Part 2 Gaining Skill
Reprinted from the September, 2007 BMW Owners News, with permission of the BMW MOA and David L. Hough.
by, David L. Hough
The first portion of this article can be found here.
Cornering Tactics
If you’ve managed to steer a sidecar rig around the basic “figure-8” and have learned to brake in both straight lines and in turns, it’s time to move on to some advanced skills. We’re not talking racing tactics here; just control techniques that can help you keep a hack under control on public roads. If you only want to putter down secondary roads and around the curves at a modest pace, you can creep around without doing anything dramatic. But you do need to be prepared for road hazards such as decreasing-radius or offcamber turns, or drivers wandering over the centerline.
The more aggressively you corner, the more important it is to move your weight around on the outfit. Hanging off—moving your body weight from side to side in corners—isn’t just to control tipovers, but also to reduce steering effort. Driving my sidecar rig, I hang off farther and more frequently than I ever do when riding one of my two-wheelers. It’s a lot more work than riding a two-wheeler, but I find it a lot of fun.
If you’ve practiced those basic exercises with ballast in the car, it’s time to master an outfit without ballast—unless you’re driving a very lightweight rig. Try that “shade tree” balance test again. If you can easily lift the sidecar just by hanging out on the left footpeg, it would be very acceptable to leave some ballast in the car for the “advanced” exercises.
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In left turns it helps to hang off left, both to keep the rear wheel on the ground, and to reduce steering effort. |
In right turns, hanging off over the sidecar helps keep the sidecar wheel down. |
Hanging Off
You don’t need to hang off in every corner, but if hanging off isn’t part of your driving habits, you’re not going to be prepared for that nasty corner that tilts the wrong way or tightens up halfway around. Even a lightweight driver on a heavy rig will find that hanging off helps control both tipover forces and steering effort.
Practice hanging off first with the engine off. Pretend you are approaching a left-hander. Get your left foot firmly on the left peg, and slide your buttocks as far to the left as you can, bracing yourself with your right knee crooked over the edge of the saddle. Turn the front wheel toward the left, look left, and keep your eyes level with the horizon. Get as much weight over to the left as you can and still reach the throttle and front brake.
Now, straighten everything up and pretend you are approaching a right-hand turn. Support your weight on the right peg and slide your butt to the right with your left knee crooked over the edge of the saddle. Turn the front wheel toward the right, look right, and keep your eyes level. It’s important to get your butt toward the curve, not just your shoulders, because that gets more of your body weight within the tipover triangle.
Take your outfit through an imaginary series of S-turns, hanging off left and right, and smoothly sliding from side to side in the saddle. If the ergonomics of your bike are such that it’s difficult to support your weight on the footpegs, try to figure out a way to get your body shifted from one side of the saddle to the other. You want to get most of your body weight low and on the “turn” side of the bike centerline. You don’t have to worry about keeping your toe tucked in as with a two-wheeled sports bike, because the rig isn’t leaning into the turn.
After you’ve practiced hanging off with the bike stationary, it’s time to practice for real on that big figure-8. Remember, get your body into the hangoff position before you start the turn, to avoid upsetting balance while turning. As hanging off gets more familiar, start shifting up to second (or even third gear) for the straights, and down to first gear for the turns. You’ll need to get your toe under the shift lever while still rounding the circle and that may require some foot contortions.
If you enter a turn some day without hanging off, and then discover the turn tightens up, it’s never too late to slide your butt over. Yes, there will be some reaction to your shifting weight, but it’s only for a second, and you’ll be hanging off for several seconds as you round the turn. Of course, it’s much better to get in the habit of hanging off early when riding a twisty road.
Front Brake and Throttle
One important skill for aggressive right-handers is using the throttle and front brake simultaneously. Approaching a right-hander, hang off, look through the turn, and drag the front brake while still easing on some throttle. Rolling on a little leading throttle in the turn increases the slip angle of the rear tire, which dissipates some of the rollover force. But if you only roll on more power, speed would increase, and that would quickly increase the rollover force. Trailing some front brake controls speed and keeps the rollover forces in check. If the car starts to lift up, squeeze on more brake, but resist the urge to snap off the throttle. Use this throttle/brake technique primarily for right-handers. You may need to use some front brake in a downhill left-hander, too, but in left-handers front wheel braking is counterproductive.
