In 2013, Tina, Liam, and Ella gave me an Xtracycle SideCar kit and I’ve since logged several hundred miles with it, including trips with Suki. Last summer it received upgrades and it logged 500 RAGBRAI miles, so it was time to publish the success here:

1. For anyone who has a SideCar, you might notice the axle makes noise when hitting bumps in the road. If you’re willing to use a screwdriver in addition to the easy-to-use and push-to-release button on the SideCar’s lone wheel, you can remove most axle noise with a single 1/2-inch EMT conduit to 12/2 NM cable as shown in the pictures below.

2. Prior to last year, my SideCar’s tire went flat a couple times. After the first tire wore out, it was time to upgrade to a Schwalbe Fat Apple set up ghetto tubeless (this seems reasonable since tire pressure remains at 50 psi or less). Last summer, I was a cheap bastard and used a single layer of Kapton tape on the stock rim, which allowed a spoke to poke through after 500 miles. This year the Kapton tape was replaced with 2 layers of Whisky 30mm tape (if you try this, consider 25mm tape, 30mm is what I had on hand and it was a bit too wide), a Fattystripper, and 1 ounce of Orange sealant.

3. For bikepacking SideCar trips that need destination power, we mounted a solar panel to the SideCar’s deck and use it to charge Makita 18-volt battery packs. While riding across Iowa in 2021, I brought a pair of Makita 3.0 amp batteries and the solar setup charged them one at a time providing night-time charging for 3 iPhones. At camp, detaching the SideCar with the wheel attached gave it perfect angles for tilting toward the sun:

I strongly recommend this kit and really wish Xtracycle would start selling it again.

** Update 7-1-2023 **
The modifications above have been working fine. One additional note on #1, I realized the nut around the wheel’s button can be tightened or loosened to take up slack. This helps reduce some of the noise, but the key to making it really quiet is to improve the tolerance of the axle as it slides into the SideCar’s housing. I’ve been using a 2.25-inch wide by 1 7/8-inch tall shipping label that seems to have some plastic built into it. I wrap the label around the axle and then slide the axle into the housing. Will update later to see how this holds up, but the solution above helped SideCar cross Iowa a couple times, so I’d say it’s working.