The dark side - STROKER style

[twintwin]

David, has just finished a demo wheel (That I will try very soon) and put it on the chair of his sidecar, here is the result, what a beauty, if the dynamic matches the look, I guess this is the way to go for all GS rig! Now David you have to work on the front wheel

[Andrew2]

Originally Posted by Andrew2

It looks great.When the wheel is installed are the front and rear wheels still in alignment or is the rear wheel offset slightly?.Looking at both rear end photos they seem to be slightly offset.

A2

I guess not

[eastbloc]

Dammit. This gets expensive cheaper than tires in the long run. I wanted to get one of these a few months back but had too many other expenses and truth be told I don't love the big chrome-looking wheel (is it actually chrome?) Love the work though.

R1100GS and R1150GS wheels are identical. I have one of each and use them interchangeably on my rig's rear and hack wheels.

[nevgriff64]

Originally Posted by Andrew2

I guess not

Might take a bit of time for the message to get through to America Andrew.. Either that or you typed too quick..

[Andrew2]

Originally Posted by nevgriff64

Might take a bit of time for the message to get through to America Andrew.. Either that or you typed too quick..

Nah,I typed it pretty slow Nev.

[Stroker]

The wheels you have seen on Ara's, Yellow's and my rig are all polished, not chrome plated. The wheel shown on my sidecar is "satin" or a brushed finish and clear coated to resist corrosion. We've got a couple powder-coated wheels in the works right now, color matched to BMW silver. I can also glass bead the rim, and then clear coat it to tone it down. The offset is not as pronounced as the photos show, and will accomodate wider rims, if desired. All future wheels made with the narrow(3 1/2") rim will be offset away from the final drive. This will also make them interchangable with the Dauntless GS wheel modification for the sidecar wheel. Because of the much wider contact patch ,with the car tire, a little offset either way is not an issue. Yellow tells me that his wheel is actally further away from the swing-arm than his stock wheel. I'm looking for a stock Ural swing-arm so that we can make a bolt on replacement axle and hub that will accept an off the shelf car rim directly, without the adapters needed for a BMW bolt on application. This will make putting a matching wheel on your sidecar MUCH cheaper for those of you who have a stock Ural sidecar wheel now. You could use our axle and hub and bolt on your wheel. Its not just about cheap tires, as the ride and handling is very much improved. We encourage your input on all of these points. Thanks, Stroker

[BeemerChef]

Originally Posted by Stroker

The wheels you have seen on Ara's, Yellow's and my rig are all polished, not chrome plated. The wheel shown on my sidecar is "satin" or a brushed finish and clear coated to resist corrosion. We've got a couple powder-coated wheels in the works right now, color matched to BMW silver. I can also glass bead the rim, and then clear coat it to tone it down. The offset is not as pronounced as the photos show, and will accomodate wider rims, if desired. All future wheels made with the narrow(3 1/2") rim will be offset away from the final drive. This will also make them interchangable with the Dauntless GS wheel modification for the sidecar wheel. Because of the much wider contact patch ,with the car tire, a little offset either way is not an issue. Yellow tells me that his wheel is actally further away from the swing-arm than his stock wheel. I'm looking for a stock Ural swing-arm so that we can make a bolt on replacement axle and hub that will accept an off the shelf car rim directly, without the adapters needed for a BMW bolt on application. This will make putting a matching wheel on your sidecar MUCH cheaper for those of you who have a stock Ural sidecar wheel now. You could use our axle and hub and bolt on your wheel. Its not just about cheap tires, as the ride and handling is very much improved. We encourage your input on all of these points. Thanks, Stroker

What "HUE" of pink did Twintwin order?...

[eastbloc]

I'm going to see where I land financially once the holiday bills are all paid off... I'm definitely still interested, just feeling the pinch a little lately.

I'd want mine some flat color ideally although really it's going to be pretty flat once I don't wash it for a few months either way.

One question I have is whether there is any benefit to running one of these on the sidecar wheel. I could see a square profile tire decreasing the tendency for the nose to dive on aggressive left-handers. How significant is this effect?

[Stroker]

Ara, Twin-Twin is getting a very manly shade of pink. I think that they call it "mauve". East-bloc, as you may have noticed that even the fancy polished wheel that Ara has can get the proper "patina" with enough neglect to cleaning. Powder-coating can be done in any color, silver, black, whatever. Check out the photos of the disc side of the wheels, which is just glass beaded and then sprayed with clear. As far as how a 15'' wheel on sidecar the would effect the ride and handling of the rig, I haven't really ridden my BMW rig that way yet as I didn't want to get Twin-Twin's wheel all dirty with salt and slush, but I've had a 102 cubic inch tricked out Harley sidecar rig for the last 30 years, with 145R15's on the front and sidecar and a 165R15 on the rear. This monster handles like a sports car, even with the rigid frame! But of course the pusher wheel is the big deal. The reason that I built one of these wheels in the first place, was that last winter while traveling thru Mexico with my wife on the BMW rig, we were burning up tires at an alarming rate. I rode back to Connecticut on steel belts on the car and a bald Karoo II knobbyon the rear. NO MORE!

[claude]

Eastbloc wrote:
>>One question I have is whether there is any benefit to running one of these on the sidecar wheel. I could see a square profile tire decreasing the tendency for the nose to dive on aggressive left-handers. How significant is this effect?<<

Originally Posted by Stroker

........ As far as how a 15'' wheel on sidecar the would effect the ride and handling of the rig, I haven't really ridden my BMW rig that way yet as I didn't want to get Twin-Twin's wheel all dirty with salt and slush, but I've had a 102 cubic inch tricked out Harley sidecar rig for the last 30 years, with 145R15's on the front and sidecar and a 165R15 on the rear. This monster handles like a sports car, even with the rigid frame! But of course the pusher wheel is the big deal....

