Hey fella's if there are any of us left after the inquisition and tar and feathering at the nationals, maybe we should look into shipping us and OUR rigs to Cuba for a little outing. We could call it a cultural exchange, humanitarian effort or whatever. Of course you commie haters will have to be on your best behavior! And, Big Dave, you better look up the meaning of humanitarian. Just because vegetarians eat vegetables, doesn't mean humanitarians eat humans!
Ry Cooder is the guy behind bringing the Buenavista Social Club back into existence. I was tickled pink to find out they were playing at the Hotel National while I was staying there. Her highness having a mojito on the terrace where all the glitterati from the 30's 40's and 50's hung out
Damn Dan sitting in a Marxist country (in the gulf stream) having a drink with her maybe you are the smartest man on this endless bullshit forum ! It must be extremely freeing to be Canadian, I'm stuck with that whole world super power hangover and Viet Nam vet resentment.
Jeez, that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me Dave, I'm getting all choked up ... is this a new man I'm hearing Actually it is pretty liberating ... and I can go on the gun threads and argue why we're so much safer and more sensible up here.
Just for the hell of it I dragged myself back to the first page, my giant ego cries out for leading link forks from EZS !!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently sidecar builders all have similair issues getting stuff done in a timely matter, I will call The Netherlands tomorrow AM and see what I can get going, the first of the year they said we where right on schedule which was forks in February..I'm not alone another inmate had a go also and is suffering alsnward and forward.DB
My main partner in crime is ready after getting sick as a dog on Sundays Forced March (hike) causing me to wonder how can so much vomit fit in such a small dog ? Must be a German trick or something ! I think I didn't get quite all the dead rabbit parts away from him. The bottom of Lake Pepin where the Mississippi is more than a mile wide 16-20 miles long and still supporting ice fishing. Of course we are well on our way to MN's second season road repairs, I wanted to avoid this but the road looked to nice at the start turned into pudding and I was afraid to stop and wasn't steering real well either. Gotta get to Fleet Farm to get springs first gallon of car wash soap ! I can hardly wait for the smell of manure being knifed into the soil ! Addedum turn your damping down for your first few rides in MN ! Rode 40 miles stopped for coffee turned down damping in all three shocks !
Good to see you were able to get the bike out this soon after the hard winter you have had. Any word on the LL Delivery ? And, if you sell this bike does the LL go on your other bike ? Hope Justin is feeling better. Ron,
Hi Ron, we got out for another go around today, rig is working very nicely, though I still want a LL fork. All sidecar shops are the same I think here there wherever ! They overbook and when they have problems there's delays Dave at EZS says his colleague is ill so he's behind. My fishing expedition isn't gaining much traction and after driving it a couple times this spring I'm not going to discount it allot. These things are allot of work but you know that. If it's still here when the LL arrive they will go on it. If I get lucky I have another older GS that's all GSA seat,tank and transmission but it's got allot more power and would make a lovely sidecar rig also.DB
Ok another afternoon that always ends up off the paved roads and since it's not quite spring yet there's plenty of gooey soft, frost heaved shitty secondary roads. Todays fresh goo ! Ok Luke the winch is in the trunk, but I think I'm going to put it on the front and leave it there. The question would the wieght be better off in the trunk ? The front or rear ? It'll plug in either end and the power cable reach the necessary connector from either end. If I'd had any sense it would have been mounted in the middle of the rig and had fairleads to lead the cable in either direction. New seat rebuilt with much firmer but less foam, moving monkeys down and back, much to my surprise I'm almost compfortable with my 35" inseam. Finally got an accurate wieght on way home, swung into a elevator in a small town that looked quiet. Uff Da 1175 pounds with about 8 gals in big tank and 3 more on the side, that makes it well over 1500 with woman friend,Justin and camping gear. I gotta get rid of some stuff !!!!!!!!!!!:eek1
Dave, look for this poem, lol..... Have to work on moving the poem from iTunes to this message. Ron, The Elevator Scale 2:10 Rodney Nelson Elko! A Cowboy Gathering Country 3 MB http://www.westernjubilee.com/Sounds/Elko-Disc1-Track3.mp3
That Claude I wondered how he got bars for lightet vehicles ! He rolls his own We all thought the only smoked a pipe. I thought is was time to change swaybar bushes , it really wasn't but I did it anyway. My bar and lots of the rig have been thru streams deep enough to get a few things. I ordered some bushes found the right size on fleabay. Kruddy dirty ends anti sieze and grease.It was not preloaded the way I put it together, the only thing I had changed was the rocker sidecar height hmmm it makes more difference than I thought. Aha Claude rolls his own welding a piece of chromoly in between a pair of the larger tubutar sway bar ends,probably the most affordable way to build a ligther duty bar.Claude have you played with the length of the solid bar ? New bushing , I sprayed the entire bar with LPS 3 which is a rust preventer that turns to wax,also the bushing ID with any luck it will not attract grit as easily as grease does. This time I went with less preload. If I where as clever as I think I'd have marked it with a magic marker before the wax to check it for twist like we did in the old days with race car axles, as we did during my brief career as a dirt track helper.DB Claude I'm tempted to remove the center, bore the end and put in a piece ot 3/4" chromoly way to stiff ?
