Motorcycles
Silvia's Motorcycle-Sidecar
Our whole forray into motorcycles is because Silvia is thinking that a "motorcycle-sidecar" would be fun. I think she's right, but neither one of us knows anything about it, nor what type of bike/sidecar we want. I think the "specs/usage" would be as follows:
- Usage
- Short trips to Wolves & People
- Short touring trips (along the coast, into the eastern-Oregon desert), probably about 500mi
- Specs
- Comfortable w/in sidecar for 4 hr journey along road
- highway capable
- info-tainment control center (intercom, music, stories)
- GPS navigation site
- Trunk space
- Nice to Have
- Room for Amber
Motorcycles
So many to choose from. I think I'm looking for a Cruise bike (Bagger) or Touring bike (Dresser). I suspect I'd want to remove the inside bag when the sidecar is mounted (which will be the normal config), so they need to be removable and individual. Primary Manufacturers/Models I'm thinking of:
- Harley Davidson Road King (my favorite on 12/29)
- Harley Davidson Heritage Softtail
- Harley Davidson Crossbones
- Indian ???
We've aligned on either the Heritage Softail Classic or the Road-King (both Harley's). Ted's leaning towards the Heritage, but nothing committed yet.
SideCars
Here are the types/manufacturers that I like:
- Liberty: located Seattle. Cost is ~$5k bare, configured it'll be more like $7k
- DMC: located Buckley WA. Classic, Tomahawk, Champion Legend
- Hannigan Heritage: located ?????. Cost is ~$6.7 bare, it's looking like $10k configured. The Hannigan Arrow Elite looks decent too.
- Champion
- Others, not necessarily favorites or otherwise
- Texas Sidecars
- Versions I don't really like
- Velorex
I put together this pic for Sil; I'm asking her to pick which style she likes best.
History
This journey started out simple enough, but got complicated before even getting started. Months ago, we both agreed that one particular motorcycle/sidecar was the coolest one available, and it was the standard against which all others should be judged. This bike showed up on CycleTrader, but disappeared a few weeks later. After a month or two, it showed up again, and I told Silvia she should buy it. It stayed on the website for a few weeks (maybe 2 months), and they eventually reduced the price ... it's definitely a niche market. She didn't act, but I thought this would make the perfect Christmas gift. On 12/15/2020, I finally called Blue Moon Cycle in Norwalk, Georgia ... I was planning to offer them 95% of asking price, and then we'd both fly out to pick up the bike between Christmas and New Years. I was committed, and this would make a cool gift for both of us. Easy! Unfortunately, they sold the bike to somebody in Dubai earlier that day. After watching the bike for the past 3 months, I missed it by 1 day.
As much as this last-minute miss was disappointing, I knew there was another one another one out there (Apple Valley). this bike wasn't as unique, but it was an earlier year and didn't require a trip across country (located 90 minutes away from family in SoCal. Unfortunately, despite 2 emails and 4 calls, I couldn't reach the guy. I called on 12/18 for a final "if you don't respond, I'm out" message and he finally picked up - I already knew he was an old guy and not likely to be computer savvy. He told me the bike had a high speed vibration and wasn't working correctly ... not ready for sale.