The plan was simple: drive from Berlin to Karlsruhe with the car with my friend Wenke, have my friend Héloïse join us, pick up the motorbike + sidecar from builder on Monday morning, drive back to about halfway to Berlin with the car as support, spend the night somewhere around Jena, and drive back the second part of the way back to Berlin on Tuesday on my own or with Héloïse and Loki in the sidecar. ETA in Berlin: Tuesday 16:00.

The execution looked a bit different.

Sunday 8th March 8:00 we leave Berlin. The car ride went smoothly and we arrived in Bruchsal (near Karlsruhe) around 16:00, so well within our expectation.

Loki looks stupid on this picture, that’s the only reason I’m posting it.

My friend Héloïse arrived by train at 19:00 and we had short walk in Bruchsal, cute city.

Monday morning 10:00 was our appointment to pick up the bike. Unfortunately some roads were closed and we made it there 30 minutes late. Nothing dramatic you may think, but we had a long way in front of us and every minute of sunlight counts.

The build is absolutely amazing.

Loki was surprisingly well behave during the roughly 45 minutes introduction to the rig (maintenance, how to remove the sidecar, etc.)

After everything was discussed and all papers signed, it was time to leave for Jena – our midway goal on the way to Berlin. Since I hadn’t ridden this set-up yet, and in general not since last November, I didn’t feel like driving the 700km in one go, especially with temperatures peaking at 9°C.

On the handover paper I signed, the last line reads “BREITER, BREITER, BREITER” i.e. “LARGER, LARGER, LARGE” to remind the rider that they are not on a slim vehicle anymore, but something as large as a smaller car.

Well I read the page, and I got the theory, but in practice I forgot everything roughly 10 seconds after starting the engine as I hit a small wall at very low speed about 10 meters from the starting point.

Not only did I scratch up the magnificent airbrush paint job of the boat (and the sidecar frame), the shock also got me out of balance and I dropped the bike on its left side. I don’t have any pictures but from what we could see: half broken clutch lever, scratched on the mirror, handlebar, engine cover.

After a short inspection nothing seemed to keep me from riding the bike, everything was pretty much aesthetic. Or so we thought – but we’ll get to that later.

After losing my support car on the country road and wasting another good 45 minutes looking for each other, we eventually made it to the Autobahn.

The sun was shining, we were finally set on the A6, the roads were empty, everything was great. Until…

A serious accident which closed down the highway for a good hour.

Loki was lucky enough to wait out the road clearing in the warm car.

Once the road was clear again, we made some decent progress, but not as much as I had planned. There was no way to reach Jena before nightfall and I was already seriously “hypothermic” at this point.

So we decided to make it to the next bigger city, which was Hof, and take a hotel there. Wenke was supposed to go back to Berlin on Monday evening still, but she kindly stayed with us to play support car for the second leg of the journey as well. And I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank her enough for this favour.

The hotel was amazing, we got a family room with 2 separate sleeping rooms, a “living room” and free parking spaces and breakfast included for only 105eur!!!

Short flashback: on the highway I also realised that my handlebar was slightly bent from the drop. Most likely nothing serious, but I was concerned the steering was also off – what didn’t help my paranoia was that the bike doesn’t behave the same with the sidecar and the road was very windy, so needless to say everything was a bit shaky.

Tuesday morning I checked my weather app and instead of the announced 6-8°C we had 2°C and snowy rain. Really not the best conditions to ride a motorcycle which behaviour you’re not familiar with yet and especially when you’re out of practice.

Despite Wenke and Héloïse’s encouring words, I decided to try finding a towing service that would take the bike back to Berlin. Unfortunately, it was impossible to find one; either they could only do it the next day, or not all the way to Berlin.

Back-back-up plan: find a towing company that could take us 100-150km up North where the weather was a lot milder (believe it or not). We found one that was charging 520eur. No thank you.

