The Rocking Chair
The Rocking Chair
At Last (Perhaps), A Sidehack That Acts Like A Motorcycle
Ever since the first sidecar was bolted to what probably was the second or third motorcycle, opinions in re The Chair have been clearly divided between love and hate. There are those who view the sidecar as a motorcycle with added attraction and those who regard hacks as a terminal way to treat an otherwise fine machine.
What both sides agree on is that the conventional sidecar, love it or hate it, does -not act like a motorcycle. Basic physics. Two wheels means the machine leans into corners. Three wheels means it leans away while plowing or tipping and requiring an entirely different set of trained responses. Which is why some riders like chairs and some don’t and why the two camps never meet.
Until now. The combination shown is in a way a new thing, in that it acts and feels like a motorcycle. It’s also an old idea, in that for as long as there have been sidecars, that is, forever, various inventive people have been working on ways to make the sidecar work with its guardian rather than against it. It’s been tried in racing and on the road, here and abroad. None of the attempts have worked well enough for them to become more than footnotes in the history books.
The Rocking Chair may do better than that. If a brief impression can give enough knowledge to justify a guess, this rig deserves to do better than that.
The rocker begins with Wally Wallick. a Honda salesman in Santa Ana, California. Wallick is a road rider, and is not an engineer. When the energy crisis first seized control of the 6 p.m. news, Wallick anticipated swarms of new riders motivated by the desire to save money and fuel. Didn’t happen. Wallick reasoned it didn’t because the standard two-wheel motorcycle, while being fun for all and practical for the experienced, didn’t have enough passenger space or luggage space or weather protection for same. Experienced riders don’t like sidecars because solo and sidecar act differently. What the world needs, Wallick decided, is a combination that acts like a solo. Perhaps because he isn’t an engineer and thus didn’t know why this hasn’t been done, Wallick set out to do it.
Subject of the experiment was his own Honda GL1000. Wallick is a fine backyard mechanic. He built a framework of steel tubing, attached a trailer wheel and tire and devised a linkage. Because the two parts were supposed to lean as one, he began with two sets of parallel arms, one in front and the other in back. The articulation worked. But as they leaned, the track between the bike and the car changed. It became narrower. The car was being pushed and pulled sideways and the tire wore at a great rate.
Wallick needed a linkage that would keep the bike and car always at the same distance from each other while allowing them to rise and fall independently and of course to let the chair follow the bike’s angle.
His answer is so simple it makes one wonder why it took any thought at all. A track and roller. The rear linkage is a large rubber-cushioned wheel, riding in a handmade track. The roller moves freely up and down. Bike and chair can lean with each other and still stay the same distance apart. And because there is only one side wheel, the front links can be parallel arms. As the front half of the track changes, so to speak, the car can pivot on its wheel. There is some tip steer or bump steer but because the distance moved is small, the actual steering of the rig feels unaffected.
Sidecars need suspension so Wallick mounted the car’s w heel on an axle riding in a trailing arm attached to the car’s frame. Between arm and frame is an airsprung shock absorber, a Gabriel of the kind used for trailer towing. In order to regulate ride height and spring rate, there’s an air compressor, a small one. mounted beneath the car’s seat. The compressor is powered by an electric motor powered by the bike’s alternator.
All this sounds almost too simple. In fact. Wallick began working on the plans about five years ago and has been test-riding the combination in various forms for two or three years, first with the car frame, then with a cargo box hauling various loads and now with the passenger car. Because the systems work, they seem easy. The development was a long period of cut and try.
The car as pictured is a lovely little thing. Styling is bound to play an important part in such a challenging experiment. Hard enough to get people into any chair, much less an ugly one.
Car design and construction was done by Ghraydon Wallick, Wally’s son. Ghraydon is a dirt rider for fun and an artist by profession. He drew a car that looked right, then juggled dimensions and lines so it would have enough room for one adult plus luggage. The resulting plans were drawn from the side, the back and the front, then scaled up to full size. Ghraydon built a wooden buck and after smoothing and filling, he made a mold from the buck and built the car from fiberglass laid on the mold. Again, considerable work. The car contains an upholstered seat with foot rest. The suspension and air pump are stowed beneath the seat.
