Countless Corners from Adventure Sidecar on Vimeo.
Bring your own sidecar or rent one of ours;
call Hood River Community Education to sign up! (541)386-2055
Roger stopped by on his way home from Alaska. He kindly agreed to help me check the route for the Adventure Sidecar September 17~19, 2010 Eastern Columbia Gorge Mini Tour I laid out about 130 mile round trip and it took us 7 hours, including stops. Here are a few photos:
Countless Corners from Adventure Sidecar on Vimeo.
We stopped at Fairbanks to wire tamales to the headers
Fairbanks was a waypoint on the Oregon Trail. All that remains of Fairbanks is an abandoned pioneer schoolhouse and this monument
We headed up Moody Road for a picnic on the cliffs overlooking the Columbia River high above the Native American village of Celilo
We dropped back down off Moody road and continued our meander through the farmlands and ghost towns of Wasco County
Mt.Hood towered above the rolling wheatfields
Mt.Adams poking up behind a derelict one room school house
Mt.Hood from the schoolhouse coat room
Shades of the dustbowl: That brown smudge I am riding into is the 35mph winds lifting the topsoil off a freshly plowed wheat field
Place names and ghost towns of the Old West
We rolled into Rice, once a thriving community, now a few decaying wood grain silos and a pioneer cementary
I would have missed this old grave yard if Roger hadn’t spotted it on the other side of a pasture behind the grain silo
The Rice family plot
A calvary officers grave
As the sun dropped in the West, we climbed over the ridge and headed home
We’d left just after noon and got home just before sunset. It was a great ride! The tour will be every bit as good!
September 17~19, 2010 Eastern Columbia Gorge Mini Tour
Offered through Hood River Community Education
Fee $550
Sidecars, lodging and meals are not included.
Bring your own sidecar or rent one of ours.
September 17~19, 2010 Eastern Columbia Gorge Mini Tour
Offered through Hood River Community Education
Fee $550
Sidecars, lodging and meals are not included.
Bring your own sidecar or rent one of ours.
__________________
the Red Menace
the Red Menace
Tags: Adventure Sidecar, KLR, Oregon, Sidecar Fun, Sidecars, Training, Ural
SkidMark from Adventure Sidecar on Vimeo.
Coming upon an unexpected car in his path, this rider goes wide to avoid it, effectively turning this into a decreasing radius, downhill, right hand turn. He has almost completed the turn when he gets nervous and pegs the rear brake, sliding out of his lane to the opposite shoulder.
He made a series of mistakes, compounded by fatigue and an unfamiliar bike. He should have used both brakes to slow to a speed he was comfortable with before getting in the corner. He would have felt more stable and confident had he shifted his weight to the inside of the turn. Again, this should be done before entering the corner. He should have stayed off the rear brake once in the turn, relying on the front brake to control his speed. And he should have looked through the corner towards his intended path of travel. Instead he fixated on the opposite shoulder and he went directly there. The fact that the bike didn’t slew around and the skid mark is relatively straight suggests that he actually was steering towards the curb when he locked the brake.
This is probably the most common scenario for serious accidents involving sidecars: going wide in a right hand corner. Turning towards the sidecar tends to cause the sidecar to come up. Even when the sidecar wheel stays on the ground, this can be very unnerving for a novice rider. Combined with the fact that you do not countersteer a sidecar, this gets many riders in trouble, especially those with lots of 2 wheeled experience but little experience on 3 wheels. That is why we have the S/TEP classes. Even with the classes it takes lots of practice and saddle time to ingrain the reactions needed to avoid this type of mishap.
Sidecar instruction is available through Adventure Sidecar
adventuresidecar.com
The Sputnik is a nice low end sidecar from Russia. No longer manufactured as far as I know, they are often found used at around $1000.
With a steel body and a slightly heavier chassis, it is a little more robust than the Velorex. A locking trunk is standard. They are a good match for a light or medium sized bike but a little light both in construction and overall weight for heavier bikes.
My biggest complaint with the Sputnik is the funky nose latch. It rattles, is hard to get latched and has sharp edges right where the passenger’s knees are.
I bought some latches from Mc Master Carr for about $15 and easily remedied this issue.
I drilled holes to mount the latches and used a pop rivet gun to attach the hardware to the sidecar body (The right side is shown but I installed a matching latch on the other side).
THe OEM latch was easily removed. I happened to have some corks from some scotch which were a perfect fit for the bottom of the grab rail.
While I was dealing with sharp edges, I beveled the corners of the nose piece at the passenger compartment with an angle grinder and padded them with a little black tape.
Mission Accomplished!
My Brother, his son, Jon and I pre-ran the August tour route last weekend. (August 20~22, 2010 Dualsport Sidecar Skills Mini Tour $600) I wanted to make sure the route was passable and wasn’t unreasonably long. It includes the old Barlow Road, a pioneer wagon road at the end of the Oregon Trail. This has a few very rugged sections which should provide us with a fun, challenging ride! We sure had a good time checking it out!
we stopped often so I could take route notes
My fan stopped working fairly early on. We stopped and did some field tests. I ended up wiring in a connector which allowed me to hook the fan directly to the battery via my gps power outlet.
