed off at the things I could no longer do, like ride my Ducati. Getting on the road again was a big deal for me on a lot of levels, but fundamentally it was about riding the countryside by myself experiencing the smells of a spring as you only can on a bike. This new outfit gives me more pleasure than the old Duc because I know more about living in the moment.

somewhere down the highway of life ya may want to look into the on the fly sidecar ride height adjust system,,,essentially a torsion bar system aka old VW bug suspension,,,with the torsion bars anchor point being capable of being rotated a few degrees via an arm that is attached to essentially an RV awning actuator drive/worm gear...when,ya push the 'up button it raises the side-car and vice-versa...so on the fly you can instantly adjust the stability and pull of the handle-bars....currently you compensate via your toe-in...Now visualize cruising down the road and instead of the rig pulling this way or that depending how heavy it is loaded,,,and instead with the push of the button you neutralize the effects of the load and can cruise in a straight line at whatever speed you choose with your hands off the bar

just for grins i learned i could actually steer the rig with just touching the ride height button...

so here's to ya
woody

I can see that having the ability to adjusting sidecar suspension height to account for load on the bike would be a lot of use if regularly taking a passenger. I’m solo mostly at the moment but hope to change that in the next few years as my girl grows. Would air adjustable shock with an on board compressor achieve the same? The engineering might be simpler?
Cheers Brett

[crotchrocket3000]

What's in the end of the exhaust ???

[RockyMtnRoadRash]

Originally Posted by downunder123

Anyone have any other ideas for a sidecar reverse?

Use the winch and Kedge the bastard out

Love the rig, mate. I think the WTF orange is actually a great complement to the blue scooty.

One less-important item that occurred to me is that the not-monkey-passenger will probably want something to hold onto with their hands, or at least some sides to the seating to keep them planted.

Can't wait to see more.

[vortexau]

Question originally asked by downunder123
Underseat will be a home for reverse gear as we have direct access to the rear wheel. Some sort of small motor with wheel that is push onto the bikes wheel is the plan. Anyone have any other ideas for a sidecar reverse?

Yamaha actually market a Reverse Gear kit (8FA-W4759-20-00) but its intended for '03~05 RX-1/ ER and '05~'07 RS Vector . . . . snowmobiles (skidoos).

RX-1 Reverse Gear Kit




There was discussion about friction-drive electric reverse in another thread: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...php?p=10975877

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On the issue of varying the lean-out at the sidecar wheel- there is this hand-controlled method from yesteryear:

(Click on image for 1337px × 1470px blowup)

[woody's wheel works]

Originally Posted by downunder123

Hiya Woody


I can see that having the ability to adjusting sidecar suspension height to account for load on the bike would be a lot of use if regularly taking a passenger. I’m solo mostly at the moment but hope to change that in the next few years as my girl grows. Would air adjustable shock with an on board compressor achieve the same? The engineering might be simpler?
Cheers Brett

G'day brett,,

i imagine you can raise/lower your ride height with a ''levelor'' shock absorber,,it will of course stiffen your sidecars suspension,,,whereas your suspension setting will remain the same in the version i mentioned....

it certainly is worth a try since it would essentially just require swapping the shock and installing either a seperately charged air tank or a mini compresssor ala Honda Gloldwings set-up

cheers,,woody

[downunder123]

Originally Posted by RockyMtnRoadRash

One less-important item that occurred to me is that the not-monkey-passenger will probably want something to hold onto with their hands, or at least some sides to the seating to keep them planted.

Can't wait to see more.

Yeah, agree. We had thought of mounting a sidecar body on the bike so she would be in the "sidecar" and totally restrained but it got abit complicated. It may have helped with the transport dept who decree kids need to be 8 yrs old "unless secured in a sidecar". I do intend to wait a few years for the monkey to get bigger so have a few years figure out the safest way to carry her.

Originally Posted by vortexau

There was discussion about friction-drive electric reverse in another thread: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...php?p=10975877

this is brillant, one of the reasons ADVRIDER is such a great site. I've never seen those caravan movers but they look ideal if they can be bought off the shelf and are reasonably compact. Thanks!