Bike Sidecar

Bike sidecars have made several appearance on bike hacks before.  We have featured a version from Buenos Aires, one reader produced several versions to serve as pedicabs, and we have had two military themed sidecars (version 1 and version 2). Reader Rob contacted us with his own DIY sidecar and all text and pictures below are credited to him.  If readers have questions they can leave them in comments and Rob can respond.

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I started building sidecars in my garage with a 10' piece of conduit and a conduit bender.  The first challenge was bending the conduit into a shape that I wanted my sidecar to look like. Once I had the basic chassis together I added threaded pipe to areas that I considered to be load/stress bearing. I constructed the fork and connection rods out of schedule 40 steel pipes. I added a plywood deck with carpet stapled to it for the floor and also for the seat and backrest.  Nothing is welded on my original sidecar; all connections are made with threaded pipe or bolted together. 

The floor plan is simple; I wanted a seat wide enough for 2 adults and enough floor space to mount 2 child safety seats. I later added a lawn mower roof to keep a little shade on my passengers; it also adds some character to the design.  I recommend picking up a reflector kit and placing a slow moving sign on the back for a little added safety with passing cars.        

We ride hundreds of miles each summer with an average pay-load of about 230 pounds (My wife and 3 kids) with no problems at all.   
 
The units that we use now are totally engineered from a blue print of my original unit.  The majority of the assembly is outsourced including pipe bending, welding and powder coating. The end result is a very sharp looking ride but the functionality is basically the same as my home made sidecar.

Comments

[Jason]

This bicycle is really cool, It reminds of the tandem bicycle I purchased from http://www.bikesxpress.com
they also have really cool beach cruisers like these http://www.bikesxpress.com/26-Beach-Cruiser-Bikes-Cruiser-Bicycles-Beach-Bikes_c_1.html

[Kelsey]

This is very cool! I'm a site manager at instructables.com, an online community for people who like to share what they make (and how to make things). This post caught my eye, and I thought, since you already have photos and a writeup, that you might be interested in sharing your work on our site as well! We're currently in the middle of a Bicycle Contest, so you could win prizes for your cool hacks! (http://www.instructables.com/contest/bicycle/) You can post as many entries as you want.

If you decide to post the instructions on our site, I would be happy to feature your work and help get it noticed among our 13.8 million viewers. Let me know if you have any questions!
(And if you do post, let me know so I can feature it!)

Kelsey
selkeymoonbeam at instructables.com

[Knife!!]

Are there any plans or blueprints available for a build like this? Or, at least for the connection with the bicycle itself and the wheel mounting on the sidecar? I'm looking to build one myself!

[John]

Very well done. I would be interested in the plans or purchasing a completed sidecar. Please contact me with more info.
Thanks

[Shane]

Hi I love this idea im wantin my partner to make me something like this but he is unsure of hiw to mount it to the bike so its not hard to turn the bike n move.