By then things starting to look a lot more desperate and I was getting ready to go on the bike to drive back to Berlin. But I really wasn’t in the right headspace (i.e. I didn’t want to ride) and that just added a lot more risk to the whole situation.

Wenke made one last call and luckily we found another company who accepted to take the bike to Leipzig (150km up North, leaving only 200km to go to Berlin). They charged 400eur, which is insane, but given the context I went for it. You can’t put a price tag on safety.

I also got to see what Wenke and Héloïse saw the whole time they followed me.

Once we made it to Leipzig the weather had cleared up, no more rain and temperature had reached 9°C. My mind too had cleared up and I was ready to ride again, even looking forward to it!

I put on another layer under my leather and the rain jacket on top of it and I was ready to go.

Things started to look good, only 200km left and it was only 14:00 on Tuesday (it was my birthday btw). But then…

Another accident, on the A9 this time. And because waiting an hour on a closed down highway is not fun enough, it also started to rain.

But hey: at least we weren’t involved in the crash, and that’s the most important thing. So once the road got unblocked, we went full throttle – well, I did, Wenke struggled to follow. Apparently the Z’s acceleration to 150km/h was hard to keep up with 🙂

Bragging aside, for the most part I was going 80-90km/h in the right lane and had the pleasure to be taken over by trucks who dropped another few liters of water on me.

We did another warm-up break around 75km from Berlin before starting the very last leg of the trip.

The rain was pouring, the sun started to go down and dragged temperatures with it; I was starting to get really cold (and therefore unfocused). But we were almost there. Only 8km left!

And then it happened. In the middle of the traffic on the Stadtautobahn (city highway) the bike started to smoke heavily, and not just steam, proper smelly smoke. I pulled into the emergency lane and stopped the engine. I had absolutely no idea what could have caused that. We checked the oil, but it seemed fine, plus the indicator wasn’t on…

As I put the bike on its side stand, some liquid dropped from the cooler and the assumption changed to the cooling system which probably got damaged during the fall the day before.

We pushed the bike off the highway and I asked the universe why? Why all this? Why on my birthday?

We called (and by we I mean Wenke, who is awesome and took care of all phones calls) my Kawasaki dealer to see if they could pick the bike up. Since it was already 18:50 they couldn’t, but recommended a company who could come early the next morning.

So we pushed the bike another kilometer to the nearest gas station and parked it there for the night. Before finally making it home around 21:30. I was exhausted, physically and mentally, but also extremely grateful to have such amazing and supportive friends without whom I would not have managed as well.

The next morning the transport company came and took the bike to my Kawaski garage where it’s currently waiting for a proper diagnostic.

Let’s see how it goes, hopefully it’s nothing too serious and I’ll be able to ride again soon.

Stay tuned!

DISCLAMER: I am not a sidecar expert, I’ve never even driven a ‘real’ sidecar and I’ve only test-driven the type I’m getting for 30 minutes. This article is a high level summary of my 3 years research on the topic to explain what I’m getting and why. In short: no point telling me my presentation is non-exhaustive; I know it’s not.

For me there are 3 main types of sidecars, and while 2 are basically one category, the last one is a world on its own (of course it’s the one I’m getting).

The ‘real’ sidecar

It’s basically a three-wheel rigid structure. The “boat” is entirely attached to the motorcycle used for traction. Due to the “3 wheel” design, it’s not possible to drive the sidecar like a motorbike. On a motorbike, just like a bicycle, you lean in order to turn. On a sidecar you have to turn the handle bar in the direction you want to go (like you do in a car), while fighting rotational forces to keep all wheels on the ground in right turns. That’s why it can be very dangerous to switch from riding a motorcycle to driving a sidecar without any training.

The benefit of such a vehicle is that it’s overall lighter than a car, you’re still out in the fresh air and you can transport another person or some luggage easily. Also, since you’re on three wheels, you have more stability and can also drive it in the winter on snow; which is not recommended on a motorbike.

This category is sub-divided in two types.

1- Factory Sidecar Rigs

As the name suggests, those vehicles were designed and produced in the factories and then sold “as is”.

