What's the possibility of mounting up a side car to my F3-T .. Anyone ever done it?

[fatenhappy]

Will the laws in Australia allow you to have 4 wheels. It probably would not fall under the law for trailers, since it will carry a passenger. Something to check before you get too far into it.

Spyders here in Qld are registered as a trike and trikes are registered 'under' motorcycle legislation which is Section 12B - (motor cycles registered to carry a pillion passenger) ... The current legislation having read it from cover to cover specifically goes in to how a side car must comply with attachment and to what standard of engineering but no where does it mention maximum wheels the unit is allowed to have in total.

Since their is no specific case saying no, I am going full steam ahead and will make sure everything is carried out to a high engineering standard.

As part of the legislation there is no where either that states the side car has to be formally inspected or registered, it just gives its maximum width of the total unit and bike on the carriageway and states it must be fitted with an independent manual hand/park/emergency type brake call it what ever you will ... easy !

[fatenhappy]

Just mulling this over a little, & a couple of grey cells collided & went into auto gibber..... but maybe this might help your cogitation just a little. I've seen an RT down this way that had the entire LH Pannier removed basically cut off from the outside edge of the Pillion's LH handgrip assy, & a wheelchair rack affixed in place of that pannier.... and I reckon I've seen a pic of a similar RT that BRP had modified to install a motorised wheelchair lifter for a disabled Veteran. Bearing that in mind, I don't believe the F3-T's are really all that much different wrt their built in panniers, so maybe if you looked into taking the LH Pannier off in much the same way.... that should let you get the outfit tucked in closer to the thrust centreline by about 100-150mms or so, maybe even more, and thereby significantly reduce the drag & steering problems that fitting a chair would normally add. Just a thought at his stage, but still!

While I was thinking along those lines, pondering on the issues it could raise up front with steering etc, I thought that maybe if you use the rear-most front suspension frame mounting points (Upper? Lower? Both??) to secure a trailing link projecting out & back in order to locate the front end of your proposed outfits outrigger wheel, so you should be able to allow for enough 'adjustments' in the outrigger's wheel alignment (toe in/out etc) to help fix any tracking or steering issues. I alreadh discovered that it wasn't all that hard to 'convert' the OE frame end front suspension mounting points in order to make the front end a whole lot more 'fine-tunable' (snail screws & eccentric washers might be old hat, but hey, they work!) so I don't think the tracking & wheel alignment changes you'd need to sort would be too hard to overcome. Heck, make the outfits' outer skin or overall shape similar to just the LH half of the shape you've already drawn, tuck it right in close to where the LH pannier is (or was, if you remove it!) & you could very nearly slot most of the extra bulk in effectively behind the LH front wheel, with the outrigger wheel being the widest point of the whole lot but angled & suspended so that it doesn't add any significant drag or any significant tendency to 'fly' on hard LH turns.... it might add a little to your 'tightest turning circle' that way tho, but the extra inboard weight could make for 'rocket sled on rails' turns, & if you tie the chair suspension into the main bike's suspension with a supersized BajaRon Bar to transfer suspension compression, you might even get the same impact turning right too!! Get it right & there'd be no way you'd ever lift the inside front wheel again, whichever way you turn!!

This could be verrrry innnnterrresting, and a whole lotta fun too!! But could we raise it 150mm & stick on a set of knobbly muddies or off road tires to get it out & hit the fire tracks??

Believe it or not Peter, I have spent a lot and I mean a lot of today addressing exactly these same issues ...

Re; removing that left hand saddle bag ... I have been going thru the Qld Road laws with a fine tooth comb and the only hi-cup I have now come across is total width .. which they designate as 1860mm in total.

So back to the Spyder drawing board with a fine tooth comb - (knowing in the back of my mind the total standard width of the Spyder is already 1497mm (1500mm) ... So that gives me now a total of just 360mm more to the new limit point past the current extremity.

So I began by measuring from the outside of the left hand side of the machine's stabilizing bar (as seen when riding - which is the further most projecting point sticking out from that side of the bike - beside the foot pegs of course) to a point parallel and equal to the outside of the left forward wheel mudguard/fender ..... which is 550mm

I know I can only go out another 360mm so that is 910mm maximum from the outer most point of the side of the bike to the new total extremity of 1860mm.

I now measured the existing stock mudguard's width of a front wheel (at its widest point) which was 190mm which I have to deduct minimum from the extremity ...

So 190 - from my 910 width = 720mm ...

Although not a shed load to spare, when times are like they are now and my amputated stump has been playing up, I have been sitting in my wheel chair nearly all day every day for the past week ... so I am using it as my reference for spacial comfort. Now I am not a small bloke ... I am 6'3" and weigh 90 kilos (that's really close to 200lb in the old money) ... my wheel chair to the outside of the arm rests is 600mm so that gives me the better part of 120mm or n5" spare.

