The Sidecar, Hack, Tub

June 13, 2006
Sibley to Badlands, SD 398 mi

Start of the great adventure – driving across the mid-west with a sidecar. It is time to learn how to drive with a sidecar attached. I take Hwy 9 to Sioux Falls so I can test drive at high speeds without driving on the Interstate. Learning to drive with a sidecar is interesting.
- the slope of the road to the ditch on the right and left determines how much or how little the side car will pull. If I’m on the right side of the road where it slopes down to my right the sidecar wants to pull me to that side. I have to push and pull the handlebars to make the bike go straight. On the left side of the crown of the road I can go in a straight line with only two fingers on the handle bars.
- Top comfortable speed = 65 mph
- 120 lbs of ballast works great
- Turning left is easy, the sidecar acts as an outrigger and makes it very stable
- Turning right, here is the tricky part, you must lean out of the seat into the turn. As you lean you shift the center of gravity towards the sidecar to keep it on the ground.
- Buy a 5 gal gas can, I don’t know what type of mileage I’ll be getting and this is my safety net if I’m out in the middle of nowhere.

Up at 7am and it is already hot and humid.
Stop in the middle of South Dakota for lunch. While I’m having a burger for lunch I meet a couple of Motorcycle Touring Grandparents form Texas. They warn me to avoid “Beartooth Pass” near Yellowstone Park, it is under construction and has 20 miles of dirt and gravel. After lunch I wonder into the tourist trap store next door and meet Christine the clerk. The store was empty and she was bored and wanted someone to talk to, we talked about her husbands ranch, that the roundup was still done on horseback. Christine likes to rock climb and has tried Ice Climbing. We talk about how she could set up an irrigation hose on an old silo next winter and have her own private ice climbing wall.



Drive out to Badlands National Park and it is hot. Find a KOA campground that is close to the park and has a Pool, Yahooooo – clean, cool water. Drive back to the bark to try the “Famous Indian Fry Bread Buffalo Tacos”. What crap – they tast like Hornel canned chili on fried dough, whoever wrote the review never ate there. Spend the evening up in the badlands taking pictures till sunset. The night was hot and buggy, I had to sleep inside the bivy bag, a long night of little sleep.