This story starts a few years back, when I first started thinking about building something. I asked about which bike to use and only two really figured in the replies - K1100 and GSX 1400. The BMW became available first http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=554433 After about three years, and about 40K kms I started to think about a GSX. This came up at the right price, 20K kms and immaculate condition. My first look at it. So with NevGriff's help it landed in my shed
Farkles first. New front screen. Seat cover for the long trips A couple of extra power outlets, and a fuel inlet welded into the bottom of the tank. Car tyre on the back. and a bigger tyre on the front. The two main criteria for the new one were: Less weight and better use of space. The BMW had been a bit heavy, mainly because of the materials I'd used, and there was quite a bit of wasted space, mainly around the fuel tank, and battery/electrics box. Hopefully, that would be taken care of with the new one.
gotta a peek at the chair? i'd love to take the bike for a long ride before it gained a 3rd wheel. beautiful! ked
I did take it out two or three times before work started, and it's a great solo bike. Heaps of torque and fun to ride. A handful if you make a mistake though
Since I built the BMW, I've had the opportunity to look at many other outfits that are more than capable of doing all the things that I want to do, with a minimum of fuss, and very few breakdowns. They've all been ridden long miles on some of our very ordinary:eek1 roads, and they all reflect a lot of modification, gained from experience. In other words, if it broke, make it again, but stronger The inspiration: Even Jack (the owner) would probably tell you that this isn't a pretty outfit and it isn't; but if I can travel as far with mine, as quick and with as few problems as this GSX I'm going to be very happy. The two outfits above are long distance favourites. Again, built to withstand long distances on very average outback roads. So with those in mind, work was started on the sidecar frame. I'd already decided on using round tube this time, with the intention of building a frame that was strong enough to work without a body, because the body this time was going to be just two aluminium boxes. A lot of weight in the last one went into the square tube, and fairly heavy gauge aluminium that I used for the body.
Not many pics of this part of the build, but it's fairly basic. When I built the BMW, I used heim joints for the swing arm pivots, with the expectation that it would be a useful adjustment point if I needed it. In the three years of riding it, I didn't need to touch it. So this time I just went with conventional bushes. Using a GSX rear wheel for the sidecar was a bit out of the question due to the width of the wheel and the axle length, so this time it was a front wheel instead. The axle is still quite long so an outer support was used. Easy to get the wheel off though Just lift the caliper up, remove three bolts, and slide the wheel off.
The intention initially was to fit a cable operated parkbrake, so after a bit of a search, I found a caliper from a Raptor was ideal. So that was about it for this stage of the build. Next step was for the frame and bike to go to Phyllis for him work his magic, and temporarily join the two together.