I’m not a History crack, but as far as I know, sidecar rigs where a popular means of transportation during the two world wars as they were light and agile compared to bigger trucks, and still allowed to have a passenger that could hold a gun. BMW had their very own model which has become very famous.

Due to lack of demand, not many sidecars are built from the factory, nowadays it’s mainly Ural (russian version of the army sidecar) that still produces them – but they are regaining popularity thanks to hipsters (not gonna lie, I’ve considered getting one).

The main drawback for me is their power which can be limiting for higher speed travels. And the russian engineering. The good thing however is that they are fairly cheap (in comparison to what comes next), count around all together 12kEUR for a new model.

Example of a factory rig: Ural Sidecar

2- Custom Sidecar Rigs

From a design perspective they are the same as the factory rig, the difference is that they are… custom made! Meaning, you use the motorcycle of your choice and you have the “boat” attached to it.

The benefit is of course that you can choose whatever machine you like and really have it set up for your needs. The downside is that it can get very expensive, especially in Germany. On top of paying for the motorcycle, you have to pay for installation of the boat to that motorcycle. And if you decide to do that in Germany, in order to get it road approved by the TÜV you will have to make sure the suspensions and wheels are adequate for the additional weight and changed handling. This often means changing the entire front fork system and all this work comes with a price and you can easily add another 15-20kEUR to the price of your bike.

Of course some countries are less strict and you can get a sidecar installed for cheaper, but you won’t be able to have it registered in Germany. I fell in love with a R9T built from Gusto Motorbikes, but he made it very clear right away that he wouldn’t build for Germany 🙂

Example of a custom rig: Armec Stradale

Note the redesign of the front fork compared to a standard motorcycle (it’s basically a car tyre). This also means that you can’t ride the bike without the boat as you wouldn’t be able to lean with those flat tyres.

And that’s where “typ 3” comes in.

3- The Leaner Sidecar

The leaner sidecar is a sidecar that is attached to the bike only in two points under the bike. Thanks to this design, the motorbike can still lean left or right in order to turn, the side car just follows.

The fact that you keep the leaning properties of the motorbike has 2 very attractive benefits: 1) you can still ride the motorbike without the boat as you have no change to the front of the bike, nor to the tyres – 2) since you don’t have to change the entire front suspension nor change the wheels, the built is a lot cheaper than the one for a rigid rig – count around 10kEUR here in Germany.

As for the downsides: well, you’re still riding a motorbike and the handling is roughly the same as before, so snowy rides are reserved to very skilled riders. Also the boat is not as large in order to leave space for the bike to lean into corners, meaning you can’t store as much as in a rigid rig boat.

Example of a leaner side car: Kalich Swing

Considering the many advantages, and the limited drawbacks of this design, that’s what I decided to go for in order to “transport” Loki. Unfortunately not too many sidecar builders also build leaner sidecars (you can count them on one hand), so it was quite challenging to find one that would do it, and then get an appointment. But that’s a story for a different post. Bottom line for now: I’m getting a leaner side car 🙂

Here you can see one in action (that’s the video that sold it for me):

---

If you want to read more about the properties and physics of the leaner sidecar, you can check out this page: https://www.haulnride.com/leaner-sidecar-combination-bike-leans-sidecar-doesnt

Last Saturday I attended the BMT or Berlin Motorrad Tage. It’s an annual motorcycle event where the latest models are presented, as well as some other motorcycle related activities/vendors.

I always wanted to go (since I’ve known it even exists) but never managed to do so because I had no one to go with. This year, as part of my personal OKA (Objective Key Actions – see end of article), I had to.

So Saturday morning after dropping Loki off in the middle of Berlin I made my way to Gleisdreieck where the events was taking place. As soon as I arrived I could hear the engines roaring and see the sidewalks full of parked motorcycles. #exciting

Entry was 15eur for a one day ticket (it would have been cheaper if I had gone on Friday) and in retrospective I think it was a bit much given the “quality” of the event. No new models were presented (new models usually are presented at the end of previous riding season, around October) and most vendors stands felt cheap, which huge “grab boxes” and massive neon ‘discount’ stickers on equipment items.

