Lots of folks say the Harley Davidson Revolution (V-Rod) engine should be used in something else. Roehr makes a sportbike and some custom builders have done a few things of their own. But, if you do a little digging, you’ll find the V-Rod engine can go off road, too. Who knew? This is the Hog Wild Racing V-Rod powered sidecar desert racer built to compete in the Dakar rally.
Scott Whitney and Joe “Hauler” Desrosiers are the guys behind this rig, they’ve been racing off road for years and running sidecars up Pikes Peak. The first version of the V-Rod sidecar won at Pikes Peak back in 2003, and when reconfigured to run Dakar in 2006, they did very well until a sprocket problem caused them to miss the time window at a checkpoint and they were done. Their website says they skipped 2 years to get sponsorship for a try this year, but doesn’t say whether they raced in this year’s relocated rally, run in South America.
Some of you thought the Sportster off road conversions were pretty wild, well, these guys just show you that Harley has more than one engine capable of running through the dunes. Cool.
Link: Hog Wild Racing
Related: Sportster Off Road Conversions
HowardsCustoms says
That front suspension is wild! I’d like to see some of the reasoning behind it. It looks like they were trying to get some wheelbase out front from it. Crazy.
Richard Gozinya says
Wow, that thing weighs 800 lbs, dry. Don’t think I’ve ever heard of a two or three wheeled offroad vehicle weighing that much. Guess all that weight is put on out of necessity, given its function, but that’s still one heavy bike.
The specs are here: http://www.hogwildracing.com/bike.shtml
nortley says
That’s an Earles fork, as used with success by BMW, Greeves, and others, and here further developed. Teles are not so great on sidecars, too twistable. Earles forks are stiffer and give built in anti-dive. I’d like one of these to ride in the winter.
Jeremy says
The front suspension is a fancy leading link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_fork#Leading_link). I believe these are used pretty commonly with sidecars.
Chris says
Why chain and not belt-drive for off-road racing? Harley enthusiasts are always extolling the virtues of belt drive…if it’s so great, why not keep it intact for this application?
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Phoebe says
Chris, if you get a stone in a belt, bye-bye belt. That’s why.
John says
Another reason for the chain is to quickly change ratios if need be.I love the belt on my Harley,quiet,clean,no adjustments and I’m hard on the bike and doesn’t break.In fact I’ve never heard of anyone breaking one.The chain on my old 73 Shovelhead was a pain,oil slinging,constant adjustment and lubing and I broke two at bad times.
Leon says
John: I have broke two belts on my 2003 883 sportster and it’s stock the first 1 broke 1/4 mile from home coming home from a bro house 1/2 mile from my house looking at the belt it looks like it was pulled apart with 24k miles on it no rhyme or reason as the tech said from the shop…..Number 2 went with 5364 miles on it there were teeth missing in 3 different places on the belt thats a cost of $168.00 per belt my bro’s super glide has over 70k on the original belt so just to say the belts will go at any time no rhyme or reason for it…..
FREEMAN says
Haha, I love it.
Jacquie says
WOW ! That’s engineering an idea to fruition. Many kudos to people behind it.
Joe says
I can’t tell, is it 2wd like a ural? Doesn’t really seem to be the case.
Tin Man 2 says
This machine seems awful heavy for its job, I wonder what its competing against weight wise. Is weight an asset in this type of racing? I will need to study up on this Sport, sure looks like fun.
FREEMAN says
@ TinMan2: any of the Ural sidecars are 715 lbs and up stock.
Erik says
This is a prime example of Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
kneeslider says
Erik, I don’t understand what you mean. This was not built for show, it’s a competition machine. When raced at Pikes Peak, it won. When racing at Dakar, it won two stages before having a sprocket problem. Others who chose differently and raced different machines were beat by this rig. In competition, winning means you made a good choice. So why should they not have done this?
David/cigarrz says
@kneeslider
It’s a Harley! Don’t you know. I think there are more mag &blog riders then cycle riders here sometimes, Oh, and the occasional business genius.
Kenny says
Erik,
you might want to take a history lesson in big sidecars. And they don’t come much bigger than the Zundapp KS 750 or BMW R75 http://www.bikepics.com/pictures/1598302/
Weighing in at 420kg(926lb) and expected to carry another 500kg(1102lb) of men, weapons, ammo and kit, into the battle field with only a 26hp 750cc V-twin. They were dispatched into North Africa as well as Siberia. The Urals are a cheap Chinese knock-off in comparison. In fact, they are.
I think a 110 hp 360kg sidecar rig with a good rider and passenger should be able to handle the dakar admirably though the amount of custom parts IMO would make life dificult for them
David/cigarrz says
Sidecar or sidehack racing has long been the domain of privateers and custom creations in Europe that includes everything from road to trials events. This is prime example of current offroad technology for rally racing. I am sure the guys at Hogwildracing aren’t surprised that few understand or know anything about their chosen segment of racing hear in the states. They are probably far better known in Europe.
pete johnson says
http://twitpic.com/px0pj Jaguar V12 trike build in UK, reverse mounted V12, with 12 exhausts, massive tyres, 100’s of pieces cut and welded on CNC, fuel tank in chassis And the builder had a Brain haemorage half way through. will it ever get finished??