The tinted plastic canopy rides on a system of articulated struts. It locks into place above the passenger’s head and in the open position forward, w here it serves as a windshield. There’s a tiny sunroof/ hatch in the top of the canopy for ventilation. Riding in the chair with canopy closed is either snug or too much like being strapped into a missile, depending on the rider’s character. Our chaps preferred the open cockpit while Mrs. Wallick Sr. has gone for weekend trips inside the car in perfect comfort.
The combination takes more space than does a solo. This could confuse traffic, so Ghraydon fitted a Pontiac taillight in the back of the car. He plans to mold a reflector or light into the outboard side of the car. as a warning to oncoming traffic.
When the pieces were built and in good working order, the Wallicks mounted a Jacwal SuperWedge fairing and painted bike and car in bright Honda yellow. The two windshields are tinted the same dark green and the combination looks as if the parts belong together. The rig also looks professionally done and judging from comments on the road, the project pleases both the biker’s and the driver’s eye.
About the road. The Wallicks were kind enough to offer a test ride, w ith us at the controls and in the chair.
First impression is that the main goal has been achieved. The combination does work just like a motorcycle. A big one. to be sure, about the size and weight of a fulldress Harley.
An experienced rider w ill have no trouble. Controls are unchanged and all one must do is push and pull on the bars and lean into turns, just like always. The Wallicks warned to be sure not to forget to put down a foot at stoplights. Bit of a switch in that usually the sidehack novice puts down a foot that isn’t needed.
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In this case, the foot is required. The rig tips and it weighs a lot and the entire parcel could topple over if unbalanced. As it was, though, our man pretended the Gold Wing was a Gold Wing and all went well.
There may be a minor problem with steering at low speed. The conventional sidecar rig has the bike's steering pulled back, like a car, in fact. The GL’s steering and geometry are unchanged. (The rig can be unbolted and the bike used as a solo, so Wallick was careful not to make changes that would hurt the bike’s normal handling.)
At low speeds, say up to 20 mph, the GL’s front wheel wags slowly back and forth, in much the same manner as some conventional combinations. This doesn’t affect the steering and the rig can be steered around parking lots just like a twowheeled tourer. But the shake does make the rider think a bit.
This may be geometry and it may be the drag of the chair on one side pulling the wheel into a wobble. Wallick plans to experiment with steering dampers to see how the wobble can be cured.
Once up to traffic speed, maybe 20-25 mph. the shake goes away. Wallick says the faster the rig goes, the more smoothly it steers. Our test ride was on highways and we didn’t exceed 55 mph. The rig did steer well on the road but beyond that we can’t say.
The extra drag and weight don’t seem to hurt the brakes, which in the Gold Wing’s case are plenty for the bike and its auxiliary. Normal balance of front and rear, also something an experienced rider does without conscious thought, works fine at highway and city speeds. Just before the rig comes to a complete stop it does begin to veer a bit, but that can be adjusted to by easing up on the front and pressing down on the back.
The track and roller have been designed to limit roll just short of what a road bike would normally do during fast cornering. The roller is spring-loaded on its mounting strut and at the extremes of travel, the roller has some compliance in reserve.
With our man as passenger, Ghraydon performed a few stunts like cornering at the limit. Impressive and not for the nervous. The conclusion was that the rig can be ridden in complete control beyond the usual road-riding limits, again just like a touring bike.
This rig is a nicely done project. There will naturally be losses in acceleration and miles-per-gallon compared to a solo, but even then, this combination will out-accelerate and out-miser virtually all the fourwheelers on the road.
This isn’t something with which to lure people into the world of motorcycles. The sidecar works best with a big bike and a big bike is no place to learn how to ride, doubly so with sidecar attached.
The Rocking Chair does appear to be an advance in the art of sidecars. It looks good, it does all the chair can be expected to do and it does ride and feel just like a motorcycle, closing that age-old gap just as its builders hoped.
Now what? The Wallicks don’t know. For a couple months after finishing the project they toured various companies, hoping to attract an investor or maybe persuade one of the motorcycle factories to build rocking chairs under license. They attracted plenty of interest but no financial backing to date, so they plan to build a few chairs for sale and see if there is the demand they think there should be. Neither man is an industrialist but then, they aren’t engineers, either, and that didn’t stop them from doing the design. In any event, the tilting sidecar is an intriguing piece of work. Interested parties can write to Wally Wallick, 6141 Orange, if 32, Cypress, Calif. 90030. Q]
