Bringing the three things I love most together

[Feedback Cycle]

That frame work is so beautiful it should be protected by yet another Velorex body on the outside

[Dakar Couple]

Well did some work last night, its starting to come together, still have to sort out the upper rear strut, finish the caliper holder, the subframe, and the wiring for the lights, plus build a base for LG's 5 point harness.


Oh, I've also got to shorten the axle, Ya its a socket and crown nut holding the wheel on right now

[MrPulldown]

Mind if you go into some detail about your tube bending set up? Those are some pretty nice looking bends, not kinks. What kind of bender and what type of tubes. Thanks.

[Precis]

Stunning workmanship - keep the dimensions - people will pay you money for the plans, or to replicate your design.
Adding some extra weight to the Velorex is no bad thing - I just used a chunk of 8mm steel plate and had a race-car roll-over hoop made up with the 6-point harness attached to that:




But ultimately, you'll want one of these, so you still have a "motorcycle", as opposed to a three-wheeled car:

[Dakar Couple]

Originally Posted by MrPulldown

Mind if you go into some detail about your tube bending set up? Those are some pretty nice looking bends, not kinks. What kind of bender and what type of tubes. Thanks.

WWW.PRO-TOOLS.COM for the bender, the tube is mostly P/O 1 1/2 .120 wall, with some lighter stuff mixed in in less crutial areas, and a piece of .180 for the rear main hoop.

The sub frame is 1 inch .120 wall. with a piece of 3/4 bar at the sweep 90 and a piece of 3/4 that is about 8 inches long at the rear ( floating overhand just looked like it would bend )

The Velorex frame was plated with .60 1 1/2 on the outside in critical, places, the suspension was rewelded and squared.

Other than that is pretty simple. Lots of measuring and re measuring and some input from friends as they would stop by for a look see.

I need to mention one thing when it comes to building the roll cage, spend some time on the threads and blogs from the 4x4 and rock crawler guys, they now how to build stuff. I spent hours chatting with a guy that builds rock crawlers in Texas about how things bend when they are hit. Some real insight from a guy that has been flipping big 4x4 over on mountains is a nice addition to your train of thought.

[Rotten Ronnie]

Originally Posted by Dakar Couple

...
Other than that is pretty simple. Lots of measuring and re measuring and some input from friends as they would stop by for a look see.

I'd use words like:
Cool! Wow! And Wild!

Then I'd get in the way and disappear inside to get drunk with his wife. ;)

[Dakar Couple]

Well for the first time since it was a bunch of bits LG has seen what all the noise is about.




So it's a conditional pass, needs some modifications to the socket hubcap, and I'm pretty sure that he is going to break the windshield, apperently it perfect for peek abo and a grab handle.



But he liked it, he kept pointing to the ignition and saying ON ON, ON bike, mine helmo and tapping on his head.

[Dakar Couple]

Originally Posted by Rotten Ronnie

Then I'd get in the way and disappear inside to get drunk with his wife. ;)

AAAAH Yes! Uncle Ron, A picture perfect rendition of how not to go down a hill with a KLR, a guy who the bike gods have given a pocket full of ONE FREE's too, and didn't complain when he over spent on them.

He does drink all night with my wife while I work on side car stuff then he usually says something before he goes home like " WOW, we made good progress today"

[Dakar Couple]

Originally Posted by Precis

Stunning workmanship - keep the dimensions - people will pay you money for the plans, or to replicate your design.
Adding some extra weight to the Velorex is no bad thing - I just used a chunk of 8mm steel plate and had a race-car roll-over hoop made up with the 6-point harness attached to that:


But ultimately, you'll want one of these, so you still have a "motorcycle", as opposed to a three-wheeled car:

Thank you for the compliments, they are always appreciated.
As for the flexit it, not really a fan of a fully articulated side car, but I’ve been really looking at the Kalich style of side cars, that guy does beautiful work. The problem I have at present is the agreement that my wife and I have. The deal is that we don’t have a bunch of bike that can break a ground speed record sitting in the garage when he gets his license, so we are gonna D-S it for a couple or 16 years. It wasn’t a hard transition for me because I’ve got lots of history with dirt bikes, and as soon as I came to the realization that a dual sport must be heavily dirt biased in order to be enjoyed I was happy.
Anyone can bump a BMW / KAWI / KTM / TRIUMP up the blacktop fully loaded looking for adventure, pick a gravel and head down it till it turns to double track then turn around. But a special kind of person gets excited when it goes from double track to single track to goat path, to bog. Last year I was out with some friends back in the bush playing around and this guy with his son motors up on some sweet little 2 stroke bikes, he looks at us and says you guys got balls bringing big bikes like that back here ( they were just some 650’s). Ya its hard work, hard on your body and equipment but worth the drive and the compliments of some guy on a 150lbs two stroke. I’ve often been referred to as special, maybe it wasn’t a compliment but who cares.
Anyways I digress. A leaner by nature cannot go on a dirt biased bike, we need clearance, and to be as skinny as possible. Now the side car I’ve built will probably end up on my wife’s bike a Dakar that won’t see allot of bogs while she owns it, the METZ tourences are a good indication of that. So playing around with LG on some Double Track and gravel roads is something I’m ok with. I’d rather have him out with me learning a healthy respect for the environment, bikes, and people. Appreciation for a friend who will work hard for an hour pulling a 400 lbs Beemer out of a bog is one thing, but if that same friend helps you do the same thing with the same bog 10 min later because you thought you could make it with more speed, he’s a friend, that’s the kind of people you should surround yourself with, and that’s what the side car is about.
Now once he is of driving age and has hopefully paid attention to the life lessons I could see myself taking a kick at a GSXR1000 with a leaner.

