2021 R18 Warranty

[John Reynolds]

I read in the 2021 manual that the warranty is null and void if a sidecar is attached. Need help here. I so want a sidecar, but am not willing to risk warranty for that.

 

[nielsm]

I read in the 2021 manual that the warranty is null and void if a sidecar is attached. Need help here. I so want a sidecar, but am not willing to risk warranty for that.

I don't see that specifically in my manual. It'd be hard for them to claim that adding a sidecar automatically voids the entire warranty, rather if the sidecar can be shown to have caused the failure, the manufacturer is in their rights to deny the claim. That's pretty standard across most any bike. Accessories that haven't been vetted by the manufacturer can be grounds for denying warranty claims. But, it's only where it makes sense. A sidecar won't cause an issue for paint warranty. It'd also be unlikely to affect the electronics. But a case could be made that it could cause issues with the powertrain because of the additional load, and it could cause issues for suspension, tires or the frame since it adds load on one side of the bike in a way the bike wasn't designed to handle.

Generally, the sidecar maker should have a warranty that addresses these issues since they are meant to be for that specific bike. This can increase the cost of the sidecar though. A cheaper sidecar may not warrant anything on the bike caused by adding the sidecar.

This is part of the reason Harley offers factory trikes and Ural offers factory sidecars, so you have something engineered and warranted for that use case.