Try this first with the bike stationary. Pretend you are approaching a right-hander. Hang off right, cover the front brake, and then as you steer into the turn, ease on some throttle as you trail the front brake. Ease off the brake, straighten everything up, and roll on the gas. Pretend it’s a left turn; hang off, turn, hold a steady throttle, but don’t brake. Straighten up, right turn again. Practice the drill over and over until you can get your eyes, shoulders, butt, handlebar, throttle, and brake synchronized. Then it’s time to practice this on the cornering range.
The same figure-8 practice range will be fine. Ride just as you did before, but now add the throttle/brake technique in the right hand turns. If you get confused, practice hanging off again, and then add the throttle/trailing brake technique. You should discover that all the skills together help you corner with greater control.
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In aggressive right turns, rolling on a bit of leading throttle helps the rig to corner flatter; squeezing on a bit of front brake limits speed—which controls the rollover forces. |
Quick Stops
If you’re faced with a collision (say a left-turning car at an intersection), you may need to pull off a quick stop on the rig, just as you would if riding a bike. Good news, bad news. The good news is that you can brake to the limits on a rig without fear of sliding out and falling down. The bad news is that you’ll have a lot more mass to decelerate.
You can skid the tires on an outfit with little risk of taking a tumble. Slam on the brake too quickly (with non-ABS brakes) and the tire just slides. Of course a sliding tire loses directional control. That is, a skidding tire doesn’t care whether it is skidding straight ahead or skidding sideways. So, if you’re skidding, it’s critically important to get the front wheel pointed in the direction of the slide before you release the brake.
You can use the same figure-8 practice area for quick stops that you used for normal braking. With the rig approaching the brake markers, intentionally grab the front brake and hold it, to experience a skid. If you don’t have ABS (or you can turn it off), and you have the nerve to roll on a little throttle, you can skid the front tire for 10 or 20 feet, to observe loss of steering control. Just be sure to get the front wheel centered before releasing the brake. What you may also observe about skidding is that once a tire begins to skid, it loses quite a bit of traction.
You’ll make the quickest stops if you apply the brakes to the point where the tires are just starting to skid. Maximum traction is when the tires have approximately 15% slip.
For braking practice, get the outfit up to about 20 mph in second gear. When your front axle passes the braking marker, initiate a quick stop. Squeeze the clutch and roll off the throttle, then quickly apply the brakes, bringing the rig to a complete stop. Try to remember to shift into first gear. As you gain familiarity with your rig, gradually bump up your approach speeds on subsequent passes.
If your sidecar doesn’t have a brake, or if the sidecar brake is not adjusted correctly, the sidecar will tend to drag the rig into a left yaw. A sidecar brake will help make a quicker, straighter stop, especially when carrying a passenger.
Once you have mastered straight-line quick stops, move the cones to the ends of the circles and practice quick stops in curves. Don’t forget to use the other cornering tactics you’ve been practicing, especially hanging off, to avoid a rollover. It’s going to be more difficult to do a quick stop in a curve without ballast, but it’s a critical skill.
Flying The Car
Back at the beginning, we advised you to keep some ballast in the sidecar to keep that sidecar wheel planted firmly on the ground during your learning phase. Sooner or later, the sidecar wheel will lift off the ground, and at that point you need to know what to do to get it back under control. Yes, there have been fatalities involving new sidecarists who apparently didn’t know what to do when the sidecar lifted. My suggestion is to learn how to “fly the car” on purpose, so that you can fearlessly lift the car or put it down whenever you want.
