When I bought the GS this summer, the first thing my 4 year old said upon seeing is was "Can we hook the bike trailer up to it?" I had to laugh at that, but I understand where the little guy is coming from. Motorcyles are intrinsically cool--even to 4 year olds.
I've been thinking a lot about side cars lately. I know I can't hook one up to the GS, but it would be wonderful to share in the joy of motorcycling with my sons and my wife.
Anyone here have any experience with sidecars? What are your thoughts (I know, this is a sportsbike crowd)?
Chilly
Why couldn't you hook one up to the GS? It'd work fine...seen it, even. You can put a sidecar on anything.
I've riden with them and in them. In them is...meh...it's a lot more comfy becuase most have like a freakin barkolounger in them and you can stretch out a bit. On the bikes with them is more work...it's a little harder to manuever and handle the bike but only because your natural movements don't apply. The majoraty of the differnce lies in the lack of leaning. You have to actually steer both ways...this is why sidecars are all pretty wide (counter balance for when you want to turn left).
I've always liked the idea of a sidecar because I'm not man enough to pick a Goldwing up if it falls over, I like solo-bikes, and kalee likes riding with me. It just removes from the bike experience a little.
Cool--thanks Mak! I just assumed I wouldn't be able to add one on to the GS because I've mostly only seen Urals with sidecars. Yeah, I've heard that steering is pretty different. Our local MSF program out here has a specific sidecar class for that reason.
Ah well, someday...
Chilly
yeah there are gs's with sidecars... one sold on ebay a while back.
Here is a post... http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=20882.0
About a year ago there was another GS on ebay w/ a sweet.. matching side car :thumb:
(http://www.kok-mc.dk/Brugte/gs500velorexa.JPG)
I would like to have a Ural or Dnepr sidecar rig. There's a guy about 150 miles away in Cleveland that imports the Dnepr sidecar rigs. You can pick up the unassembled version with 2wd (yes 2wd, the shaft drives the rear wheel and sidecar wheel) for about 4 grand. They are very cool and still basically built with 1940's BMW tech. They are finally starting to upgrade to electronic ignitions though which will help in a big way. The problem with the Dnepr's is that you pay 4K for a new one and you're still going to spend quite a bit of time tinkering and troubleshooting, which is not a real problem if you like to toy around with bikes.
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Jake