January 04, 2008 Kevin's Comments

I had never driven a sidecar rig. Since we started this adventure, I have ridden about 800 miles on the K1200 LT before we delivered it to Claude for the sidecar. I have also since logged over 3000 road miles on my Suzuki DR350R and another 2000 on my Suzuki 650 V Strom I bought in October. Now I have many years of dirt experience, and I think now a tiny bit of street experience.
The sidecar rig has it's own character, pulling to the left on braking and to the right on acceleration. It takes a bit of getting used to, but I don't have to think too much about the steering usually, as I have also logged many miles on a snowmobile. The sidecar ride seems more similar to it than a motorcycle. It seemed very much like a short track sled with great traction.
There was one tense moment when I was going maybe a tiny bit fast on a two lane that curved right but was not sloped right, but rather flat. As I applied brake I drifted left of the centerline and as I got more concerned I braked harder, worsening the drift. I have learned that the thing to do is let up on the brake, and it will stop pulling left. And in fact if I applied a bit of throttle, it would drift to the right again, "steering" to the right.
The K1200 LT does have plenty of power to pull the car and 3 passengers, and the brakes have plenty of stopping power, in fact they still seem a little touchy. But there is much less danger of dropping it when the front brake grabs with the sidecar holding you up! Claude, the builder, took great pains to explain to me what to expect about the ride, braking and handling. The rig is already very stable, even though it is not set up yet. With just myself on the bike and an empty sidecar, it is possible to fly the sidecar, and Claude had me do it as well as other maneuvers to be sure there would be no surprises.
With just a partial windshield installed there is very little wind on Dan and he was warm on both days except where his arms were up against the bare aluminum---it will be upholstered when it's finished. And we still have heated clothing to use if we decide to ride in colder weather. Most of our test was done between 35 and 45 degrees F.
We did well over 150 miles in two days, so we are looking forward to doing many long rides together, and using this as our 'toad' vehicle when we get away in our motorhome.
So it's back in Claude's hands to lower the windshield and move it back a bit, fabricate the wheelchair hold down system, upholster and pad the interior, add lights, powder coat the body and have a soft top made. We will also have the K1200 steering geometry changed to make the steering lighter and a few other tweaks and farkles added to the sidecar.
Can't wait to ride it again!