Is Hitching a Sidecar to Your Harley-Davidson a Good Idea?

By Brett Foote - May 21, 2026

Sidecars have largely fallen out of favor among Harley-Davidson owners in recent years, but some may still find them useful.

For a very long time now – nearly as long as motorcycles have existed – sidecars have been a popular way to increase the people-carrying capacity of one’s bike, whether that be for a human or our furry best friends. However, in recent years, trikes have essentially replaced sidecars – at least, in the Harley-Davidson lineup, which had offered such a thing since 1914, only to kill them off entirely by 2011. Regardless, there are still a lot of Harley-Davidson owners out there that may be thinking about strapping a sidecar to their bikes.

Whether or not that’s a good idea – or even possible – is something worth thinking about before taking that pricey plunge, however. Obviously, one can just go out and buy a motorcycle that’s already equipped with a sidecar and bypass these concerns and potential headaches, or purchase a bike that’s already fitted with the proper mounting hardware. Otherwise, there are a variety of things to consider before plunking down one’s hard-earned cash.

For starters, it’s necessary to determine the proper mounting points, which isn’t quite as easy on newer bikes that weren’t designed to accommodate a sidecar from the factory. Luckily, the aftermarket has plenty of kits available that make the job easier, but it’s important to ensure that everything’s aligned properly. Most notably, lean angle has to be set so that the bike is “leaning away” from the sidecar to ensure that the rider isn’t battling the bike when turning in the direction opposite of that attachment.

These universal sidecar kits typically consist of four or five total mounting points, both upper and lower. In both cases, spacing them out as far as possible from one another helps improve weight distribution and balance, which is obviously important when one is out riding around on twisty roads. On the flip side, one could pay a shop to install everything and dial it in, but that’s typically not a cheap job, either.

Once everything is mounted up, you’ll probably have to dial in those adjustments, too. It’s typically necessary to increase the lean-out and toe-in if one has trouble turning left or feels the bike pulling toward the sidecar, and if the opposite is true, you might need to decrease those same settings. Even when everything is dialed in perfectly, there’s no doubt that riding a Harley-Davidson with a sidecar is going to feel a lot different, and that’s especially true when there’s nothing in that sidecar.

These difficulties are precisely why sidecars have largely fallen out of favor in recent years, and trikes have gained in popularity. Regardless, if you’re willing to do the work and deal with the changes in the way your Harley-Davidson rides, it’s still a viable – and to some, cool looking – option.