mountain bike

About off-road sidecars, racing and riding. Go here ONLY if you don't find an appropriate category below.

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John Wolverson
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B.M.X SIDECAR PROJECT.

Post by John Wolverson »

The main type that I use the most of is, go to furniture@work then click on office chairs.......it is the very first one in the group. But I first remove all of the powder coating, so that I can weld it easy, and when you come to paint the chassis the paint goes on better.

Bye for now.........Johnny W.
ton

mountainbike sidecar

Post by ton »

Dear Zixel,

Also in the Netherlands a mountainbike with sidecar is being built. I have been working on it for quite some time. The sidecar has an aluminium frame, uses disc brakes on all wheels and is a full suspension type. Both driver and passenger will pedal, such that the sidecar is equiped for both (moderate) downhill and uphill tracks.

I added some pictures below.

greetings,

Ton

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Zixel

Post by Zixel »

Wow cool! A Pedaling passenger is a brand new idea. But isnt it dangerous (for passenger legs if u jump)/
Whats this bike built for?
Please, post a later pics too when this monster will be finished (with pedals and stuff)

Hey, and do u soppose thet passenger will seat? How can lean out if he got seat?
Zixel

Post by Zixel »

Is there any news about handmade BMX sidehack?
And how can u comment a pedaling passenger idea?
ton

sidecar mountainbike

Post by ton »

Dear Zixel,

The mountainbike sidecar is meant for having fun on the wider tracks in forests and mountains where you usually get a bit bored cycling with an ordinary mountainbike looking for a nice fast single track. On these wider tracks you have space enough to do all the nice sidecar tricks: leaning out in left and right corners, making long slides in fast left corners and so on. The suspension and disc brakes take care that everthing remains save and the pedalling of both driver and "passenger" widen the area you can drive: so not only downhills where you need a ski lift to go uphill but everywhere where it is wide enough.

The sidecar is not built for hard core downhill and also not for marathon like events cycling for many hours, because, despite of the use of aluminium, it is still a 40 kg trike. Nevertheless, it is the very first high tech tandemlike sidecar. It is a prototype (actually, the second one, see below), and I am convinced that further development can bring the weight down to 30 to 35 kg.

The idea started 14 years ago and we developed a first prototype in 1994. Some pictures are shown below. The 55 kg monster, which is still alive by the way, directly showed that cycling by both driver and passenger is possible. In corners the passenger can lean out and the driver can continue to cycle. One drawback was the small room for the passenger to move from the saddle and lean out. In the current design this has been improved. We also quickly found out, that braking on the front and back wheels only does not work properly, so we included a sidecar brake as well.

For the Dutch readers, we participated in the Brinta Beach Classic, a 50 kg beach race, three times and managed to finish in time.

I will post new pictures later, but I have little time, so I might still need half a year to finish the project.

Ton
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Zixel

Post by Zixel »

Wow! Ive seen that yellow bike a handreds of times, but i didnt seen the pedals! WoW!

OK, so why do u think sidecars cant do hardcore downhills, and jumps?
And when i first seen your bike i started to think,"Wow, now with pedaling of both riders, that gonna be a really new generation of sidehacks for pure hardcore! Now it has the powers of solo!"
Am i wrong?

And u saying that this silver sidehack is 40kg? Is it just a frame?


And do u think that passenger's bar will fit for lean in and out comfortable?
And can u show me the pic of passenger's sit? I think a bmx sit with "dick" sowed-off will fit perfectly.

Do u already plan to make a 3rd prototype? How do u plan to make it lighter? The frame looks very complex. Do u plan to get rid of some tubes?

Whats Brinta Beach Classic? KInd of X-contry marathon? Did u ride with solos?

And did u used any firm parts? Or everything is handmade?
And how do u decide a gearbox (donno how it in inglish for bikes)?
Two seporated gearboxes for both riders or one gearbox for both riders like on tandems

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ton

Dear Zixel

Post by ton »

Since we had many problems welding the aluminium tubes (I will not go into detail here) I do not plan to do hardcore downhill tracks. Simply, because I am not convinced it will last long enough. However, I am convinced that with the right aluminium tubes and welding hard core downhill with a sidecar is possible. Also the frame can be made much more simple if one uses bent/curved tubes. I simply did not have the opportunity at the time of manufacturing to bent the thicker tubes.

