Custom from "Mad Max "

[Tbone]

+1 !!!

Originally Posted by wannaklr

that is such a cool story!


This site reaches so many people! Instead of 6 degrees of kevin bacon it should be 6 degrees of advrider.

[High Country Herb]

I have the movie on disc (and the rest of the Max movies), so I watched it again last night.

Originally Posted by vortexau

after cracking-up on Police Pursuit Kawasaki KZ 1000 and leaving hospital care, gets aboard a Kawasaki Two-stroke Triple with one leg in cast.

I always liked that part of the movie. It almost looks like he had the starter connected to the shift lever, because it engages right when he shifts. He really lets the rubber fly, too! There is another part where he (or the stuntman?) takes off in a blaze of tires, and just makes it through a gap between parking barriers. Good stuff.

Here's another vote to hear the story behind finding the custom sidecar setup.

[3legs]

G'day

Seeing as you asked I will give you the story of how I found it.
Ever since the movie first came out I was always blown away by the outfit and said to whoever wanted to listen that I would love to get my hands on it.

Then I moved to Queensland (from South Australia) and one day while I was back in SA visiting the parents I noticed it coming towards me on one our major city roads. Unfortunately I was in a mates car and he was driving and by the time we turned around to chase it (as I was going to make an offer on it) he had disappeared into the distance and never got a chance to ask the owner.

That was in 1981 or 82.

Anyway I returned permanently to SA in 1984 and was living at Port Adelaide and around 1988 I was sitiing in my local pub having a beer with a fellow bike rider (I had a Z1R in those days) and we got talking about bikes (as you do) and I mentioned that I would love to find the "Mad Max" outfit to which he said "my old mate owns that". Unfortunately he hadn't seen his mate for years and the last time he saw him he had recently moved to Broome in WA. So close yet so far.

Bugga.

Anyway then in 1992 my next door neighbour was an old fellow and we often drank together at the local pub and he knew I was into sidecars and one day he knocked on my door and said that the son of a friend of his wants to sell his outfit. To be honest I wasn't interested in buying another bike as I already had a shed full but as he went out of his way to ask me I asked what it was and he said he's not sure (he wasn't into bikes) but he thinks it's a Honda with a sidecar and apparently it was in a movie.

Well f@#k me. I knew instantly it had to be THAT outfit. I could not drag him into my car quick enough. Well sure enough when we got to the place and there it was and it took every bit of energy I had to contain my excitement.

I would have bought it at any price but I had to make it look good so I haggled a bit, saying the condition of it was pretty bad but I bought it and I told no one about until the cheque cleared as I didn't want any bastard making a better offer.

Anyway, you are not going to believe this, but guess where it was. The next bloody suburb. After all these years of trying to find it, it was in bloody garden shed virtually just around the corner.

And what's even weirdier was that the owner was a mate of my then girlfriend's ex husband.

It was like I was meant to have it but I was made to sweat before I could have it.

Ok got it home and completely stripped but not before giving to a painter to get the right scheme. It was originally done in that really large metalflake that they use to use back in the 70's but no one did that any more so I had to compromise and the flake wasn't as large.

It was actually very well built and with some really neat touches like home made footpegs turned on a lathe but looked really cool. There were 2 chrome cylinders attached to the rear of the sidecar which were fuel tanks and fuel was pumped to the small gravity tank. All the electrics were in the space behind the riders seat and the there was a starter button there as well.

The rear wheel hub was custom made to take the wide wheel which incidently the tyres are the originals from the movie. The gear change was another hand made item much like a harley forward controls. The original did have a electic aerial that was used to raise the dome but it was missing and I didn't bother replacing it. The 4 exhausts ran under the chair and exited in front of the sidecar whee. Andrew got it right about the tail lights, they are from a xp ford.

The engine was a Honda 750/4 however when I first started it oil came pissing out the front of the engine where the cam chain runs between the cylinders and that's exactly what the problem was. The previous owner never adjusted the cam chain and it wore a hole right through. Thankfully I already had a honda 750 F2 however it would fit the the outfit frame (I can't exactly remember why) so I had to swap the barrel from the good one to the original motor. Anyway it all came together and it rode really nice. Brakes were an issue but shit happens.

I took it to a few shows but got sick of everyone saying " is that the bike from Mad Max".

If I can find more photo's I will scan them and post them here but remember this was 18 years ago and I have moved a few times since then so I may not have a lot.

Later

3legs

[madeouttaglass]

Excellent!
I do hope you find a few pictures of the restoration.

[KneeDrachen]

That's a great story, one of those "small world" types of things.

[NitroMax]

Stuff that dreams ( or nightmares ) are made of

[Storm Shadow]

thats so cool, ive always thought of this side cart when i see the movie, and wanted to know more about it. thanks for the pleasure

[Unstable Rider]

Outstanding. That sort of thing cannot be made up for certain. Great story.

Sounds like the rig was lucky to have found you at the time as you gave it some life back.

[High Country Herb]

Originally posted by 3legs
1981...1992

Now that is determination! Thanks for the story.

[vortexau]

The plex-dome seems ready made for roasting a passenger's head under the South Australian sun. Was it a cloudyday-only passenger carriage?

[3legs]

No day was a good day to be in the sidecar. Lets just say that dwarfs would feel uncomfortable in there. You could take a passenger but you felt like a 5 foot person in a 3 foot coffin. Very squeezy.

[NortwestRider]

I kinda
Liked the Mad Max movies,can ya tell ??

[vortexau]

Originally Posted by NortwestRider

I kinda
Liked the Mad Max movies,can ya tell ??

Depends on whether YOU dress the part, as well! Are you into Bondage, bare Skin, Studded Leather, Inappropriately-worn Sports Guards, and shouting out in a hoarse voice while waving your fist?

[Storm Shadow]

Originally Posted by vortexau

Depends on whether YOU dress the part, as well! Are you into Bondage, bare Skin, Studded Leather, Inappropriately-worn Sports Guards, and shouting out in a hoarse voice while waving your fist?

with the world in such disaray eating dog food and shiving people for petrol, where does one find the time and equipment to stay in shape like a body builder?

[NortwestRider]

I'm only like till around 9:30am..