When we got to the Barlow Road, we paused to wire our lunch to the mufflers. We soon were riding through the woods accompanied by the fragrent aroma of Tamales cooking!
A hydration device, such as a camelbak, is a very good idea!
When we got back to pavement we felt we had accomplished something!
The Barlow Road is a rugged track. The pioneers had to lower the wagons down the steep sections with ropes and double up their teams to haul them back up the other side. It was an unimaginably hard trek and done after the cross country push across the Oregon Trail had worn them to the bone. Not every one survived the trail
For us, it was a challenging ride and an interesting glimpse into local history
Andy had some problems with his sidecar during the BlackDog. The Spirit of America chassis didn’t allow us to set it up with enough ground clearance and the suspension was way too soft!
The struts failed and he folded up the rig.
We decided to strip the bike and check for other damage and beef up the mounts.
While we were at it Andy decided to replace the suspension with a torsion stub axle. This allowed us to drop the axle below the chassis and dramatically increase the ground clearance while stiffening the suspension.
I cut off the swingarm and the shock mounts with the torch. Andy used the angle grinder to clean up afterwards.
Andy set the chassis up on blocks at the height he wanted it, clamped the axle in place, connected the bottom mounts and set the toe in and leanout to spec.
Then he marked the axle mount location on the bottom of the sidecar so he could drill holes for the bolts.
Nic thinks Andy’s new paint scheme is faster
Andy ended up with about 10″ of wheel lead and 11 1/2″ of ground clearance
the hack is a little light without the body work
Andy decided to add some ballast for the test ride
It needs a little fine tuning, but Andy was happy with the initial test ride
We have our first Advanced Class/Mini Tour scheduled for July 16~18, 2010. We rode out July 3rd to check the Western Gorge Mini Tour route. Amy hopped in the sidecar and my brother, David, joined us aboard his Harley.
We crossed over to Washington and headed up SR14
Road construction was halted for the holiday weekend, but it looks like I may need to find a work around for this leg.
We crossed the Columbia back into Oregon on the Bridge of the Gods
A short hop on the freeway brought us to the backdoor of the Old Highway and, eventually, Multnomah Falls.
We wound our way up to Crown Point
After a lunch break we looped back around Mt.Hood
I picked up a hitch hiker near ZigZag, when Smokey the Bear hopped in the hack
Some of the route had Dave dirtbikin’ the Hawg
The Rhodies and the Bear Grass were in bloom at the higher elevations.
Dave “It is a dualsport bike if I say it’s a dualsport bike!”
Raker Point
A single lane paved go-kart track through the woods-perfect!
We dropped off the mountain into the lush farmland of the Hood River Valley
We had a lovely day of riding;150 miles of beautiful, twisting roads down through the Columbia River Gorge and back up over the flanks of Mt.Hood.
Join Adventure Sidecar on the Western Gorge Mini Tour July 16~18,2010
I just got off the phone with Tawm. Adventure Sidecar will once again be providing the sidecar trophy for the BlackDog Dualsport Rally.
The rally is Saturday and Sunday June 5 & 6 with a special night ride Friday evening. The BlackDog stages out of Hood River County Fairgrounds in Odell, Oregon USA
Get your roll chart holders and tripmeters rigged and join us. Mr.Cob will unveil his Predator Ural rig there
(photo courtesy of Dave”Mr.Cob” Hooker)
and I know at least 3 KLR sidecar teams are planning to be riding. This is too much fun to pass up, come to Hood River and join us!
More info at: http://www.blackdogdualsport.com/bd_events.htm
With a sidecar, I usually set up the rollchart and tripmeter on the sidecar so the passenger can do the navigation. I like to set it up so the driver can look over and see it and have the GPS on the handlebars to use as a back up tripmeter. It’s more fun when the monkey and the pilot can act as a team. This allows you to stop less and concentrate on your driving.
Pay attention to the roll chart-it has important information!
If you have spare airfilters, bring ‘em- you have been warned!
http://adventuresidecar.com/three_legged_dog.htm
Check out what Tawm sez about rollchart holders here:
http://www.blackdogdualsport.com/rollchart.htm
If you haven’t done the BlackDog before, surf blackdogdualsport.com there is a ton of information hidden on Tawm’s site!
Adventure Sidecar’s first S/TEP class for 2010 is a week away! The bikes are prepped and the field is ready.
I was at it 4 1/2 hours yesterday and I finally finished getting the field set up.
We got word from one of the students coming out for the May class. He ’s just left Utah, drivng out for a camping vacation, culminating with the Adventure Sidecar class in Hood River. Should be a fun trip! He has been haunting the sidecar chats for a while now, and the S/TEP class is part of his research. I understand he is interested in getting a Ural if he finds he enjoys sidecars-we will try to ensure he has a fantastic experience here!
Yesterday was cool, but the sun was nice, and the high clouds streaming across the mountains made for a dramatic backdrop as I paced off the course and set out the rest of the marks.
Looking forward to seeing you in a sidecar class soon!