Dualsport Sidecar?
 

Hey all!

Hope this is the right forum section for this!

Currently on a motorcycle trip with my Honda CRF250L which is parked in Athens for the moment. My plan is to get over to Morocco and then ride down the west coast of Africa to South Africa.

Problem is I've found a travel buddy who would like to join me that has no license/possibility to ride a bike on her own and with the luggage the room on the bike is a bit limited for 2 people.
So far we've come up with the following options to allow us to ride together:

* Attach a sidecar to the motorcycle (prefered)
* Attach a trailer to the motorcycle for luggage
* Buy another bike with more capacity/sidecar in Spain/Italy/Morocco

What do you guys think is the easiest/best solution? Any of you guys that have experience attaching some form of side car to a dualsport bike? Do you think this is possible to get done by some mechanic on the way or do you perhaps know any resources along the way which might be able to get it done?

We don't really need a perfect solution, just one that would work. Am currently in Egypt and people seem to attach all sorts of things to their motorbikes so we figured it should be possible to weld something together. We wouldn't mind that the speed would be a bit limited considering it's a 250 and that we might run into more issues. We both have plenty of time and as long as we eventually get to the destination any solution would be fine.

Having toured with a passenger on a Honda 150 I would say travel light and take the 250 as it is.

Agree with Mark, lose a pile of unnecessary luggage, and ride two up. A sidecar is HEAVY, and much harder to do right/safely than it looks. A bad sidecar rig is a nightmare. And it will also encourage you to take more junk you don't need, and did I mention a sidecar rig is HEAVY? And same goes for trailers.

Susan and I did fine, as did MANY MANY other people, two up, on both small bikes and big bikes. It's all down to getting the luggage reduced to what you MUST HAVE.

I KNOW you have too much luggage right now!! If you can't get it all into a pair of soft saddlebags and and a 30-40 liter roll-bag across the back, it's too much stuff.
Strip the load to what you use everyday - and that's it.
You COULD add a pair of tank panniers, but that's adding weight you don't need just to carry stuff you almost certainly don't need.

Remember that you are on a road, and there are towns everywhere along the road, and people live in them - and guess what, they need much the same as you. You can always buy another sweater / jumper, or pair of pants and food along the way. If you're not in a hurry, you can wait for repairs or parts too, no need to carry them.
Best of luck! We look forward to hearing how you do.

Thanks for the input!

This definitely gave us some encouragement that it should be possible without any modifications.

Had some discussions and yeah we both definitely have a lot of unnecessary "luxury" items that can be shipped back home.

Looks like will probably do Morocco as a test run and see how that goes!

You could also go to our "How to" video series "The Achievable Dream" for everything you need to know about overland travel: https://www.vimeo.com/horizonsunlimited
Have a GREAT trip, and keep us posted in the Travellers Tales section!

Definitely NO to the sidecar. My preference would be travel ultra-lightweight on the CRF250.



But a trailer is possible if it's really light, these guys were from Hamburg.
I met them in Mauritania, headed for Gambia.

I drove outfits for years. This is key, you drive them. The fact they started life as a motorcycle is neither here nor there, they are totally different vehicles. Get one because you want the stability and involvement of a vehicle that is far more interesting than a motorcycle.

An "Adventure" style 250 Honda with a bit welding done by a workshop is likely to be pretty hellish. There are no fast solutions to this. Adding a sidecar to a 60HP plus machine and learning to drive it is a project that is going to take months to get right, especially if you want the strength to go off paved roads. Buying a Ural and learning to drive it and fix it takes just as long.

Unless you want the involvement of a totally different machine, follow the advice above and carry less stuff.

Andy