All tubes are plane 6005T6 aluminium tubes. Welded they are about 40 % less strong near the welded area. Post weld heat treatment is not carried out, since this is not possible with such a large frame for this type of aluminium. If one decides to use 7005 or 7020 aluminum grades, which are often used for aluminium bikes nowadays, the material strength will come back in time after welding. This means one can use thinner tubes for the same strength of the frame. So I am convinced that with the experience gained with the current frame it is possible to manufacture a stronger yet lighter frame that is fully hardcore downhill prove!

The weight of the current sidecar will be around 40 kg including everything. The front fork is a Marzocchi Monster T with a suspension range of 17.5 cm (a bit too large, will be downgraded to about 14 cm in the near future). Rear wheel has a Fifth element shock and the sidecar wheel a manitou Four way. The disc brakes are manufactured by Hope (Hope T4 on back wheel and sidecar wheel, Ti6 on front wheel), gear box (to keep in line with your words) is by SRAM (X9). The passenger also has a smaller gear box to enables him to choose his gear with respect to the driver. The driver then has the usual configuration with three front chain wheels and nine rear chain wheels. There will be an additional axle to transfer the power of the passenger to the driver. On the picture of the yellow bike you can see if you look carefully a black axle in the sidecar front. Look how the chain of the passenger goes to the front of the sidecar. Then you will find it. Hopefully you can follow me!

The passenger will have a saddle just like the driver. We have to find out the best place, shape and size of the saddle by test driving. The location of the saddle can be found looking at the first series of pictures.

By the way, I do not plan a 3rd prototype, since I do not have the time and the money to accomplish it. My family also needs a father! Yet, I can be very helpful to those who want to manufacture a lighter and stronger sidecar.

The Brinta Beach Classic is a 50 km drive over the Dutch beach usually with lots of rain and wind.
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dirtgrazer
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Location: Seattle,USA

Post by dirtgrazer »

Ah yes sidecar BMX !
In The mid 70s An occasional sidecar 20 inch ride would show up. Even more of a surprise this was in the U.S. The spectators would go nuts. Now days if you mention a sidecar at the downhill mountainbike races. You are considered a lunitic. "Are you some kind of crazy bastard" Oh the good ol' days.
The Pacific Northwest needs to be introduced to the world of sidecar racing
Zixel

Post by Zixel »

dirtgrazer wrote:Ah yes sidecar BMX !
In The mid 70s An occasional sidecar 20 inch ride would show up. Even more of a surprise this was in the U.S. The spectators would go nuts. Now days if you mention a sidecar at the downhill mountainbike races. You are considered a lunitic. "Are you some kind of crazy bastard" Oh the good ol' days.
What about BMX sidehack with pedaled sidecar? Is tis possoble? Making an MTB is super expensive.
ton

full suspension mountain bike with sidecar

Post by ton »

Dear sidecar friends,

Here some first action pictures of our sidecar. The first 35 km of sidecar mountain biking were quite successful! More pictures later.

Ton

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Zixel

Post by Zixel »

So! So many time passed, did any one made the BMX i wonder?
Look, interesting, why BMX's side wheel's axel situated on the same place where the back wheel axel is? No leading to forward at all like on motorbikes. Look, why that?

http://anthonydomingo.com/hack/
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Scott
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Post by Scott »

Some more old California sidecar BMX from VintageBMX.com here:
http://www.vintagebmx.com/cgi-bin/ultim ... 026562;p=2
some originally from here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rappensunc ... et-998646/

I think my former Dakar passenger Duane McDowell is in one or two of these photos.

Related movie (solo & sidecar) featuring some of these guys, available on DVD: Joe Kid on a Sting-Ray

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Al Wenzel
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Nostalgic.....

Post by Al Wenzel »

Hey Scott,

Thanks for the nostalgia trip!!! It perked up my day (I wound up sitting in my office looking at links to old BMX pictures for a good part of the afternoon).

Somewhere, I've got my BMX sidehack frame/forks and 3 Tuff Wheels from back then.

Cheers,

Al,
Sidecar MX is the ultimate Team Sport...
D_Ridyard

Post by D_Ridyard »

I dabbled in a brief BMX sidecar revival back in my teens and have a few pictures I can share. I'll see what I can come up with tonight. :)
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Sam Van Tongerloo
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Post by Sam Van Tongerloo »

i do this sport "solo", and i saw them ride, it's sick, closest thing i know to SMX..

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