Chris, I will go out in the garage and try to twist it with a 3' pipe wrench but I will be very surprised if it does. The 1/4" steel angle is very stout. We tried standing on it and hopping up and down and there did not appear to be any flex. Like you, I prefer clevis mounts and may look for some, but, I beleive that you will find that Hannigan and some others use this type mount.
This single shear vs clevis has been bugging me for a while: Claude insisted to sell me the single ones stating it was less prone to fracture than a female clevis, which I think is right. But the mounting is not as "neat" as male/female!!!
OK, I took the 3 ft pipe wrench and attempted to twist the angle. It did not seem to twist. I could only pull it in one direction, from the bike side toward the car and only near the front as the sidecar body is in the way. *I appreciate everyone's input on this and if anyone else has any other explanations as to how or why this is unsafe, please speak out. Right now the plan is to keep riding it while keeping a close eye on it. I still feel like what we have mounted at the bottom of the struts is stronger then anything holding the top of the struts. Not saying that there is anything wrong with the top mounts. Over time I guess we will see. Also, tomorrow I am going back down to Bill's shop and we are adding a steering stabilizer. Thanks again for the info.
Please understand that I'm a sidecar noob too. What I can see is that the RHS can open and close up a bit as you're riding, which could change the alignment. From what I've read/been told, even a small amount of change in alignment can have a relatively large handling change. Since you can't weld gussets in, some triangular blocks with bolts through the angle iron into the blocks, could be added without a lot of work, either incorporating the blocks into the threaded mounts (in lieu of a nut on the back side, or right next to the mounts. It'd really be a piece of piss to do, hour or so is all to drill and tap the stiffener blocks.
So you have a few hundred miles on the rig now--how's the angle iron holding up? Might be interesting to have the monkee hang his arm over the side and hold onto the angle iron as you drive through some twisties just to see if they can feel anything.
A little over 600 miles so far. All is going well, the rig handles well with the new damper and there does not appear to be any play/slop in the rigging. We have pushed and pulled on the rig in every way we can think of and have not seen any movement. I am replacing the bikes shocks in a couple of weeks and then we will be rechecking the setup. So far, so good.
Ok, I am now a little over 2k miles and still riding it. Nothing seems to have moved. The angle iron seems to be holding up with no noticeable flex. At about 1000 miles we measured the setup as we took out some toe in and it was the same measurements as when we first set it up. About half interstate speeds and half smaller roads so far both with and without a passenger. Since it is not a GS rig, no off road. Some pretty good pot holes though. I am waiting for my shocks as the stock ones are clearly over whelmed. Should be here next week.
At around 5k miles now. We have ridden it empty and fully loaded with a passenger and luggage and I am so happy that I can't stop smiling. The new (rebuilt) shocks have made a big difference, still need to do a little fine tuning. Put a spacer below the steering mod to try to gain ground clearance. Still not enough. I hit every speed bump no matter how slow I go and am afraid that I will get hung up someday. The lower front subframe is just to low. Over the winter we are going to try to raise the subframe some. I am just amazed at how well the rig handles. Set it at a 54" wheel track and the chair does not lift even when empty on tight ramps. Added a trailer hitch between the bike and car and pulled a small cargo trailer and could not tell it was there. I'll give another report in another 5k miles.
Ok, I have about 10k miles on the rig now and still can't stop smiling. We made a spacer for the front shock to raise the bottom about an inch and it has given me the ground clearance that I need. Have not bottomed out since the spacer was added. Installed a small fuse block in the sidecar for the accesories there and so wife can have heated gear and/or heated lap blanket. The rebuilt shocks with the stronger springs seem to be working well. Now I am working on a cooler rack to fit on the trailer hitch for when we are not taking the trailer. Angle iron is still in use and no problems yet. Still can't feel it flexing. :) Hope for another 10k miles by the end of summer and will report then.
Still waiting for pictures ... Also, tell me more about your hitch and trailer - is the hitch mounted to the bike, or...?
I helped Bill with his rig and hitch and his hitch is very similar to mine as is the mounting. I will post a picture of mine. The hitch is connected to the front and rear lower mounts.
Bill - thank you for posting the pics. I intend to do something similar for a hitch, so it's good to know there are others out there. Is that hollow tube the whole way front/to back? (I assume it is - looks like you have a plastic plug in the front.) Is there any reason you chose to run the bar below the sidecar mounts instead of above? I've only seen a few pics of rigs running a hitch like that/in that location, and I think they've all been run under, but I was thinking for sake of ground clearance (which is already fairly small) it might make more sense to run the hitch on top.... Thanks again! josh
The only reason it is run underneath is there is some rigging in the way on top that would force the bar closer to the car, as it is it is very close to center. I wanted to be sure the trailer was as far to the left as possible without being wider than the saddle bag of the bike. The tube is thick wall 1 1/2" square tubing with a plastic plug in front. I have a fair amount of clearance and have not had any issues.
Josh, As Bill has said, his is similar to mine. My rigging is a little different then Bill's and my hitch is mounted on top. I have a similar U bolt on the rear mount but on the front of mine the pinch bolts run vertical and we used a longer bolt there instead of the U bolt. On my Oldwing rig I had something similar but uses 2" x 1/2" flat bar stock. The advantages of the 1 1/2" tube is that you can use standard 1 1/2" extensions. When Bill says that he helped me rig it, he is being modest. That is what I originally asked him to do but it turned out that I helped him. :)
So I've had this thread open in a tab for a month and haven't replied - yikes. Thanks much for pics and info - very useful. I will definitely be adding a hitch and plan to go this route. Instead of the RT though it looks like I'll be adding it to my new tug (99 k1200lt). :)
Yes thank you for the pics. Im currently having a champion escort mounted on a GL1100, and like the idea of adding the hitch mount in the same manner. Thanks again!
Ok, another 6k miles on the rig for a total of 16k. So far the angle Iron has not twisted, bent, flexed, moved, turned, curled, nor broken. Guess we will see how much further I can ride it before a catastrophic failure. Let you know that all is well in another 5k miles. :)
