Harley Davidson motorcycle with Sidecar

[frizzen]

Now for something, *completely* different.

Maisto makes some 1/18 scale motorcycles. Originally I was just planning to put one or two bikes in a shipping crate / pallet thing to be some forklift cargo... (bike and sidecar = double the cargo)

But then, I'd also been lurking on a another message board with RC Tanks, and saw a 1/14 scale Static to Rc converted WW2 messenger motorcycle with a sidecar to run around with during their battles.

A little while later, i order a Maisto 1998 Harley Davidson FLHT Electra-glide standard with a sidecar. Or it's a 1948 panhead FL? I dunno, guess the seller also found every Harley ever built looks the exact same as it leaves the factory. Anyway, it's got a sidecar, and i'm greater than half crazy.





With some tweaks



Mg90s continious-rotation modded servo drives it through the brass rod to rear wheel, even smaller 3.7g servo pushes a steering linkage that runs along bike frame top tube, under tank, up to fork. It can (barely) tuck a 2ch rx and a tiny battery pack in the sidecar.

I was looking for a driver to modify, make some kinda sidecar 'opening cover', camo the steer servo and driveshaft, maybe do some fancy paint? I like blackety-blackness like my heart, but a Harley isn't goth enough to be cool.

Then a virus hit, project ADD kicked in... I stole the RX for testing another project, and it's been on the shelf for about a year with other pending projects.
---
Stole the idea from these people
https://www.rctankwarfare.co.uk/foru...&hilit=Sidecar

[jerry56]

Great idea... but there is so little space....but after the tractor I'm pretty sure you'll figure it out

[frizzen]

Yeah, it's very not big!

For running it I was either going to use something the Losi micro rock crawler 4cell / 5cell nimh batteries, maybe build a custom nimh pack, or use the tiny lipos from my quadcopter. Lipo would need to also add a low-volt cut circuit.

Or i could get a one of the *TINY* rx used to build the 1/87 scale TableTopTrialTrucks. I liked the look of the Das87 kits, and their electronics work with Flysky rigs. Most others are for Spectrum.

I also could swap the drive servo to like an N20 motor for even more room, and ability to use a better shaft coupler. Could still run it with a servoboard Esc to keep space.

It runs ok enough, but i think it's more of an ''Are you a wizard?'' type vehicle than really being much of a serious cruiser.

Ghostride really stands out with a bike even more than a convertible.

[jerry56]

I forgot about the 1/87 scale stuff....good idea....
Would you even need a geared motor for something that light could you just use a tiny quad copter motor....

[frizzen]

I don't think a quad-copter motor would have near enough torque for that size wheel, and the rpm would be way too high without some gear reduction. It's just a Cruiser with a sidecar that operates at city speeds, has to be able to start/stop alone. You're not building a race bike this size. Well...you might, but i'm not gonna!

I really like the 1/18 scale American Diorama biker figures
https://americandiorama.com/index.ph...th=69&limit=50
I like 'Angel' better, but 'Bulldog' or 'Ace' would probably fit better for actually riding it.

At the same time i got this one, I'd also picked up a Harley Servi-car (meter-maid) style 3-wheeler. Thinking it'd be cool to livery it up to be 1930-60s gas station / mechanic shop gopher. Or i could biker it out, since somebody has to bring the beer to the party.

[skeeter]

I LOVE this project!

[frizzen]

Thanks skeeter. I think in this set they had like 6 bikes, and 2 or 3 different sidecars that can be screwed to the bottom of other bikes.

The scale isn't quite there, atleast it's not a trying to pass as like 15 foot long motorcycle.



So i talk a lot of crap about Harleys, but apparently i buy their stuff...

[jerry56]

They look pretty good next to you VW... I have to admire the variety or your builds...You have a real village coming together..

[frizzen]

Thanks jerry!
Harley bike, Harley trike, Harley-Davidson branded VW. Uh, so maybe *THIS* post is light on variety. I'm still suprised that a Clothing and Toy company builds Motorcycles.

