Yankee Beemers Motorcycle Club December 2019 SHOCKING ELECTION RESULTS SHOCKING ELECTRIC BIKES SHOCKING NYC BUS TRIP Cover : YB Leadership 2020 ( L— R) Duncan, Jim, Andrew, Jim BMW C EvolutionElectric Scooter YB LuxoLounger a Mobile Lounge Below : Your Bartenders: Dean Todd Phil Your Driver Johnny Cash Opposite Zero Racer Preston Petty‘s Electric Short Tracker YBs at MAX-GIVING 2018 ! 2 2020 Yankee Beemers Officers President: Duncan Cooper Vice President: John Van Hook Secretary: Karl Renneker Treasurer: Jim Sanders Forum: Gary Nelson Publisher: Dana Lewis Editor: Dwight Nevins YB Store Manager: (Seeking new Volunteer) Board of Directors: J Gamel, S Martin, T Truex, D Walton, K Strubel Sr., Bill Cusack Rally Masters Vermont Campouts: Bill Cusack and Jim Sanders Holiday Party: Todd Truex Pemi: Duncan Cooper Damn Yankees: Ken Springhetti 3 Prez Sez Duncan Cooper NYC Bus trip ! 4 5 Karl Rennekers 2019 (xarle renke) Season Wrapup It seems like we went from autumn colors to a blanket of white in the blink of an eye this year. As the temperatures drop the 2019 riding season is wrapping up as well. I hope I can keep squeez- ing in some commuting days between snow storms. And even then, I‘ll get out to run a few errands or even a quick joy ride if the roads are clear. But the long days of joy rides are probably in the rear-view mirror for 2019. Usually I judge my season but the number of miles I put down, or the satisfaction that comes with a long trip to a far-off destination. By those metrics, this year would have fallen short. But I think I had more fun this year than I have ever had! I mixed up the things I did this year. I spent more time with friends than I did just putting down miles by myself. Early in the season we had an impromptu gathering to brew beer before the Frosty Nuts Rally. Greg Wolodkin brewed beer and Todd Truex tossed some food on the grill while we just hung out and talked about plans for the riding season. There were bikes tossed around the yard like BMX bicycles in front of our houses when we were kids. There is always early season maintenance to take care of. In May I asked Ken Springhetti if I could use his garage to change a chain on my KMW. He put out an open house invite for any- one who wanted to come by for a tech day. Suddenly we‘ve got a KMW, an R1100RT, and a random cruiser all pulled apart in his driveway. We also had a dirt bike and even a Hardly Able- son to take joy rides around the neighborhood while we worked on bikes. We finished up by grabbing some beers and hoping in the back of Ken‘s pickup to head over to a lake for a swim to cool off. Even though I didn‘t take a long trip, I got in some great riding in August and September. Our Damn Yankees Rally was a hit! I also made it to my first Green Mountain Rally and was able to hit up Back to Jamaica for a long day trip from Newton, Ma up to Vermont. I was in Vermont nearly every weekend in Septem- ber. It‘s such a special time to be in the Green Mountains. You can feel fall in the air and the peepers haven‘t made their ap- pearance yet. 6 We have an amazing calendar of rallies, but there is always something going on! John Scholes lives near the new Mighty Squirrel brewery in Waltham. A few times we would just grab a beer on a Thursday night and talk about bikes. Andy Snyder would ride over from South Boston and all of the sud- den we have a little bike night. Maybe we can grow that in 2020. We may be short on riding days left, but there is still stuff to do. The annual Hound Butt ride to the International Motorcy- cle Show in NYC was this weekend If you‘ve never made this trip, you should mark your calendar for next year! We also have the December breakfast and the holiday bash.coming up See ya there 7 8 9 Sidecars n‘ Stuff John Van Hook So just what is the deal with Sidecars? Are they actually easier to ride? Using the sidecar’s mass to aid in cornering?!?!? Leading link forks? Leading legs? Huh? What is rake, offset and trail? Oh, and that whole steering vs counter steering thing … what? “When I get to old and fat to drive a sidecar, I will get myself a nice sports bike.