Triumph Bonneville Tugs: An Owner's Perspective

The Ural cargo rig you have has our new from billet triple tree's to lower the steering effort.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793

There you go! Buy new triple trees from Jay and be happy.

Seriously, this thing is super easy to steer. It makes long days in the saddle a lot less tiring than the Ural.

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RD: did you ever find out anything about longer wearing tires on the bonnie, I know you had a thread on it. I'm about ready to put new tires on my T100 rig and am open to suggestions.

Gerry

Nope, I think that was Bokad's thread. He asked what people were running. I've got the factory Metzeler MEZ2's on my rig. I need something a little stickier for the dirt roads though.

I do like the new longer wear Duro's on the Ural though. If I could find a tubeless set for the Bonnie, I would go with it. They probably exist, but I haven't looked.

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Thanks for posting this. I have been tossing up the idea of a Bonneville for some time.
Sean,.

I owe a couple of measurements.

Ground clearance shot



The rig is 59" at the tires, and about 75" handlebar to fender.

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Wow, I thought mine was low. I just took a quick measurement of mine with the same Wark subframe and it is just about 5".

Our mounts loose 1 1/8 inch of ground clearance The reason why is that we want to tie to both sides of the frame of the bike, doing this requires passing under the bikes frame. The mount is made from one inch square tubing and clamped on using a clamp that is 1/8 inch thick. The triple tree's which moves the front wheel forward for lighter steering also account for about an inch of ground clearence loss. We often put stiffer springs in the front end of the bikes when we do the tree's to take out the sag in the forks. The original owner of the Ural cargo sidecar did not have us do this.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793

Thanks for the info, Jay. Do you mind suggesting a spring to use in the front forks?

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fyi...i used race-tech single rate, 1.1kg with 15wt fork oil. mounted a front fork brace from south bay triumph. my rig tracks real nice....

Well the car is mounted and I've got the toein, trail and leanout set correctly.I've added approx 85 lbs of ballast and been for several test rides. The rig tracks straight but has a horrible case of head shake that seems to come from the front suspension and only gets worse as speed increases.The front tire is a Battlax with flex sidewalls and a zig zag tread pattern in the middle and is partly to blame. I've got an Avon sidecar triple duty replacement and a set of progressive fork springs on order which I hope will remove some front end sag and firm up the suspension Here's hoping for an improvement.

What progressive's did you choose?

I found some Hagon's for a good deal, but I don't know if they are going to do the trick.

I've also thought about switching to Thruxton rear shocks to get about an inch more clearance. I'm wondering what that is going to do to the dynamics of the rig though.

I mounted an Avon sidecar tire on the front and got some Ikon progressives.Unfortunately I've put my back out so the project has been sitting for a week while I recouperate.I'll post the results as soon as I'm mobile again.
Bill

I got the front wheel with the new tire back on the bike. I'm pleased to say it's made a huge improvement.It's a joy to ride as iit is so I'll leave the suspension work for a winter project.

Is it the "Avon Side Car Triple Duty Tire?"

Looks like a good tire for a replacement on my Scrambler.

That's the one,I'ts ideal for the tugs front end, flat with stiff sidewalls.

I want to thank everyone for helping me get my Triumph Bonnie/Dnepr dialed in.
I have been fighting head shake and had tried just about everything to cure it.
Cathouse Willie and others suggested a new front tyre. CH Willie put on an AVON sidecar tyre on the front of his Bonnie and reported back with great success.
Well..........AVON will need to pay Willie some commissions.
I bought the same tyre and am happy to report that I had the same results. About 95% cured.
I have played with the suspension a bit in an attempt to cure the death head shake I had and will continue to check everything over the weekend. Set up, toe in,etc. But..............this in a major improvement.

Thanks guys. Greatly appreciate all the suggestions.

Need a front tyre?? The AVON sidecar tyre is highly recommended.

Just for the asking.........tyre pressures?? What seems to work??

I put that same tire on the front of my Daughter's '83 BMW/Ural rig and it solved the headshake for her too. Congratulations.

Thanks for posting this. I have an 08 Scrambler and have been itching to try something "different." Then at the Triumphs in Taos rally last month, there were not one but TWO side-hack equipped Triumphs, one of which was a Scrambler identical to mine except for the color!

So I'm starting the research process of what promises to be a long (and not cheap) journey.

I do have one minor quibble with your initial post, though. You said:

Yes, liquid cooling is nice - but unless you have the world's only water-cooled Bonneville, I'm pretty sure your '07 is air cooled. Certainly my '08 is.

Oil cooling is what I should have said. Mine has an oil cooler.

Sent from the voices in my head, and transcribed by their drinking buddy.