West Coast Mini Sidecars.

Solicited reviews and unsuspecting passengers

Day of the Hack

            So I venture forth to Stockton for the last race of the season of Supermoto USA’s pocket bike class. It started off as a normal race day; get up ridiculously early, drag my butt to our shop to pick up the bikes, gear, EZ up, and my buddy Doug. Drive for an hour or so being kept conscious by Cokes and McDonalds apple pies, arrive at the track and get ready to wait,

 Since there are a dozen or so other classes being raced that day and we had a while to wait, I started on my usual stroll through the pits checking out the bikes and people to see if there might be something new and unusual to stare at until the practice sessions started, when low and behold my first “in person” meeting with a pocket sidecar.

              I really have a fondness, if you will, for sidecar rigs. I honestly don’t know where it came from, but it probably spawned from seeing footage of them racing the Isle of Man TT. The monkey position especially. The idea of hanging your melon as far out as possible from the side of the rig and basically dragging it along the ground at 100+ mph, sounds like so much fun.

              So I introduce myself to Dan and his wife Suzanne and proceed to drool all over the mini hack while interrogating them about it, how fast, how much, who built it, and damn it, can I please, please try it? Actually they offered before I had to plead. Grown men groveling are so depressing.

  Lunchtime

             Lunchtime means exhibition rides, and since there were not enough sidecar teams this season (there needs to be at least 3), the sidecars became an exhibition deal. Dan offered up a chance to be monkey for a few laps after he and Suzanne ran for a while. So I geared back up and met him on the track for my extensive instruction seminar (3 minutes of do this, do this, don’t do this, and don’t put your fingers or any other body part here, here or here) so with the classroom instruction out of the way I put my helmet on and jumped on the sidecar.

             We proceeded to move forward. Now I don’t mean we went forward as in straight, I mean forward as in a general direction. The hardest thing I learned about sidecars is that it is much easier to go left or right, than straight.

 The monkey basically steers, the “pilot” just opens the throttle and does his or her best imitation of a handrail possible. Now if the monkey (me in this situation) moves too much, and by too much I mean at all, the rig goes in that direction, which is very unnerving since I am by nature a very fidgety person. So the pilot gets as firm a grip on the bars as possible and opens her up and away we go, in a very zigzag fashion as I try to stop moving and get my self centered and prepare for the first turn. We come into the first turn and I outrigger myself to the left and holy crap, the darn thing turns like it’s on a pivot, and now I’m trying to pull my rather substantial ass (205 lbs.) back to the “center” of the rig to try and go straight, all the while trying to not pull Dan off the seat. Dan brought a kind of harness out that he wears and has 4 handle loops to hold onto, or in my case cling to. They are very handy but I feel bad for all the bruising the harness probably caused Dan to suffer.

 I continued the dance of the sidecar monkey for a few more laps wondering if Dan was going to speak to me after we got off the track. I could only imagine that he would be very sore and probably never offer up a free ride again after our experience. When he finally succumbed to my begging him to pull off the track so I could cry in peace from the soreness that I knew I was about to face, he said that I did pretty well for a first timer, and pulled the rig into the pits.

Reality of Pocket Sidecars

             Honestly, my first ride on the sidecar was very, very cool. They are somewhat difficult to ride, but lots of fun. This is a sport where teamwork is an absolute necessity, the pilot and the monkey must work together 100% of the time, or riding is just not possible. As the monkey, you have to develop a good sense of balance based on the direction the rig is going as well as transition yourself very smoothly from side to side. If you move to violently you will get a very shaky and unstable ride. My biggest issue was the transition from turning right, where I was standing over Dan, to turning left and outrigger to the left. I would be basically standing straight up leaning over Dan’s back, and then quickly drop down to a squatting lean out to the left. What would happen is that I would shift so quickly and violently that I was pulling the front nose wheel off the ground and for a second or two there would be no steering assist from the bike. All said though, I would very much like to get some more time in on a sidecar; I can see it becoming very addictive. If money were not an issue (I have just recently purchased a pocket bike) I think that I would seriously consider getting a rig myself. Also it pays to be in decent shape, the monkey gets one hell of a workout. I wonder what the pilot has to go through; I guess I’ll just have to wait until next season.

 Ted