Side Car Alignment

That is George Rahn standing next to his Royal Enfield with Cozy sidecar. He thought that the high steering effort that I felt on Sunday's ride was a unusual and wanted to check the toe-in. Last year when Dom was visiting Fairbanks, we set the toe-in to about ½". George feels that it should be about 1.1" to 1.25". He then brought in a BMW factory service manual which covered the installation of a sidecar onto a /2. The BMW manual explained how to measure the toe-in (which is the same procedure that Dom and I used last year). And it listed the spec as 1.1" to 1.25".

Today's measurement was ½" so it hasn't changed at all over the last year which by itself is excellent news. We also measured the toe-in on his RE rig and it was 1⅛". This evening after returning home, I measured the toe-in again using my equipment and it was still ½". I adjusted the front lower heim joint in by 4 turns which increased the toe-in to 1.1". This also required the front upper strut to be shortened by one turn. I'll try it at this setting for a while to see if it makes a difference. The lean out is still 2° measured at the rear disc.

When you use a similar procedure to measure the toe-in on a car, you would take the measurement and divide by 2 to get the to-in spec. This is because the toe-in is specified relative the the center of the wheel.

In case you have never met him, George is acknowledged to be the local BMW guru and has been riding and repairing motorcycles longer than just about anyone around here. George is very generous with his tools, knowledge and time and is well known in the riding community. He also used to own the BMW dealership in Fairbanks, Trails End BMW, but is now the Royal Enfield dealer.