Now bare in mind you are exactly right Peter the left hand pannier will have to come off and be worked into the rear off side of the new adaption. In my mind that is no problem as I fully intend 'likening' the design of the side car to the existing F3 .... So the pannier at the rear on that side will suit as will another front grill similar to the Spyders existing and so on ...

I know its cutting things fine but hey, lifes a challenge.

I also noted the other requirement from the Departments web site is for a 'manual' handbrake to the side car wheel ... I guess that comes from horse and cart thinking but yea that's easy enough to achieve as well ...

So its still woo woo all steam ahead !

[fatenhappy]

And no, you are reading this correctly .... What's the possiblity of mounting up a side-car to my F3-T ... Anyone ever done it?

I'm a 66 year old lower left leg amputee .... love riding, always have. February just gone this year, I splashed out and bought my latest ride, a 2017 F3-T in the SE6 variant ... so all paddle shift auto - fantastic.

My wife has had MS for the passed 35 plus years.... (and in any case, being an ex nurse she is far from partial to motorcycles at all at any time ... In her words .... she has seen first hand all the damage that can come from them) .. Despite this I have always quietly tried to coherse, poke and and gently 'push' her towards relaxing and join me on any of the bikes over the years, but always to no avail.

Taking this into account I've still always had it in the back of my mind to some how, totally include Cathy as much as possible with this current ride as well. I was 99% sure when buying 'any' traditional bike, the pillion set up even physically for her could not work.

My quandry also right now is Cathy's MS is to the stage where she cannot self support very well and is extremely tentatively of taking more than just a couple of steps at all, unsupported.

So this has still been going over and over in my mind and for no particular reason, even more so of late.

Then just the other day and again for no particular reason, I thought ... I wonder if it would be possible to mount up a side car to the new Spyder ... To me this would be the perfect solution ... Previously and to tell the absolute truth, I had not even vaguely given any side car option a thought. I guess you just very rarely see them about, if at all these days.

Leading up to this revelation I now have Cathy to the stage where she would be keen to come along (so she now says) if I can find a way. To me the side car thought would be fantastic as all I need her to do would be sit in there and let the day go past and 'enjoy the ride'

Anyone had any experience with this type of 'adaption' for the Spyder ... Cheers and thanks in advance

Just a heads up with a quick edit ... I had also posted this same thread in the how to do it yourself section also looking for alternate comments from there. It appears I am not allowed to comment on more than one of the same thread .. fare enough ... also as an aside we are not allow to tow folks in a trailer in Australia end of story .. cheers and thanks again for your inputs ...

Well, it's been a couple of weeks of silence but everything has been literally ago and 'burning the mid-night oil' most nights to make sure things are right the first time.

Got to admit, I don't have things 110% right, just at the minute but probably at least a minimum of 95% the way there …

I am basing everything on the European - 'Schwenker - Swing - Sidecar' system ... These sidecars are as close as I have ever found for a suitable basis to my thoughts ... I

All guns are blazing so the unit drops totally to ground level ... (this has been the total hold up in the design) ... all so as to service Cathy's MS as best I can …

Maybe another week or two and I should be right to build the initial 'trial' mock up before the real thing .... (I would prefer to get everything sorted right at the get go rather than going back, time and time again) ... This sort of things reminds me a lot of doing trials with aircraft mods ....

[tim1]

Hey buddy, for what it is worth, there is a sidecar guru in Washinton Named Jay at Dauntless Sidecars and he truly is amazing. It would not hurt to pick his brain a bit, he is old like us and has many mile on sidecars. His shop build custom rigs. Project looks doable. Tim

[fatenhappy]

Hey buddy, for what it is worth, there is a sidecar guru in Washinton Named Jay at Dauntless Sidecars and he truly is amazing. It would not hurt to pick his brain a bit, he is old like us and has many mile on sidecars. His shop build custom rigs. Project looks doable. Tim

Appreciate your thoughts Tim … My only problem with the suggestion is I am based in Queensland Australia … However, I will still have sniff about and see if he has anything listed on the web .. thanks again !

[dirrad]

Here's a concept to think about....
Can-Am Spyder Sidepod Concept.jpg
Can-Am Spyder Sidepod Concept 1.jpg

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Here's a concept to think about....
Can-Am Spyder Sidepod Concept.jpg
Can-Am Spyder Sidepod Concept 1.jpg

Well they look great on PAPER .... and I think the OP never made any headway with His Dream .... He hasn't been on this site since Nov. of 2018 .... I think that says where His project has progressed to ..... JMHO .... Mike

[Mikey]

Hopefully he got a nice little convertible sports car and flipped the top down, and is riding the heck out it!!