wouldnt aluminium be too harsh, ridgid an prone to cracking? I know its no longer favoured for bicycle frames for those reasons.
Leigh, the DR500 we raced was very strong-it was the sidecar only, not the bike frame, and even after we collected a tree and tore some welds halfway through, it still hung together and we finished the days racing.
It tore the steering stem clean off the frame at the head during the ACUSA park nationals in 1983 and we welded it back together overnight and raced the open class on the sunday. It was a really good thing with very little development, though Geoff Udy could ride a broomstick quicker than alot of the rest could drive their outfits.
If we had have stuck to the 500 fourstroke as the junior class the sidecars would have lasted alot longer before the twostrokes took over as they were very good fun to race and could knock off the bigger twins and multis on a good day.