First, let’s consider some basic cornering dynamics. With all three wheels on the ground, a sidecar outfit responds to direct steering, but steering input will also cause lean (“roll”). You can demonstrate this for yourself by driving an outfit (or an automobile) in a straight line and swerving slightly left, then slightly right. Notice that the vehicle responds by rolling opposite the way you are steering. In a straight line, a quick swerve toward the right will roll the rig toward the left, and even lift the sidecar wheel off the ground. A quick swerve toward the left will cause the rig to roll right, loading the sidecar wheel and unloading the rear wheel of the bike. Use caution when experimenting with lefthanders-- it’s possible to swerve left so aggressively that the motorcycle flips over the sidecar. However, the message should be clear: steering input causes roll
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Steering not only controls direction, but controls roll. Steering more toward the right causes the sidecar to roll up; steering more toward the left rolls the sidecar down. |
This is actually how two-wheelers are balanced and steered. On a two-wheeled bike it’s called “countersteering” because the rider momentarily steers opposite (counter) to the intended lean. Most of the time we control the direction of a sidecar by direct steering. We can also use steering to help manage whether the sidecar lifts up or drops down.
In a right-hander, momentarily steering slightly wider helps the rig roll toward the turn, keeping the sidecar wheel on (or near) the ground. We’re not talking an aggressive swerve here, just a slight change in steering pressure similar to cornering with a two-wheeled motorcycle.
This is most obvious with the sidecar up in the air and the rig balanced on two wheels. With all three wheels on the ground, the outfit responds mostly to direct steering. With the sidecar flying, countersteering helps control roll. It’s not as confusing as it sounds, and you can master this with a couple of short exercises.
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Steering slightly wider releases some of the tipover forces and helps bring the sidecar down. This isn’t a swerve, just a slight adjustment of steering. |
The big secret is that a very quick right swerve will pull the sidecar up in the air, and you can keep bringing it up if you want, until it balances. With the rig balanced on two wheels, it will respond to steering much like a two-wheeler—well, OK, a very out-of-balance two wheeler). Pushing the grips harder toward the left will cause it to lean more left, and turn left. Easing up on the grips allows the rig to lean toward the right, and turn right.
When you’re learning to fly the car for the first time, pick a very wide open area for practice, and keep your speed under 10 mph. It’s a matter of steering, not speed, and a proficient sidecar pilot should be able to fly the car at a slow walk. That also keeps the risks down while you’re learning. Don’t try to think this through too much; get the rig out and practice the exercise until “the light bulb comes on.”
Set up a small circle out in the middle of the practice area, say five or six feet in diameter. Now, approach the circle and drive around it to the right. By steering tighter, you can eventually learn to lift the car and fly it all the way around the circle. Once you have mastered flying the car around the small circle, try flying it off on a straight line.
If you panic, just squeeze the clutch, ease up on the grips, steer toward the lean, and let it settle down on all three again. If you’re having trouble with flying the car on a training range away from traffic, you really need to master this before heading off onto public roads. Get on the rig and keep trying until you finally get your muscles to cooperate.
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Novices typically think it’s the throttle that lifts the sidecar, but in a straight line it’s all about steering. A skillful sidecar pilot can balance the outfit like this at a walking pace. The goal of practice is to fly the car at the slowest possible speed. |
One very important part of this is that steering toward the left brings the sidecar down again. It’s the reverse of steering toward the right to pull the car up, You’ll also notice that when flying the car in a straight line, speed doesn’t affect balance. Braking won’t bring the car down.
These two articles are available for download as a single Adobe PDF file by clicking here.
David Hough is a contributing Editor to Motorcycle Consumer News, and a long-time BMW owner with more than 1 million miles of experience on both two-wheeled and three-wheeled motorcycles. For many years Hough contributed the “Between The Ears” column in Owners News. He has several motorcycling books to his credit, including Proficient Motorcycling and Driving a Sidecar Outfit.
Hough is a recipient of awards from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, the BMWMOA Foundation, and the Sidecar Safety Program for his articles about riding skills. He is also known for his early morning “Coffee with Dave” seminars at various BMW rallies.
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