Sidecar newbie first post hello! Thanks to all who helped me with my login problems. Oh, and don't do it! Don't buy a cheap sidecar from an Ebay seller with sketchy feedback. That's not really fair, in the end the seller did exactly what he promised and the car is probably worth the low price I paid for it, but boy what an aggravating transaction. I followed the newbie handbook and bought first, researched later, I never seem to learn. If I'd had my wits about me I would have bought something nicer but despite the iffy construction I quite like the thing, actually I'm having a total blast! Who knew attaching a Buck Rogers kiddy car to a motorcycle could be so much fun. I bought it intending to pair it with my little Honda Rebel, well in the end that wasn't going to do, so I sought out an appropriate bike for an Indian made sidecar. It was classic incrementalism, I think it's a natural defense mechanism that protects my fragile mind from the scope of what I'm about to do, it seems to be an important process in my life.
The body of the car presents well, and the frame and swing arm seem sturdy. There's some crooked welding, is it unfair to complain about lack of symmetry on a sidecar? The floor is thin, I cut a piece of plywood from the crate it came in and bolted inside to support climbing in better. I also reinforced the step, it was apparent it wouldn't last long as it was. The mounting struts and hardware were pretty much garbage, replaced struts and did a little fabricating, thanks Mr. Wark for his advice. I'm currently using just one of the original frame clamps, plotting how to do away with it too. 900 miles on it now, everything has remained pleasantly solid. I also replaced the horrible seat, still working on the horrible armrests. It came with a windshield, couldn't stand the poor quality so I found this neat little deflector, it's surprisingly effective. I bought the RE Classic 500 new from a dealer, pretty affordable for a new motorcycle. It has plenty of torque for city driving within it's narrow power band, no good for the highway but it's a small bike and I'm not into speed. Weighting it with the sidecar smooths out it's notorious engine vibration a lot, it's a good match. Currently about 5/8 inch toe in, 7 inch wheel lead and 1 degree lean out. Pull still tends lightly to the right, more prominent at high speed but not really bothersome at my normal driving speeds, still thinking about it. It seems very stable, it felt good to me pretty quickly, even better with my wife along. I did the stand on the left foot peg and lean out test, I'm 190ish pounds and I can't get the wheel off the ground without pretty hard jerking and then only just.
And what fun! I'm somewhat familiar with the conversations with strangers delay factor as I own some classic cars, but this takes it to whole new level. #1 question: Is it new or a really good restoration? #2 question: Does your wife ride in that? closely followed by #3: Does she drive it? #4 question: You can buy a new Royal Enfield? I thought they were out of business.
Mostly low and moderate speed rural driving in my world, not a bad place to learn.
Great "meeting" you all!
Nice! I followed a very similar path just recently. Royal Enfield Bullet 500 with a Cozy sidecar. The Cozy did assemble and mount up pretty well, and I had great support from Kevin. Seems pretty solid too. I use it for around town and rural roads. Perfect for that. Puts a smile on my face whenever I fire it up. Only 650 miles at this point. But now, a mere 45 days down the road, I'm thinking of something a little bigger for longer expeditions. Perhaps that's the nature of this affliction. I do like that low windshield on your Inder. And the Royal Enfield emblem is a nice touch. More importantly, that is a fine looking VW Thing in your garage!! BTW, my first bike was a 1986 Honda Rebel 250. Here is my RE with Cozy:
Royal Enfield Bullet w/Cozy Rocket sidecar.
by Tom Hart , on Flickr
Nice if in companion of a Kübel and Bluebird bus... then nothing can go wrong.
You already know that you need a nut catch net for the Royal Enfield. (or a lot of Locktite 242/243)
Congratulations and enjoy.
Sven
Oops, my first post and I got it in the wrong section! Well you guys found it anyway.
It was fun to put together. The replacement struts I bought are cozy, they seem to be much better quality. I bought that Enfield sticker off ebay, took a month to get here from India. I thought hard about whether to buy the Bullet like yours or the Classic, yours looks real nice. The VW Thing is the last couple years project, if you're interested look here https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=626606&highlight= I thought about trading in the Honda Rebel when I bought this, glad I didn't, I really like it too.
Sven, When I bought the bike it really vibrated a lot at 0 miles. It's gotten a LOT better since then during break in, but it is what it is. I like it because it's completely different from my Honda, It's like Honda, vibration, what? We lived in that school bus for 2 years while we built our house, still use it for trips. That picture was a couple weeks ago, 600 miles from home.
Hey Kevin,
Your Beadle has just the right colour. Most of my bikes were the same...sky blue.
Now get the Royal Indian Lady on the road.
Ride the Royal Enfield in the power range where you feel the least vibes and soon you will notice that vibrations reduce and the smooth rev band grows. That is what I noticed on my son's RE and specially on the Ural with each oil change the performance grew a lot. It took until 21.000km on the Ural to get the engine broken free (prefer the term "run in" ) . The RE seems to take "quite some time" and a calm gas hand too. (Damn I am jealous on sony-boy for the RE, although I have very nice bikes myself. 😉 )
Have fun.
Sven
Peter Pan - 8/24/2017 11:32 AM
Hey Kevin,
Your Beadle has just the right colour. Most of my bikes were the same...sky blue.
Now get the Royal Indian Lady on the road.Ride the Royal Enfield in the power range where you feel the least vibes and soon you will notice that vibrations reduce and the smooth rev band grows. That is what I noticed on my son's RE and specially on the Ural with each oil change the performance grew a lot. It took until 21.000km on the Ural to get the engine broken free (prefer the term "run in" ) . The RE seems to take "quite some time" and a calm gas hand too. (Damn I am jealous on sony-boy for the RE, although I have very nice bikes myself. 😉 )
Have fun.
Sven
Sounds like good advice.
