Been a while since I was here, but a lot has gone on recently. At last years OCBR ( Off Centre Beer Rally ) in our lovely south west , we had about 5 or 6 sidecars which is a bit of an oddity, so mine became a bit of a plaything, lots of beer consumed and it got a hiding with the end result being this blown head gasket !!! not a huge problem, repaired it only for it to go again, in the end I had 2 pulled head studs after consultation with my mechanic, who knows my riding style, we decided to remove the sidecar from the GS PD and find a more suitable tug. TA DA whilst the PD was getting a new front end and rebuilt , I rode the pants off this beast, it has so much grunt compared to the old BMW. Fast forward 8 months, and the time was right to start the changeover. There is a bloke over in WA that builds a fantastic front end for these and luckily he agreed to build me one. goodies on the bench ooooohhhhhhh shiney bits stripped the chassis and threw some jam at it , just to pretty it up. put the beast on the lift and rip the forks out then sat the chassis along side to have a look bit of cutting, bit of grinding, bit of welding should be able to make it fit. more to come soon.
that front end is cool, Whats the reason for this type of front end? does it make a sidecar rig handle better? just a noob asking noob questions sorry just wondering?
Bully, looking VERY good. The GSX14 would have to be one of the best bikes for an outfit. Certainly my choice if/when I move on the V Strom.
Got hold of a front guard off a TTR250 and installed that, with a few tweeks it now sits a bit better than this photo attachment brackets were welded to the frame, I baulked a bit at first about welding them on, however there are now about 14 of these currently in production or finished here in Perth, and all welded, so go with the flow Cleared the shed out one evening, got the stringlines, chalklines and straight edges out and stuck it together theres the southern end of a dog for you again FR700 set it up with 250 mm lead and 20mm toe in. the others that are being built are using a motorcycle swing arm , which makes it real easy to adjust the toe in, I wanted to be able to utilise my existing chassis so made the rear bottom mount adjustable instead. the glory of the GSX is that a 205/55/17 car tyre goes straight onto the rim. does my butt look big in this. it has a centre to centre width of 1500 mm , which is the same as my 4x4, so should track down the twin track dirt roads very nicely, have now re-wired the bike and sidecar, with some final tweaks to the suspension and lean it will be ready to run over the pits shortly. I've ridden it to work a few times this week, adjusted the lean, at 50kph it veers slightly right, so another adjustment is required but I want to put a load in it first just to be sure. There's so much power and torque available, and highway cruising speeds is so easy ( compared to the GSPD ), it brakes nice and straight, pulls up very well from 80kph and can steer it with 2 fingers on the bars at 100kph Got to get some body wrap on the boat to match the tank on the bike and decide what colour I want the guard on the sidecar. Should all be finished for this years OCBR, think I'll take the keys out this year though.
Bully, personally I would lose that spoked sidecar wheel, maybe the same front wheel as the bike? Just my humble opinion, otherwise.....WOW!!!!! very nicely done.
Your generosity knows no bounds my good man although I feel that two in a week may be more than my heart can take Nice bit of work there Bully. I'm inclined towards the camp that says weld the cleats on so you'll get no grief from me on that score. Looks to have at least 4" to spread the load and a nice fillet weld. One of the five points on mine has the same setup but I added a half sleeve under the cleats to spread the load a bit further on the thin wall bm' frame. Have fun. .