‖ I don‘t remember where I read that quote, but it has some truth to it. First let‘s dispel the myth that driving a sidecar is easier than a two-wheeled motorcycle. It is not. The only thing that is easier is you don‘t have to put a foot down at a stop. All the rest of it is an order of magnitude more demanding, both mentally and physically. Added to that, you have all the downsides of a car and all the downsides of a motorcycle. You are the size of a car, so you may not fit through tight places to get out of trouble, but if you do get into trouble, you are just as vulnerable as if you were on a two-wheeler. 10 Right hand corners. (with Sidecar mounted on drivers right) If you go into a corner fast on a two-wheeler, with skill and good form and you can get through a corner way faster than you think you can (for most of us, not all). But on a sidecar, if you go into a right-hand corner too hot the sidecar comes up off the ground!! If you have really gone in too fast you can flip over and crash. Crashing sucks by the way. Don‘t crash. The tendency when the chair flies is to turn left to bring the chair down … but you‘re in a right-hand turn … which means turning left puts you in the on- coming traffic lane, which, by the way, is very very bad. Sidecar Mass: While accelerating the whole machine to wants to pivot right. Braking pivot the whole machine left. (all the mass of the sidecar either resists going faster – pivots to the right, or, wants to keep going -- pivots to the left.). If you are paying attention you can use these forces to your advantage while negotiating twisty roads … But if you get it backwards it can make a corner … very interest- ing! To use the sidecar mass to your advantage while riding twisty roads with a sidecar: Right hand corners you brake early and accelerate out. Pivot right. Left hand corners you brake late through the corner. Pivot left. If you have independent brakes on the sidecar, you can apply those to help pivot around right-hand corners. The sidecar brake helps pivot the bike around it. … When braking for a left turn, use just the brakes on the bike. These methods will help … a little. A spirited ride on a sidecar through twisty roads is challenging. 11 Suspension: Just what is the deal with a leading link suspension? That sus- pension serves two primary purposes: Structural integrity and Alignment. But first, let‘s tackle steering vs counter steering. Steering: In a car, to turn left you turn the wheels left and the vehicle goes in that direction. This is the way you steer a four-wheeler and a three-wheeler (trike & sidecar). Counter-steering: Counter-steering is used by single-track vehicle operators, such as cyclists and motorcyclists, to initiate a turn toward a given di- rection by momentarily steering counter to the desired direction ("steer left to turn right"). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Countersteering) A sidecar does not Counter Steer. You steer it like a car. The problem is, the front fork geometry on a motorcycle is optimized for counter steering and the forces that accompany counter steering. Also, unlike your car, a sidecar also does not have power steering; to turn you have to put some muscle into it. That gets tiring quickly on twisty roads. Muscle Memory: If you ride both two wheelers and sidecars, muscle memory can get you into trouble. When you have that pucker moment (Mrs. Jones pulls out in front of you) and you must make a quick turn to the left: Do you steer bars left or right? That depends on whether you on a two-wheeler or a three- wheeler. If your muscle memory is rooted in two wheelers, you would automatically counter steer (turn bars to the right to go left) but if you‘re on a sidecar, and you do that, you just drove right into Mrs. Jones! Remember earlier we went over how crashing is bad? Well it still is … The got-cha here is, if you take the time to think about it, you took too long … With motorcycle front fork geometry, the rake, offset and trail come into play. I have cheated and googled definitions: 12 In the first paragraph, note I bolded ―Less trail reduces steering effort”. When you modify steering for a sidecar, this is what you are doing, reducing trail. Moving the tire patch closer to the ―straight line drawn through the center- line of the frame's headstock axis‖. There are several methods to reduce trail: Figure 1. Change the triple tree to change the steering offset.