The Place

Hi all,

My name is Jim Gale and I am a keen sidecar fan after growing up around them.
I'm posting today because I am doing an engineering course at my local college and part of the course is designing a product, and the product I am designing is a sidecar loading/unloading system.
The idea behind it being to remove the manual handling from loading/unloading your bike from your van.

I have made a short questionnaire that is linked below. Please take the time to fill this in (only a couple of minutes) as it will be a great help.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... g/viewform

Thank you all so much, I look forward to reading your responses.

Legends

Hi Jim - best of luck with your project !
Loading a sidecar has always been a difficult one - we've seen lots of methods over the years - from the scaffold plank at it's simplest - to the gantry & crane out of the back door of a bus - used by a continental crew years ago.
Just a couple of thoughts - there are a lot of different vans / trucks in use - and lots of ways people use them - most have a fitted interior - some just for the bike / tools / spares - some with living area - all will be different from one to the next - as an example - our bike is loaded on to 12" high - 8ft long boxes down both sides - to clear the wheel arches - with a platform above that for the fairing / seat - bike will not go in with fairing on - and it's all a very tight fit - we currently use a pair of alloy ladders with plywood covering & it does work quite well - & are long enough for me to be able to load the bike single handed..

Thank you to all those that submitted answers on my questionnaire; they were exactly what I was looking for and they will help me a great deal.
I have set the questionnaire so it doesn't accept any more responses, just so I don't waste anyone's time completing it when I will not see their answers.

Again, thank you all so much.

Good luck in your racing escapades in the future!

Jim