Tag Archives: Stella

Fred from the Last Call Scooter Club recently picked up a sweet sidecar rig. He decided to share his experiences with everyone.

Two fisted side car adventures #1

“This is the first installment of my side car blog. I will be writing this from the first week of April until the first weekend of June where I will be riding with my wife from Philadelphia to Wildwood NJ  for the East coast Classics Scooter rally!

Now before we go any further I am not an expert! In fact today was the first time I got to ride my sidecar rig so most of this blog will be the process of learning to ride a scooter with a sidecar rig from the first time getting on to taking it to its first rally! I picked up a cozy sidecar through Philadelphia Scooters and had them install it on a 1979 Vespa P200 which I also put a disc conversion on the front breaks. This was a great idea because the added weight makes stopping a little bit harder. I read a lot of stuff online about riding a sidecar outfit. The sidecar bible is probably the most thorough and there is a PDF you can download that will tell you kind of what to expect.

Now on to Riding! First thing is the wobble. At low speeds your steering will be all kinds of wonky and your handlebars will wobble back and forth .The first time you get moving it’s really weird and may be a bit scary but now is no time to panic! It’s all pretty normal and it’s not like your going to fall over. After a bit of riding today I figured out a couple of things that were helpful. If you give it a little more throttle it seriously  lessens the wobble. I’m not saying to gun it but don’t be afraid to get on the throttle like you normally would while riding your scooter.It also helps out a lot if you keep those elbows loose. Putting a death grip on your handle bars just makes the wobble worse and shakes you with it. I rode around in a parking lot just as it says in the sidecar bible until I was pretty comfortable with it.
Side cars pull! They pull you all over the place and by the end of the summer I suspect I will have big burly muscles just steering this thing. It pulls to the right when you start moving and to the left when you break. The whole time your riding you are compensating for it wanting to pull towards the sidecar but I’m sure you get used to it
Steering is weird! Most of the turns I have done so far were at very low speeds but you don’t lean at all you actually turn!  Left turns feel easy and not like you are turning your handlebars like crazy,right turns feel really odd! These are all at very low speeds,I am a novice and not looking to lift the sidecar off the ground or do something else really scary. They DO NOT like to turn fast, your breaks are your friends. Slow down before turning . I did a bunch of circles, some loose some really tight and basically  messed around until I got comfortable with it, sometimes with a passenger and sometimes without. It handles completely different with a passenger than without. I also practiced keeping it within the lines of the parking spaces before I hit the streets to make sure I could stay in a lane.

Now we hit the streets. First thing to remember is keep to the left you have a big ass sidecar on your  right side and its best not to smash it into stuff.  Don’t be afraid to put your turn signals on a little early and take them off after turning.They are really hard to use at first while your handle bars are wobbling back and forth. Just take it easy and get comfortable before getting all dare-devil and taking it on big streets. Try not to play in traffic until you are ready to.

Well boys and girls that’s all for this week! More to come.”