What can i say, I like cars. I've really got to admire the amazing diversity of automotive passions people have! You've got to notice the passion, time, effort, and skills people have put into restoring or customizing the vehicles they like. It's a lot of fun pulling out a custom 'thing' that nobody expects to see done in RC. Plus personal Cars are a little more relateable to more people watching than the Semis, Excavators, Rock-trucks, Forklifts, Pilot-cars.

However, even though i appriceate a wide variety of custom stuff, I will still absolutely "throw shade" at some things: Super-fly (70s Pimp-mobiles), High-risers (lifted caprice on 20"+ wheels), SLABs (Elbow wheels), Neo-Classics (Tiffany Cougar, Zimmer), anything with a 'Carolina-Squat' (nose lift, dropped rear), 'big wheel bagger' motorcycles, and Loud-Piped motorcycles. If nothing else i'm glad you spent the time and effort to make me laugh at it. We can still hang out, but i AM going to pick on it.

I can't decide on a paint job for the black bike. Sure the Black on Black with Black can hide a lot of sins, but it just doesn't photograph well, and usually real vehicles look bad again 5 min after wash/waxing it. No Trailer Queens. Maybe like 2-tone scallops, panels, flames, just a fancy color, something with pinstripes...

If i were doing the trike already, it's easy. Frame stays black and parts get either Green/White with Sinclair logos, or Red/Black with Red Crown logos. This lets me use the decals off a 1/24 ford truck model kit. There are 1/18 gas pumps, and motivates an in-progress gas station build.

[frizzen]

Ugh, that was way too many words frizzen! Just say thanks man!!!

There was supposed to be some Halloween Car Show.
Some loser never finished restoring their hearse, the VW with the trailer full of pumpkins had ignition problems, the sponsoring car club forgot to bring a table or snacks, all the kids stayed home, so it wasn't even a horrible lame Trunk-or-Treat thing...


1958-61 Vw doka truck, 1983 Toyota hilux, Mercedes 560SEC, '50s 'stuart little' kustom Buick, 1963 'crazi taxi' kustom Chevy Impala, 1985 Pontiac Fiero GT.





I like Purple.

Tank and Fenders got a straight metallic royal purple.
The top of the sidecar was going to be Laced purple over the black. However I'm still trying to learn my airbrush, it sucks to build up dust coats of anything on top of black, part way through the build it went on too heavy, and paint bleed under lace. I lost the crisp edges, a couple sections merged. Bleh. Fine straight purple instead.

Screw it, little less fancy, let's go ride.

[jerry56]

The purple really works....Looks good...
I see you got the dump bed on the WPL....
Quite eclectic for sure

[egronvold]

Turned out nice! Fine little collection of r/c

[frizzen]

Thanks guys! I think it's coming along pretty well. Even though i still don't know the final vision.

Let's go a bit MORE...


Some guys on another site were being awfully impressed at building this thing in 1/18, so here's a 1/10 crawler for scale comparison.

[jerry56]

I am amazed you can get all that stuffed into that small of a space....I swore after I did my Delta loader conversion I wouldn't do anything that small again.... I clearly do not have the knack for hiding all the electronics .... hopefully I will someday...

[frizzen]

Surface mount LEDs on magnet wire let you stick lights in a TON more places than make sence. This had a solid chrome headlight so the pinpoint of light is not nearly as cool looking as a bucket lens setup. Anyway, I'm still not going to put an amber in the front fender light. I may be crazy, but i don't think it'll add enough to offset running more wires up the fork.

Tiny through-hole for wires, countersink the leds into lights, bend wires to aim emitter when placed, then install led 'wet' with hotglue, after cool scrape / trim the hotgoo down flush.

