Modern Vespa

If you have a side car on a GTS 250 or 300 can you please post some pictues and let me know if your happy with it.

I had one done for a client through this company.
It was their first Vespa to work on and they were sooo eager to do it!!

Turned out great:

http://www.texassidecars.com/vespa.htm

Thanks

Most welcome!!

www.vepsastl.com I had a blast riding this one!

Works best as www.vespastl.com

Curt Fargo had one. Don't remember which scooter he had it on. There should be some pics on here somewhere.He doesn't post much anymore. Might find a pic if you do a search.

Thanks my friend was asking me how he could ride his two kids with if got a scooter.

Now riding a P200 with a sidecar I would have two questions:

1) How much cutting, welding, and drilling is necessary to mount the car? How much plastic do you have to cut?

2) How does pulling the (considerable) extra load affect the CVT? It takes a fair amount of slipping the clutch to get that thing started with a passenger in the car. That's OK with a real clutch and gears, but I don't know enough about the CVT to know whether it will do the job or burn up (I also ride a LX150 regularly).

I kind of feel that the new T&G bikes may be less suited to a car.

On a Burgman...

Thanks LOUIS i didn't think it was his vespa's.

That's why side cars are not recommended for anything less than a 250cc T&G...

Their website doesn't have good pictures. I emailed and got higher res pictures...I downsized to fit here...

I gotta say, I really like that! I'd do that in a heartbeat.

pretty snazzy... 8)

I wonder what they have to do to the GT/GTS to make it handle okay with all that addl weight alongside?
Most motorcycle sidecar rigs have special adjustments made to the steering (a damper) and also to the frame and front suspension, sometimes even converting to a "leading link" type of hookup just so it can be driven adequately!
But even so, the handling on a sidecar rig is TOTALLY different! Left turns require lifting the car sometimes with a countersteer maneuver, and a right turn requires a bit of muscle at the handlebars to correct oversteer as it usually turns in sharply! Also the rig generally wants to turn alla time of it's own accord, and so requires extra muscle on the bars to keep it just going straight...
And I would think having smaller wheels on a sidecar rig would make it even more tricky to handle? Even more prone to slip into unwanted turns and slides?
I dunno; -anyone with experience driving one? (And yes, I think "driving" is the operative word here...)

If you are referring to the USA where the car is to the right you have your physics backward. A right turn tends to lift the sidecar. Go too fast with no weight in the car and you roll over to the left, I have a bag of fishing weights I drop in when I don't have a passenger. Left turns are easy, the car is like a training wheel holding you up. The left turn requires some more muscle. When you accelerate the car tends to retard your motion and turn you to the right. When you brake the car tends to keep going and turn you to the left.

There are a couple of good books about this. The physics are not intuitive.

from what curt said it handles way different. Very unstable in certain conditions. I wish he was on here since he'd be the perfect person to answer all your questions.

I would love to mount a sidecar on my GTS 250. Is it very difficult to make one on your own? How much are this sidecars from Texassidecars?
this one looks much better then the COZY Sidecars I have seen until now.
good thing is that they are cheap enough for a first try with no help here.ç
Would be the first Vespa with Sidecar in Chile I guess.
Well, would be great to have some more information about this one.

I have no experience with a scooter/sidecar combination, but have perhaps five thousand miles of motorcycle/sidecar 'driving', though it was many years ago.

As you might suspect, It's a whole new 'ballgame' from riding a two-wheeler, essentially the addition of a sidecar makes it an entirely different vehicle.

What Tor2ga said about the behavior of the rig is right, and I will add that under acceleration, the (right sided) rig tends to pull right from the off-centered drag of the car, and when braking, the the inertia of the car tends to push the rig left. All this is compensated for at the handlebars and must be anticipated.

As mentioned before, right turns could be quite disconcerting with an empty car and although I would often ride mine without any additional car ballast, a freeway cloverleaf could make you pucker, though a left turn was a relative piece of cake, empty or not.

Another thing to keep in mind is to NOT forget that there is a sidecar hanging off the right side of the bike....meaning that you must ride with the bike in the left tire lane of a road or risk an unscheduled sidecar de-installation with the help of a parked car by the curbside. Sounds like a no-brainer, but it has happened.

Riding a sidecar rig in a stiff crosswind is great for building up your arm muscles.

http://www.centoallora.net/