Sounds dull, doesn't it? When you are riding a sidecar rig, PLP is anything but dull.
Our first exercise was to lay out a 50 foot circle (we used tennis balls sawed in half--works good! They pop up when you run over them and land on their backs, rocking like stranded turtles) and then drive clockwise around the circle carrying various weights until the sidecar wheel comes up off the ground.
With 100 pounds ballast, the sidecar will fly at about 15 mph when turning in a 50 foot circle. All it takes is a little bump, and that car flies. Fortunately, I can't do a 50 foot circle at a sustained 15 mph. I can hold it up to about 10 mph. Past that, the opposing force is too strong for me. So I never did make the car fly, although Ray did several times. That circle was hard for him too. It takes alot of upper body strength. It's ok by me. I didn't like watching him fly it, don't think I'd like doing it myself. Ewww shudder shudder!
Then we did some weave practice...laid out half tennis balls 30 feet apart and tried to see how fast we could weave in and out. Fun! And we did quick stop and quick start practice. And just plain turn practice.
When you have a sidecar attached, it changes the physics. The car has less momentum when you start, so it pulls the whole rig to the right. Right turns after a stop are a breeze! But stopping, it still has momentum and so it pushes the rig to the left. If you do quick starts or stops, it can really pull the rig around and it takes shoulder and arm muscles to keep it going straight.
I want you all to know that while Ray can fly the car, I can make it stay in a straight line when stopping and starting waaay better than he can!
We decided after practice to go up to Red Line Burgers for lunch. The owner there is a motorcyclist and so we had to show off my new ride plus eat really good burgers and the best homemade onion rings in the city. Ray rode in the sidecar to the PLP and to Red Line, and I rode in the sidecar home. That's how I know he wanders all over on stops and starts. I got a road's eye view. Holy cow, that sidecar seat is LOW! It feels like your butt is going to scrape on the pavement any minute. And there's no side mirror for the sidecar passenger either. But it was fun anyhow. Ray has a tendency to hug the right side of the lane, but he was not interested in my constructive comments regarding this placement. Can you imagine?
When we got home, we decided to go grocery shopping, so Ray got Silver and his jacket out of the garage and we went to Albertson's. We had plenty of room for groceries in the sidecar. But we parked in the corner of the lot in the shade and the dratted shopping cart had one of those auto-lock systems and the system decided the groceries were too far away when it was still 15 feet from the motorcycles. So we had to ferry the groceries those last 15 feet. In the blistering heat.
It is hot here today, hotter even than yesterday. I have to admit to all the people at whom I have preached ATTGATT that I rode without a jacket today. My new mesh jacket isn't here yet and my old mesh jacket has a new owner and now lives in Olympia. I could not bear the thought of wearing my cool weather jacket in close to 90 degrees, so I wore a long sleeved shirt instead. Ahhhhh! Bearable, except for this oven clamped on my head.
9 comments:
I like how the scooter and sidecar look together.
-Samuel
I like your sidecar so much that I want to get a motorcycle with a sidecar when I grow up!
-William
Have fun with it! Sending "Good Weather" wishes your way...
-Keri
No jacket? Tsk tsk tsk.
Are you willing to admit that "comfort" is part of the equation too? Not just "safety"?
I think the clouds come back tomorrow. Get out a ride today.
I know you don't drink, but you certainly have a fine whine! Crybaby! Toughen Up! You're a Biker aren't you?
Oh, BTW, can Ray "fly" the car with you in it? I'd love to see that!
Hello, VA Hills! Sam, I like the way they look too. William, I think it would be grand if you had a motorcycle with a sidecar when you grow up. We can go riding together. Keri, your good weather wishes didn't last long. It's cold and windy and supposed to rain the next 2 days. Sigh.
TJ--I am willing to admit comfort is part of it, but I'll also tell you that if I had a summer-weight mech jacket, I'd have worn that. But it arrives today, a few days too late. I felt naked and unprotected without my jacket. Very uneasy. I like being as safe as I can be. I'd wear motorcycle pants if I could find any to fit that weren't custom jobs costing close to a thousand bucks.
Brother B--a Biker with a capital B? Nope. I'm a fair weather biker. Fair does not include hot.
Auto-lock shopping carts? You must shop in a really bad neighborhood.
Sounds like the ABATE people have finally won you over. ATGATT no more.
It's also sad that the sidecar's first job is as pack mule. Oh and, BTW, two motorcycles to go to the grocery store? How green is that? Anymore of these kinds of activities and the authorities will demand you turn in your Birkenstocks!
The sidecar's first job was to carry Ray. Its second job was to carry me and its third job was to carry groceries. It is a perfect mule. Carries alot and doesn't complain. Unlike my Brother. :)
No, Ray can't fly it with me in it. Too much weight. Well, he probably could, if he could get going fast enough and could make a sharp turn and hit a bump at the same time. But I think it would take alot of luck to fly it with me in it.
2 motorcycles to the grocery store is better than 1 mini-van. And we took our green bags. They won't demand my Birkenstocks OR my Birkensocks.
No, ABATE has not won me over. I believe everyone should wear a helmet when they are riding.
Bad neighborhood? No. They just got tired of people stealing the shopping carts.
Birkenstocks and Birkensocks, now I know why you got a sidecar rig. Ha! Makes perfect sense now.
Not shopping in a bad neighborhood eh? They use auto-locking shopping carts because people were stealing them. Seems to me to be a contradiction. Folks don't steal shopping carts in my neighborhood.
Oh, and BTW it's All The Gear All The Time (ATGATT) not the too many "T's" version you profess to be doing, which you do not! You have gotten rather cavalier about ATGATT with this new three-wheeled Katomobile. All it took was a little nudge and you passed over to join the the others who think that the tan on their skin turns it into Kevlar and that their heads are hard as iron. And indeed their heads are as hard as iron or they wouldn't think that way!
My brother, I do wear my gear.
They don't "steal" the carts, but lots of people borrow shopping carts, all over the metro area. They're handy and the little olds in their senior housing love to borrow carts to help them haul their grocerie up to their apartments and haul laundry around.
Not everyone has a car and hauling groceries for blocks gets heavy, or it may be too much to haul. Hence, shopping cart borrowing. Albertson's is the only one I know that's done it.
The stores in Bellevue are considering hiring a cart roundup person to go around town and collect all the borrowed carts each day.
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