I have a little experience with sidecars. I rescued, restored and rode 28 Ural sidecars, single-wheel drive, and 2WD Patrols, Gear-up. Only used 2wd twice by, with the exception of the older Sportsman model, the Patrol and Gearup are direct drive, don't turn well at speed in 2WD, they want to go straight when you want to turn. I only had two that gave me any grief, they were badly neglected, we fixed these and made them reliable. Ural reliability relies on knowing your bike, being willing to actively look after it, if you treat it like crap, it will fail, if you take care and ride it like you have a brain they are reliable. Everyone I bought, restored, and rode daily like the family car, never broke and left me stranded. They are not fast, but they are fast enough to get you where you are going in style. The Ural is purpose-built to be a sidecar rig from day one, it is far less of a design compromise than any other rig you can build, and I've built a few. I had three Kawasaki KLR650 sidecar rigs, two I build, one with a Sputnik cargo hack, one with a regular sputnik body and a third with a DMC M72C fake ural tub, quality workmanship is sub-par, but were fun while they lasted, sputnik sidecar are to flimsy, to light. I avoid tall dualsport bikes these days, they just don't corner well, they tend to roll in the turns, no matter what you do with the suspension. I built two with DMC leading link forks which made steering easier but lacked durability, were outrageously overpriced, and damn ugly, not like the Unit Leading link forks from England which blend well with the bike. I had DMC build my Kawasaki W800 Ural sidecar rig, first ride the custom subframe they built, attached the forward upper strut to the sheet metal ABS mount, at 80 MPH the sidecar mounts came loose, just stroke of luck I made it to the shoulder of the highway before I lost the sidecar. The first rule of sidecar survival, do your homework, research the builder, never use a builder because they are the only one in your area, not worth the risk.
I built a 2017 Honda Goldwing with a used Hannigan GTL sidecar, with an electric lift seat, and electric camber adjustment, electric lean. These guys were great to work with, we bought the upgraded mount designs to fit our older GTL, totally impressive workmanship, never had a mount work lose, tracked straight as an arrow, the easy steer triple trees made it 2 finger steering, amazing, up to 120 MPH and 30 MPH crosswinds, tracked straight
The tug, bike, doesn't need to be big, but preferably 650cc is my lower limit to be practical for freeway use. The W800 was a perfect tug, fuel-injected, relatively low center of gravity, out-of-the-box perfect suspension, and enough torque to make the weight of the sidecar disappear, and a good open frame to attach mounts. I don't recommend bikes with a lot of plastics, it is common to cut holes for the mounts to pass through the plastics to attach to the frame, when the plastics are installed it's impossible to do pre-trip mount inspections, loose mount spell disaster at freeway speed and tight mountain turns where you need the most control over your bike.
Done right, yes they are different, don't handle like a two-wheel bike, you don't put your feet down at the stop sign, in America you slow more for right-hand turns, the sidecar lags behind a little when you accelerate and tries to pass you when you brake hard, just a little, it can be as safe and reliable as any motorcycel if you take care of it and drive like you have a brain. The sidecar carried my granddaughter who slept through most of the ride, to awake at the mountain top rest stop to run around like a crazy person, to fall asleep en route to the next stop for lunch. The wife and the dog love the sidecar for many years, now the dog outweighs the sidecar, don't tell him I said that, he's sensitive. It carried my camping gear from Mexico to Alaska, beer to the barbeque, carried gallons of water back to camp on the water runs, even did domestic duty grocery shopping, but mainly it was an escape to the country for us.
Got a call the other day, Jay said, he enjoyed the Ural Troyka I sold him 4 years ago, but he was ready to move on to other interests and asked if I knew someone who would be interested in buying it, it's now living in my garage undergoing restoration, looking forward to another ride with an old friend.