We have run 165s on the sidecar wheel for quite some time now and also have run 135s over there.

As far as handling goes there is no huge benefit of having one of these on the sidecar.,....but.... there are advantages that I feel are real in spite of this.

Number one is that you have a tire that is the same size as the one on the rear.

Being as sidear tires tend to wear very well and rear tires take more of the abuse, so to speak, you now have a way to rotate the tires if you so desire. Since the 165s on the rear seem to average 20k miles or so and the sidecar tires do not wear much at all you may end up having to replace tires simply due to old age rather than wearing them out .

If you run a sidecar brake (I don't) the braking on the sidecar wheel is better with the wider tire.

You can vary the air pressure in the sidecar tire according to sidecar load. Tires are in effect springs. On a long trip a little less air over there can make a difference as far as passenger comfort goes. If you have some type of tilt adjustor you can dial in the handling and create a nice ride pretty easily with a large tire on the sidecar.

Flotation is better with a larger tire. This can be good or bad dependant upon the situation.

If you have a rig setup with a swaybar and run it hard the 165 tire on the sidecar can increase cornering speeds.

Some feel that headshake issues on sidecar rigs, if the bike itself is in good shape and the mounting system is not moving or flexing, are totally related to the sidecar tire itself. Varying air presure in a 165 sidecar tire can be one way to dial out headsake on some rigs.

If the rim gets damaged in use it is a fairly inexpensive thing to replace.
If the tire gets damaged replacement tires are at this time around 50 bucks.

If you want to run an aggresive tread a 165 tire can be grooved at little cost. If you want to run the grooved tire on the sidecar when on pavement and then switch it with the rear tire this can increase tire wear overall.

If you wish to cary a spare you can just carry a tire and not a tire and wheel. Actually we have carried these tires under the sidecar body to free up space above.

As far as nose dive on turns away from the sidecar goes the 165 tire on the sidecar will not do much of anything to help prevent that. The best way to get rid of that is with the addition of a swaybar. Both stroker and twin twin have these on their rigs. The difference is like night and day. As has been mentioned before we will not even do a dual sport type rig without a swaybar on it. But, all of that is another topic I suppose.

Only the individual sidecar owner can make the decision on whether they feel the switch to a 165 on the sidecar is worth the effort or not. If we didn't feel they were a good thing we would nto be mounting them as standard issue on our in house rigs.

[Erik RS]

Originally Posted by yellow

..... The overall diameter between the stock tire and the 165/80 tire is negligible. So the accuracy of the speedometer is not changed.....

You changed the rear wheel and the speedo get it's info from the front wheel, right?

[Stroker]

That right, the speedo drive is on the front wheel. Claude is right about to value of interchangable rear and sidecar wheels, at least for me. Because I carry a standard BMW rear wheel I can use it for a spare on either the bike or the chair. The sway bar makes a huge differance, and I have never disconnected it since putting it on, even in REAL rough stuff.

[MooseKiller]

Absolutely awesome work, Stroker! Very clean... I have been tossing around the idea of hacking my 1100GS, and the complaint of burning through rear tires has kept my eyes open to this type of mod. Not sure when I will be able to do the sidecar thing, but I favorited this thread for reference... If plans come to pass, I hope you have another customer!

Awesome pix of all the rigs... Keep 'em coming!

[BeemerChef]

Originally Posted by MooseKiller

Absolutely awesome work, Stroker! Very clean... I have been tossing around the idea of hacking my 1100GS, and the complaint of burning through rear tires has kept my eyes open to this type of mod. Not sure when I will be able to do the sidecar thing, but I favorited this thread for reference... If plans come to pass, I hope you have another customer!

Awesome pix of all the rigs... Keep 'em coming!

You will never look back!!! I keep still trying to get stuck... today a bunch of river beds to the Valley of the Moon and Ice Cream Mountain near Big Bend, some real deep sand, creek crossings... PSI 35 just flying through!!! A new rear every 3K was a big problem to me being on the road 24/7... I have 5K now, I cannot guesstimate what it will end up but I can imagine 12~15K for sure and that is good enough for me! Maybe more... We are heavy loaded...
Be well... Ara & Spirit

[MooseKiller]

Originally Posted by BeemerChef

You will never look back!!! I keep still trying to get stuck... today a bunch of river beds to the Valley of the Moon and Ice Cream Mountain near Big Bend, some real deep sand, creek crossings... PSI 35 just flying through!!! A new rear every 3K was a big problem to me being on the road 24/7... I have 5K now, I cannot guesstimate what it will end up but I can imagine 12~15K for sure and that is good enough for me! Maybe more... We are heavy loaded...
Be well... Ara & Spirit

Greetings Ara & Spirit!

After following your stories for a while, I take serious creedence to your testimonial. I was originally giving thought to buying a Ural. The 2wd is a big plus, but the lack of power is a big minus (for me). So I started tossing around the idea of hacking my 1100 after seeing yours... I doubt mine will be quite as heavily loaded, but having a spot for the (future) dog as well as extending the riding season up here in AK, I can see no real drawbacks to bolting a tub to my GS. And then having the rear wheel mod, well, that'd the the icing on the cake!

Ride safe you two!