[Precis]

All good points you raise - funny how parenthood shifts your perspective a bit, isn't it? Our daughter's been riding dirt bikes since she was 4.
I love the macho look of the exo-skeleton you've given the Verlorex - previously it was a dainty, classic sidecar - but not yours!
Can you still use the roof? I found ours to be a spectaucularly good design - these guys have obviously been doing this stuff for a while and pretty-much perfected the folding water-proof sidecar roof.
However your desire to continue riding off road with LG and preserve your licence begs the question: why not just buy a 2wd Ural and be done with it?
You've turned a one-track vehicle into a pretty-much permanent two-track vehicle, so why not have the extra wheel working for you, instead of against you?
(One of the major features of the Flexit is that you can take the sidecar off in about 3 minutes and have a single-track vehicle again!)
Or there's this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McjozFNSp_M - just turn your speakers off unless you're deaf (or want to be so) and actually like French heavy metal.
The Toro is/was made in France and can apparently go "places":

[Dakar Couple]

Originally Posted by Precis

All good points you raise - funny how parenthood shifts your perspective a bit, isn't it? Our daughter's been riding dirt bikes since she was 4.
I love the macho look of the exo-skeleton you've given the Verlorex - previously it was a dainty, classic sidecar - but not yours!
Can you still use the roof? I found ours to be a spectaucularly good design - these guys have obviously been doing this stuff for a while and pretty-much perfected the folding water-proof sidecar roof.
However your desire to continue riding off road with LG and preserve your licence begs the question: why not just buy a 2wd Ural and be done with it?
You've turned a one-track vehicle into a pretty-much permanent two-track vehicle, so why not have the extra wheel working for you, instead of against you?
(One of the major features of the Flexit is that you can take the sidecar off in about 3 minutes and have a single-track vehicle again!)
Or there's this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McjozFNSp_M - just turn your speakers off unless you're deaf (or want to be so) and actually like French heavy metal.
The Toro is/was made in France and can apparently go "places":

A cool looking beast, wonder how it works on uneven ground, as for a Ural, I'd rather die than buy a 40 year old new bike ( sorry Ural guys nothing personal just my opinion ). I had a friend that had one and he despised it. Will admit that every time I see one I say that looks like a bike that needs a machine gun.

[D.Bachtel]

Originally Posted by Dakar Couple

Well for the first time since it was a bunch of bits LG has seen what all the noise is about.




So it's a conditional pass, needs some modifications to the socket hubcap, and I'm pretty sure that he is going to break the windshield, apperently it perfect for peek abo and a grab handle.



But he liked it, he kept pointing to the ignition and saying ON ON, ON bike, mine helmo and tapping on his head.

Looking great, really nice skills the two(three) of you are displaying.
Xlnt execution. Once it's together and sorted a bit of that distorted checkersboard wrap on the nose would look sweet! The LGs grow up pretty fast, wish I hopped on he sidecar train a bit earlier. Here's a photo of my youngest in the Greevorex. He's a little bit too much for the Villiers 34A and we're putting the suspension to test but it's great to have a 175 lb. pusher if you need it! The two of us together almost weigh as much as the entire rig. It's slow but light and very capable.





and a picture of the Greevorex by itself...





Keep us posted...

Don in Nipomo

[Dakar Couple]

Originally Posted by D.Bachtel

Looking great, really nice skills the two(three) of you are displaying.
Xlnt execution. Once it's together and sorted a bit of that distorted checkersboard wrap on the nose would look sweet! The LGs grow up pretty fast, wish I hopped on he sidecar train a bit earlier. Here's a photo of my youngest in the Greevorex. He's a little bit too much for the Villiers 34A and we're putting the suspension to test but it's great to have a 175 lb. pusher if you need it! The two of us together almost weigh as much as the entire rig. It's slow but light and very capable.





and a picture of the Greevorex by itself...





Keep us posted...

Don in Nipomo

Very cool rig Don, I'm hoping that LG and I have lots of good times on this bike. I've got lots of fond memories of bikes with my dad. I started at three years old with a Honda mini trail, a 1971, my dad actually kept it and gave it back to me a couple of years ago. I think I put 5000 km on that poor thing in the back yard before I was 4. He had this odd idea about your age and cc of a bike. At three I had a 50 with a throttle gov on it, and no shifter. 4 I got more throttle. 5 I got all the gears. 6 I got everything it had. 7 I got a Honda trail 70. 9 I got a Suzuki RV90 ...... Ect

Good times

[Dakar Couple]

I'm pissed, everything went wrong, broke / bent 2 1 inch hole saws, 1 dril bit and burnt my hand, nothing to report except damage. So I sat there and planned out my upper rear sub frame. My skills are often behind my ability to concepualize an idea.

[cleatusj]

Check this on the Toro.
http://newsmagsidebike.free.fr/modul...php?pagenum=21