HogWild says
David/cigarrz: “I am sure the guys at Hogwildracing aren’t surprised that few understand or know anything about their chosen segment of racing hear in the states.”
@David, You’re right on the money! Sidecars have raced Dakar since the beginning, and every one of those rigs were interesting one-off machines. Other off-road motorcycle racers don’t know much if anything about off-road sidecars. And this machine, built for Dakar and similar desert races, is completely strange even to my sidecar motocross racing friends. But it doesn’t really matter what some people think. For me it’s all about the challenge of accomplishing the impossible!
@kneeslider, Thanks for taking an interest in my creation. Indeed it IS all about function, performance, and reliability, not show. Unfortunately, when we raced Dakar it still had a few bugs in it. It’s been a long progression on a tiny budget getting it to the reliable state it’s in now.
@Kenny, Yes, we have a huge number of custom parts on this machine, which means our support crew has to carry lots of extra stuff that can’t be borrowed from someone else. When something breaks, I usually have to spend days in my garage making a replacement (plus spares). That’s my opportunity to improve the design so it won’t break again. It’s also why it has taken years to get it fairly reliable. But the pride of building something yourself, that proves to be tough enough for the gangliest off-road races on Earth, is immeasurable!
@all, Last year we raced this sidecar start to finish in the Baja 1000, ahead of the very nice lighter weight custom Aprilia powered rig built by a Swiss team. We’re aiming to do the Baja 1000 again in 2010. Photo: http://www.hogwildracing.com/baja/2008/Mark_Anderson_IMG_1205_x1000.jpg
The weight of this rig is in large part due to aiming for reliability (large motor with some meat in it), carrying lots of supplies to fix things on the spot (tools and spare parts), and being able to ride across incredibly massive and soft sand dunes (huge wheels and tires). If we don’t make it to the finish line, we’ve failed! Getting there quicker is secondary.
We converted the V-Rod motor from belt drive to chain drive for a couple of reasons:
– To have gearing options (easy to get all sizes of sprockets).
– To have the same chain as used on other Dakar bikes, so we can mooch from them if needed.
– Belt drives in off-road racing are completely unproven as far as I know. I didn’t want to take the risk of finding out it doesn’t work. We KNOW chains work. Of course this came back and bit us in Dakar, when one of my home-made sprockets turned out to be bad. Once that one was thrown out, that problem was solved.
– To change a belt takes a huge amount of work (pulling the rear swingarm out), or a frame that was specially designed for a belt. That design change would introduce other problems. Either way, it’s much easier and quicker to swap out a chain than a belt.
This bike is 1WD. Some Ural sidecars (Russian) have 2WD. Urals are not very good racing machines. Several Dakar sidecars have tried 2WD, but all have failed. The only place we would need 2WD is in the dunes. We’ve done tons of testing, and made tons of changes to get our bike to the point that it goes quite well in the dunes. The extra weight and reliability issues of 2WD were more than I’ve wanted to take on. Nobody has an easy time in the vast dunes of the Sahara desert or Chile’s Atacama desert. I think we’re in pretty good shape, but there’s always room for improvement. Right now I’m looking at some major mods so I can fit a 10 inch wide tire on the rear for the dunes.
Paulinator says
I know just what u mean about the sand. For 25 bucks I rented a scooter yesterday and got stuck on the beach righ up to the axles. Had to push the rig 20 feet. Then I got the plug wet and it sputtered and nearly died. I had to nurse it for a minute. What Adventure! Guh!
Whatever you guys are doing, consider me a big fan.
American-V says
@kenny: Close but no cigar: the Ural is a Russian and not a Chinese copy – and I’ve got it in my head that it’s closer copy of the Wehrmacht BMW, which would mean it’s the Dnepr is based the Zundapp. Worked with a guy who had been a soldier in the Wehrmacht, assigned to sidecars, before being captured who gave me a few insights: not least the BS from Hollywood about firing the heavy machine gun from a moving outfit: the bike needing anchoring before you could fire the gun, and firing on the move would have stopped the sidecar dead in its tracks better than standing on a sidecar brake. oh, and a single passenger would ride on the back of the bike, because there was so much weight in the chair already.
The Chinese do make clones – still with sidevalve engines, but with the addition of electric starters: they’re Chang Ziangs … or something like that.
In other news, massive respect to the HogWild team for open-minded creative thinking: that’s what drives the world forwards (have you got enough copyright-free high-res pics for us to run a feature?).
lostboy1 says
Amazing efforts guys, i can`t understand why the Harley Davidson company wouldn`t get behind you and provide some form of sponsorship.
Nice one Harley, you got a couple of blokes here taking your product to the world stage and kicking ass on thier own…get with the damn programme and wake up.
seriously, kudos team HogWild