I started my tour by talking to the Bundespolizei (German police) about theft of motorcycles and more precisely I wanted to know if the chances of getting my bike stolen were increased by having the sidecar. At first the officer’s answer was “no, the opposite” but through I don’t know which magic trick it became a “yes, and you should consider getting XXX to secure it”. If even the police is lobbying for companies, where are we headed.

My next stop (as in”I talked to people”) was at the Bundeswehr (the army) which had two motorcycles exposed, the first was a BMW 1200GT used for official motorcades (escorts of very important people) and the second one was a 700 (or 800 GS, not sure) used in escorts for troops being dispatched.

I would love to become motorcycle Feldjäger, but unfortunately the age limit to enroll is 30 (I asked). I also asked the Bundespolizei what their age limit was and while it’s officially 39, the guy told me that by the time I would have finished the training I would be too old to be a motorcycle police officer. #thanks

Apart from that, not much happened, I saw a few promising product that I want to check out, like this device you put at the back of your helmet and it turns the helmet into a speaker (some vibration magic I assume).

I talked to a few more people, but mostly boring stuff, like the “Zweiradmechaniker-Innung”, which if I understood correctly is the “guild” of engineers specialised in two-wheelers. I wanted to get some info on where I could learn more about how to fix my own bike, but that doesn’t seem to be it. And I also bought a guide with motorcycle routes and hotels across Germany – for 1eur!!! #budgetruined

All in all a pretty mediocre event in my humble opinion and the only “wow” bike was a custom built of the new BMW R18.

But anyway, I did the thing, I went there, on my own and I survived (even after talking to people).

---

OKA are my version of OKR, which stands for Objective Key Result – it’s a goal setting system used in many companies, especially start-ups. You can google it to know more if you want to. But in short, it’s about setting an Objective you are trying to achieve, and then defining some Key Results (or Actions as I prefer) that you decide to do in order to reach that objective, and KPI to measure your progress towards the Objective.

This blog is not about what I do for a living, so I won’t expand too much on it. However, in short, as much as I don’t like the full OKR framework which I find to be too much overhead, I think that it can help teams align on the company’s objective(s) and force everyone to challenge this objective while thinking about what they can do on their level to help achieve said objective(s).

The purpose of this blog is to share my experience of combining my two “passions”: my dog and motorcycling. Over the last 3 years I have spent way more hours than I’ll admit researching options (mainly watching YouTube to be honest) to do so.

In this particular post I’ll present the different options that I’m aware of, the benefits and downsides of each. I will not be going into much details yet otherwise I’ll never post anything here. Finally, I’ll present the option I decided to go with – at least for now.

Update 13-Feb-2020: I forgot another option I had evaluated but forgotten about, I’ll add it at the end under 6-

Continue reading “Different ways to get a dog on a motorcycle”

I was quite happy with my idea “one powered wheel”, but it somehow lacked something. Yesterday I realised what: not enough dogs.

That’s why I came up with a second genius name idea “Dogs & Bikes” but unfortunately I’m not proficient in WordPress yet to change the website URL. So for the time being I’ll stick to my first stroke of genius.

I did however use the new “brand name” (yes, I will be making millions) on the different Social Media channels I plan on filling with content very soon.

• Facebook: soon, maybe
• Instagram (finally): https://www.instagram.com/adogandonepoweredwheel/ or just adogandonepoweredwheel
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVsb4fTJchNF9ZrlMxC_ZkA?view_as=subscriber

All are pretty void for now (just like this blog), but I’m hoping this will change once the sidecar (SPOILER ALERT) is done.

 

So I just created a blog and now I need to fill it with content. Please be patient, this is my first ever blog/website and there will be a learning curve until it “looks good”.