What I Have Done

 I had decided to set up a Harley so I could ride again. I went to Avalanche Harley, after going through the whole place and looking at bikes, not one person came up to me and asked me if they could help me, I guess they figured that a guy in a wheelchair wasn't going to be a money maker. I then went  to Rocky Mountain Harley, Someone saw me coming to the door and came over and held the door open then asked what they could help me with. They were all friendly there, when I left I owned a new 2015 Harley Low Rider. 

I went home and ordered a rocketeer sidecar. The more I thought about it the more I disliked the idea of taking my chair apart to put into the sidecar. I did some research on the internet and saw pictures of sidecars that were platforms that the wheelchair pulled onto. I decided that was a much better option. I decided to build my own and bought the metal I needed. I was a welder before I broke my neck so I could do my own work. During the process of building it I heard of someone that was near by that could give me some pointers. I went to his shop and met Fritz, he had a sidecar that he had built for his bike and was now building a trike, I liked the looks of his sidecar better than the one I was building and bought  his. I did some reworking on it to make it work for me. 

I also needed the brackets on the bike that the sidecar attached to, during my research I had come across a site that sold custom sidecars for wheelchairs, DMC Sidecars, they sold custom made brackets specifically made for the make and model motorcycle you have, that's where I got my brackets from. The thing was, they make them according to your bikes stock specifications and I had pulled off the stock exhaust pipes and went with Vance and Hines for louder pipes. I had to do a little modification to the bracket where it bolted up to the exhaust bracket. I also learned that the rear top bracket that goes on the shock tower they send in metric, my bike is SAE  so make sure when ordering you check yours and let them know.

 There are some very important things I need to mention about adding a sidecar to the bike. First off, you need to put a 3 degree rake on the front end or you get so much shake in the front end you can't control the bike. I had to convert to a wide glide front end, they make a 3 degree rake kit for a wide glide front end. The next thing is the sidecar wheel needs to be slightly ahead of the rear wheel of the bike, you also have to have toe-in on the sidecar, the wider the sidecar, the more toe-in you need. You also need to put a lean on the bike. All of these things allow the bike to go down the road straight without fighting the steering. 

To make things easy I made all four brackets with rod-end bearings, that allows me to change the toe-in by adjusting the two lower brackets and adjusting the lean on the bike with the two upper brackets.

 You also need to know that the bike will no longer lean for turns so all steering is forced, as in to turn left you turn the handle bars left, the sharper the turn the more you turn the handle bars.

 I am pretty good at figuring things out, I knew from the start that I would need a jockey shift, easy enough, did a google search and ended up going with Widowmaker. I also knew that the brake needed to be on the left handlebar, we disconnected the foot brake, took the foot brake pedal off as it was just in the way. We went with a hydraulic clutch as it was all set up for the left handlebar and needed no modifications. We attached both front and rear brakes to the one brake lever. The clutch was already set up on the jockey shifter. Here was the next problem. With the only brake on the left handlebar and the clutch on the jockey shift, clutching and braking to come to a stop wasn't possible. 

 There are a couple of ways to solve that problem. First, Kliktronic makes a K-2 lever, it is a double lever, you can use one for the brake and one for the clutch, you can also get both levers the same length or one shorter than the other. One can be hydraulic and one cable.  The other solution is a Rekluse clutch, a centrifugal clutch, you don't have to use the clutch lever. This was the option I went with. You can also go with a push button shift with this option. I started out with a Pingle, an option I had a lot of problems with. A friend suggested the Kliktronic, which worked out great, though I had the module too close to the rear jug and the heat melted the plastic on the module. I got used to shifting with the jockey shift and did away with the push button shifter all together, besides, its a lot more fun using the jockey shifter.

 I also knew that the seat wasn't going to work for me. I need the extra stability, a touring seat with a back rest solved that problem. I took the seat upholstery off and shaved of an half inch of foam, then another inch where my butt sits. I took and cut 2 half inch thick stimulite pads to fit into the inch I cut out for my butt, put those in, then covered the whole seat with another half inch stimulite pad cut to form the seat. I have had no problems with skin sores, even riding long distances.

I bought stretch velcro straps to to hold my hand on the throttle.

The next problem was my feet. The set up that I had seen and put on were custom made foot rests that you slide your feet into. I didn't like the looks of them and they are bulky. After thinking about it the idea of using mountain bike locking cleats came to mind, I bought a set, then bought half step pegs, attached the cleat to those and installed them on the bike. There was no way I was going to ride around on a Harley with bicycle shoes on so I took the pieces off the shoes and attached them to my riding boots. This set up works fantastic.

 I also knew I needed a reverse, Fritz knew where to get that from, Champion makes the only one for a Dyna. 

After a few hits and misses I found other things that I needed to do, like building the shield where my boots were burning on the exhaust, my legs are usually tight and doing the transfers from my chair to the bike and back would result in my boots sitting on the  hot exhaust so I built the grate.

For looks, I wanted a custom paint job on the tank, unique to me, I reached out to Dale Daniel who does air brushing and told him what I wanted, you can see the result, Fantastic!

I would like to thank all that helped me to get on the road, Fritz, Bill Mussack, Rocky Mountain Harley, everyone at Bloody Knuckles Garage, Ken and Jen Wahl, Dave Birkle, Kevin Zody,  my neighbor Rod, all of your help made this possible.

Other Options-

 There are other options you can do. 'training wheels'. There are companies out there that make small wheels that go up and down, in the down position they act as training wheels and keep the bike upright. Some are made that go up and down automatically according to your speed. Some are made with a button or switch that you control when they go up or down. These allow you to ride and still lean the bike. This works for those that don't use a wheelchair. If you do go this route and use a wheelchair you are limited to just riding, not taking your chair with you.

 I also learned the hard way that changing the horsepower in the engine you have to change the pressure plate in the clutch. See Sturgis 2020 in My Road Trips and Rallies for that story.

 Another lesson I learned the hard way was even with a Rekluse clutch you still have to use the clutch to put it in reverse and take it out of reverse. Believe me, this tip will save you a lot of money as I had to replace the main shaft and reverse when the gear sheared off the main shaft and the bike went nowhere, and no, it didn't happen at my house, it never does, when lessons are learned the hard way they seem to happen on the road, making sure you never forget.

I also put a windshield on with a quick release, I put it on when I was in Sturgis in 2021. It really does help on the long road trips especially with the wind. It also helps with the bugs. I can pull it off when I am riding locally or at Sturgis.

 I thought I would add this experience even though it's a bit embarrassing. It's actually funny, when the bike was at the point that I could ride it for the first time, I got on the bike, started it and away I went. All I could think of was how great it was to be riding again, I was also only thinking of being on 2 wheels. I was in a parking lot and headed through the driveway around the dealership, I was making a right curve and cut close to the curb on the right side. All of a sudden I was reminded that I had a sidecar when the wheel on the sidecar jumped the curb, yea, it jumped alright, about a foot and a half in the air, not really that high until you consider it happened fast and totally unexpected, damn near through me off the bike. Yep, another lesson well learned, haven't forgot there is a sidecar on since.