From a friend of mine on another forum (
www.gigabikes.com)
His dad got landing gear on his wing
He's like a kid at Christmas. He's put 38K on his GL1800A since we bought it about 2 years ago (I think it was 2 years ago ). He's 76, has cancer, has had some minor strokes due to anti-cardiolipid antibody syndrome, broke both hips last winter, and has a titanium knee also. He's finally able to hobble around without a crutch, but just barely. Think that stopped him from riding it 230 miles yesterday?
I unloaded it from the 18-wheeler for him, and if I hadn't been there it would have been ugly, if not fatal. With the landing gear the bike's VERY wide, and after I unstrapped it from the shipping palette it juuuuuuuust fit between the pianos and stuff strapped to the inside walls of the big rig (the bike was in the very front). There's no way the driver could have even moved the palette with the bike on it, let alone maneuver it out. But that wasn't the problem.
The loading gate (that lowers to the ground) was about 1/2 inch away from being too narrow to hold the bike. I backed/turned the bike onto the gate/lift and it was VERY precarious, to say the least. I felt like I was going to fall off with the bike on top of me. But after much adrenaline, we reached the ground safely. I took the bike around the parking lot to make sure everything worked. What a weird feeling... these wheels retract (with a switch you have to flip) once underway, but when down (when slowing or stopping) the bike steers like a trike/sidecar; i.e., no countersteering; you turn the bars in the direction you want to go. It's a trip switching back and forth.
I got the hang of it pretty quickly as I've ridden ATVs a bit, but my dad was very shaky. He ran over a curb once when we first started out despite practicing in a parking lot for a while before we left; he waited too long to drop the gear and was wobbling a bit when they touched down, and this turned him toward the curb a bit. He instinctively countersteered to move away from the curb, and of course this just turned him into the curb even harder. The gear was sturdy, though, despite this rather serious impact. The little wheel just jammed up over the curb, and came down when he gathered his wits and moved on.
Needless to say I nearly had about 4 heart attacks during our ride, but we made it to Delta (aout 115 miles away) and visited some friends. We made it home fine and by some lucky stroke of fate or the benevolent eye of the traffic-signal gods, we made it all the way from the freeway offramp to my mom's garage (where my dad keeps his bike) without having to stop once. This has never been accomplished before, to my knowledge. I told him he wouldn't always be able to rely on traffic flowing and needed to practice A LOT in a parking lot, riding with the wheels down until he could figure out how NOT to countersteer. He realized he needed more practice.
Topic: Landing gear for a Goldwing (Read 17446 times)