New Owner

[KC the dog]

Am on the road and my service manual with the electrical diagram is backing Texas. Will be there in a week. If I I can, I'll send you the diagram.

Likes like a VW steering damper, The mount on the fat end should be in a straight line with the damper. As it is it will tend to twist around the mount.
Have any steering mods been made? i.e. custom triple trees. Sidecar rigs and trikes like a reduced trail on the front. Makes for easier steering.

Post a Wanted in the Classified here. I sold mine but they were yellow. Not sure if yours are OEM or aftermarket.

The Roadster and the Touring models are not exactly the same, a Touring owner might answer some these questions for you.

Thanks for the info. I just found the paperwork and it is a VW steering damper. I will check the alignment tomorrow. As far as I know the front end is stock.
The turn signal lenses are factory.
Any suggestions on a tach?

 

[MIG]

WELCOME!! from Miami, FL...
-MIG

 

[dirtydr]

WELCOME!! from Miami, FL...
-MIG

Hey jeeptrix

I am in Western Colorado and I currently have three sidecar rigs plus a 2006 Rocket III Custom that is down in Texas getting a sidecar installed. I cannot answer R3 specific questions but I am not bad with sidecars in general.

Dana

 

[TURBO200R4]

Hey jeeptrix

I am in Western Colorado and I currently have three sidecar rigs plus a 2006 Rocket II Custom that is down in Texas getting a sidecar installed. I cannot answer R3 specific questions but I am not bad with sidecars in general.

Dana

It amazes me how many different speailists we have on this forum.

 

[CCjon]

On the Touring model, the right front indicator has a GW (green/white) wire with a black ground wire. GR (green/red) wire is for the left indicator.

Several Touring guys here have added an aftermarket tach, try a word search in the Mods section. The roadster come with a factory tach so personally have not looked in to that.

How are you liking your new rig? Is this your first sidecar? Check out sidecar.com and the Hacks section of AdvRider for detailed information on hacks.

I ordered and installed a raked triple tree to improve the steering response on my roadster. Also added a steering damper. Makes handling smoother and easier for long distance rides. A throttle lock helps on those long rides too.

 

[KC the dog]

On the Touring model, the right front indicator has a GW (green/white) wire with a black ground wire. GR (green/red) wire is for the left indicator.

Several Touring guys here have added an aftermarket tach, try a word search in the Mods section. The roadster come with a factory tach so personally have not looked in to that.

How are you liking your new rig? Is this your first sidecar? Check out sidecar.com and the Hacks section of AdvRider for detailed information on hacks.

I ordered and installed a raked triple tree to improve the steering response on my roadster. Also added a steering damper. Makes handling smoother and easier for long distance rides. A throttle lock helps on those long rides too.

This is my first side car. The wife liked it so much I bought it without driving it. I would not have bought it if I had driven it. I guess it will just take time getting used to how it handles. But that said it has been fun figuring out all the systems and re doing a lot on the bike. The prior owner replaced the front fork springs with some progressive ones and the thing goes out of control when hitting certain bumps. Bad shimmy. Could be out of oil, out of balance (but at freeway speeds it is smooth) or just bad springs. Once I find out how to replace the fork springs I will put the factory ones back in. It is a Champion side car with a DMC mounting kit. Very weird mounting hardware as you can see from the prior photos. A throttle lock is in the future. Just ordered LED turn signal bulbs for the bike to match the sidecar's. It had three batteries installed "for extra amps". Since it won't start on just one battery time for a new one. All that aside we are looking forward to some road trips this fall. The bike looks great and gets a lot of attention.

 

[TURBO200R4]

The original front shocks were weak most of us changed to the progressive and they worked great. some had trouble with the mounting because when they cut the springs it left some material on them that u had to take a die grinder and clean it up.
a lot of us have went to the 2.4 Toyota starter instead of original 2.2 and it turns over very good.

 

[CCjon]

Every sidecar is a custom job, no two are ever exactly alike even using the same bike, i.e. an R3. They all have their "headshake", at about 26-32 mph. some more than others. We just power thru it. If is a more serious shake, there is no one solution, it can range from adding tire pressure to steering damper to alignment. Start with the least expensive solutions, like adding tire pressure and work your way up the line.

Try to find an experienced sidecar owner in your area that can help you sort it out. Your being new to sidecars it can be intimidating at first because of all the new variables involved in dialing it in. Since the previous owners put a lot of miles on it, I would assume it was set up okay. Learning to pilot a sidecar is not difficult, it's just different. You will need to unlearn some riding habits, like diving into curves and corners. Do that and your sidecar will be off the road, bouncing against curbs, rocks and potholes causing you to lose control.

When accelerating the rig will pull to the right, to the left when braking. This is normal. Taking a right turn too fast and the chair will "fly" on you. Not good, even dangerous, until you practice and learn to control the flying. During practice on a large empty parking lot, intentionally make the chair fly to get use to the feeling. Then you won't panic when it happens on the road. Many add ballast to the chair to keep it from flying when riding without a passenger. A couple cases of bottled water will do the trick. Never ride with two adults on the bike with the chair empty or with only a small child in it. You want to keep your weight more balanced between the two. Also don't put heavy weight in the nose of the sidecar, is safest over the axle.

Get the yellow book if you haven't already Riding a Sidecar Outfit - Must have sidecar training manual | DMC Sidecars
It has tips, hints and exercises to practice to make you a safer sidecar pilot.

Several have added steel plates to the sidecar frame as added weight. The R3 can handle any weight you want to put there.

Stay with the progressive front springs, changing springs in the R3 forks is a major undertaking, requiring special tools. The progressives are much better than the stock springs.

Many go with a car battery for more juice when turning over the engine. Carrying that larger battery is no problem for a sidecar, often is mounted between the bike and the sidecar. With the R3, it is documented that running a larger or additional ground wire to the engine helps with starting. As Turbo suggested, the Toyota 2.4 starter is an easy fit and much less expensive than the Triumph starter.

That's my two cents for today. Be glad to answer any sidecar question for you.