The mysterious blue plastic https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ig0IX8dagIc/VQR9wMOE1OI/AAAAAAAAC94/IEzdCuH7FMk/w951-h713-no/IMG_0045.JPGwww.ebay.com/itm/220610973408?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT One can get them in bronze but they have to be reamed to size, my take after looking at it a bit Claude buys these older generation torsion bars and and only uses the ends to build his swaybars Most of the bars currently for sale at the circle track places are smaller diameter and cost allot more, I think this way he gets something lighter and can be made more adjustable.DB Back from a test ride ! You can have cake but shouldn't try and eat it also ! I think with a longer travel sort of rig you can have loose suspension and it will ride better but be moving all the time, or you can preload everything springs, swaybar etc turn up the damping and it'll be stiffer and not move much and unless it's loaded will be on the harsh side.I took all preload out of swaybar,onward and forward.DB
Mr. David Bigelow wrote;"[I]That Claude I wondered how he got bars for lightet vehicles ! He rolls his own We all thought the only smoked a pipe. I thought is was time to change swaybar bushes , it really wasn't but I did it anyway. My bar and lots of the rig have been thru streams deep enough to get a few things. Kruddy dirty ends anti sieze and grease.It was not preloaded the way I put it together, the only thing I had changed was the rocker sidecar height hmmm it makes more difference than I thought.[/I] When you change the tilt adjustor you will be changing the preload on the swaybar Aha Claude rolls his own welding a piece of chromoly in between a pair of the larger tubutar sway bar ends,probably the most affordable way to build a ligther duty bar.Claude have you played with the length of the solid bar ? Antiswaybar design varies a lot between those of us that make them. Most take a piece of moly bend it to fit and that's it. Most use 5/8 " from what I have seen. The bushings are typically under the sidecar frame tubes and the bar is exposed. Some heat and bend ..some heat and bend then retreat to a Rockwell whatever spec...and some run a straight bar and weld arms onto the moly. This basic idea works okay but there is usually deflection vertically between the bushing and where the bar is bent. The intent of a swaybar is to twist the bar....vertical deflection isn't the goal although it will add spring rate. It will not transfer all the movement in a twisting fashion to the other side of the outfit. As most have seen we run our bars through a tube. Take a look at a sprint car suspension sometime. It is the same principle even though they are using it as a torsion bar and not an antiswaybar. Why the tube? It negates any vertical deflection which means any movement has to be twisting the bar and that is what we are looking for. MAKE SENSE? Okay now we weld a piece of 3/4" moly inside the cut off end of a conventional sprint car torsion bar. The sprint car torsion bar end has splines on it. This allows the use of a sprint car torsion arm. Most are aluminum but if we must use one that needs a bend on it we go to steel. STILL WITH ME HERE ? The effective length of the swaybar is only the 3/4 soild moly! That is all that twists when the suspension moves. Some may ask how can we use short 3/4 stock when others use long 5/8 material? It all depends on the lengths of the arms. Long arms and heavy bar can do the same as short arms and light bar. Why? The long arm isn't moving as much as the short arm is at the attachment point. So ultimately it is twisting the heavier bar less than the short arm would be twisting the lighter bar with (if all else was equal) the same results. Bushings? We have used brass and oilight bronze. These need to be installed and then reamed out to 1 1/8" I.D. to for the bar. The a zerk fitting installed. Replacement is a hassle as you just start at square one all over again. Sprint cars got away from this a long time back. Too much hassle and no better results than the derlin or other plastics that are now popular. Bushings can be purchased from speedway motors as I told Dave or other sources. The tube we use is 1 1/2 x .120 wall. The bar has a bearing surface which is 1 1/8" in diameter. We have our own bushings machined as we began to see some variances in the commercially purchased ones. Note that the bushings are not that critical in the operaton of the swaybar. If they do wear you will hear a clunk sound which is the swaybar moving slightly inside the bushing or possibly the bushing moving slightly in the tube itself. Not a big deal but an aggravating noise. Just replace the bushings when you can. We have had these bars do over 60k with no issues. Slacker, if you read his report, did break on at thE weld but he had a shock that was totally dead and it was actually the swaybar that kept the thing afloat until we got him a new shock. Note that the forst shock was not one we supplied but a use done he installed. [ Claude I'm tempted to remove the center, bore the end and put in a piece ot 3/4" chromoly way to stiff ? I am not totally sure what you mean here but if you are saying you may run the 3/4 out to th ends of the splines I twill make no difference as the heavier part of the bar that it would be going into is not twisting anyhow. There is a little more to it than all this bit in light what DAVE posted I hope this made sense. if anyone wishes to build their own swaybar please please make it a point to be sure the link that attaches the arm to the swingarm is positioned properly so it does what it needs to do and NOT go 'over center' so to speak. Also if anyone removes the aluminum arms be sure the splines are lined up properly when reinstalling them, Overall if you think about it this is all pretty basic stuff. Go to HPSidecars.com and read the swaybar articals there. You will see that Mike and Bill do theirs differently and so be it. For those who are coming to th eRON DEE VOO at Summit Point raceway you will be able to see how the HP guys do their swaybars. The racer s do not sun them because the sidecar on those rigs has to be rigid...no suspension. [/B] ;
This is not true as far as size goes. They are running much stiffer bars than what we use. Remember the effective par tof the swaybar is the 3/4" portion. Year ago all sprint cars ran 1" splines. As systems changed the bars needed to be larger so the move to 1 1/8" splines too place.