I was thinking i really should add more resistance on the lights to dim them a little, but "Painfully Obnoxious" lights on bikes are just so popular i may not need to. Plus there's not enough room for adding sound...

https://youtu.be/4h4VepNuGB4

Hiding wires into small stuff isn't fun. Lots of wires will always need stretched, shorterized, lower gauge, or spliced. If you're really lucky, service loop and stow it somewhere.

I'm not good at packing electronics, this guy is
https://youtu.be/KKXVVFWzM64

Before i'll say "it all fits" in here, its still got to have a battery pack made, and something to sit in the Hack so it's not showing wires through the hole in sidecar.
Not sure if i'd like a passenger, dog, or something like boxes, luggage, cases of beer... i dunno, any ideas?

[jerry56]

Stack of Christmas presents....not very biker like but fun for the season... or a Papa Johns pizza box...LOL

[frizzen]

I seem to really over-servo my projects since i don't actually know what i'm doing, and usually just make it up as i go..

Doing some more research, I probably need to get some 1.5g linear servos, 1.7g regular servos, 2g regular servos, to compare in some other projects to that ''huge'' 3.7g servo i put in this.

[Tgrzes]

Originally Posted by frizzen

Surface mount LEDs on magnet wire let you stick lights in a TON more places than make sence. This had a solid chrome headlight so the pinpoint of light is not nearly as cool looking as a bucket lens setup. Anyway, I'm still not going to put an amber in the front fender light. I may be crazy, but i don't think it'll add enough to offset running more wires up the fork.

Tiny through-hole for wires, countersink the leds into lights, bend wires to aim emitter when placed, then install led 'wet' with hotglue, after cool scrape / trim the hotgoo down flush.

I was thinking i really should add more resistance on the lights to dim them a little, but "Painfully Obnoxious" lights on bikes are just so popular i may not need to. Plus there's not enough room for adding sound...

https://youtu.be/4h4VepNuGB4

Hiding wires into small stuff isn't fun. Lots of wires will always need stretched, shorterized, lower gauge, or spliced. If you're really lucky, service loop and stow it somewhere.

I'm not good at packing electronics, this guy is
https://youtu.be/KKXVVFWzM64

Before i'll say "it all fits" in here, its still got to have a battery pack made, and something to sit in the Hack so it's not showing wires through the hole in sidecar.
Not sure if i'd like a passenger, dog, or something like boxes, luggage, cases of beer... i dunno, any ideas?

Wow! I feel totally incompetent now, struggling to fit stuff at 1/14 scale. Amazing!

[skeeter]

Originally Posted by frizzen

I'm not good at packing electronics, this guy is
https://youtu.be/KKXVVFWzM64

WOWZERS! It blows my mind every single time I watch a video where folks are making RC in such a small scale!

[frizzen]

So i noticed never gave much of any detail of the steering on my scooter:

This has a Triple-tree fork, so the lower plate of that was drilled vertically near the right leg, at 'about' the same center as servo horn. I dropped a tiny push-pull wire into that hole, it tucks in near the bike frame and runs back below tank and seat. Tank needed clearanced to get full steering throw. Couple Z-bends on the wire keep it in fork and servo.

If i were cool, i would have used a Micro Helicopter linear actuator to drive the steering.

Rear wheel to driveshaft connection was nothing fancy, and so glue kept failing. I need to drill the parts for crosspins (twist-tie wire)

Realistically it probably only like has 20 minutes of runtime, mostly testing.
I need to order an RX, probably a lipo safety, power switch, a rider, passenger...

As far as scale Sidehack Motorcycles, i've seen
Maisto makes Harley 1/18
? . makes BMW 1/18
Hotwheels makes Harley 1/15
Polistil made BMW 1/15
China made a Harley bank in 1/12

Mostly I hope that i don't get the motorcycle bug... then we'd have a whole gang of tiny bikes out there. My luck they'd be 0.01% ers.
Gangs would be something like Gullivers Angels or maybe Lilliputian Disciples