To me the the journey is much more important than the destination. A friend recently asked me why I didn't just buy a "set up" Sidecar rig rather than spend all the time / money on my own set up. Building my rig has been a lot of fun and is an on - going progression. Since I'm more tuned in to mid-vintage bikes, I steer away from the newer high tech stuff. There is a lot to be said about the newer technologies and motorcycles but I enjoy the older bikes. One advantage is that I am not a slave to the dealers. So many new bikes are not friendly to the shade tree mechanic. Also the older bikes ,especially BMW's, still have a huge used parts network out there. Half the fun is seaching out old obscure accessories and parts that are somewhat rare. I have found numerous bargains on old "stuff" that folks have laying around. This is a fun part of the journey.
I kick myself for passing up a BMW /5 side car mod. kit last winter. A So. Cal. BMW dealer was having a "garage" sale and in a box I saw a mod kit with a reinforced, widened swing arm, an earls fork, 3- 16" wide steel five spoke wheels and other parts. ($800.00) The kit was in many pieces and missing numerous bearings and pieces. Being a newbe to side cars I didn't really know what I was looking at. After thousands of miles this year I realize that I should have picked the kit up. 20 -20 hind sight.
My old hack is resting until I get down to warmer climates (soon I hope). I took advantage of the down time to farm out a reupholstery job as the old "hides" were getting pretty crispy since the hack sat for 10 years before my purchase. This web site has been great for technical advice and is checked daily to see what's going on. The side car community is a great thing!
Good looking rig, Half the fun is the learning process. Both building and riding. I trust from the pictures that you made it through Yellowstone park.
That park is custom made for sidecars. I'm only 5 hours from where that last picture was taken. If you get down this way again, look me up.
We have spent the Summer near Dillon MT. and have taken advantage of the wonderful roads for riding around here. Went through Yellowstone Park twice, through the Grand Tetons, and back roads to Butte and back. Over to the MOA National Rally in Gillette Wyo. Lots of trick sidecars there. One cool thing about Montana/Wyoming/Idaho is the number of Frontage roads and secondary roads. Most of the old roads (before the Interstates were built) are maintained and used for local traffic. We sometimes tire of the Interstate traffic and often can take side roads which get us to where we are going. Idaho has some great sidecar roads I bet. Lots of secondary roads there. We plan on being in Arizons/So. California this winter for a couple of months and will do more desert riding as there are lots of Rallys there in the winter.
very nice combination, that /5. The /6, I take it, is a work in progress?
The R90/6 was pretty much a cosmetic goner. Was gonna get it going with the hack attached but after looking at the cost of restoring it I decided against it. I used the (rebuilt) 1974 900cc top end on the 1973 R75/5 to gain a bit more torque and power. ( +10 H.P.) The faded blue sidehack is the one now on the black /5. I pretty much parted out the /6. Kept the lower end and 5-speed transmission for back ups. The /5 4-speed is a better transmission for the hack. The /6 was titled so I sold the rolling chassis w/paper to a fellow airhead for one of his many projects. I found a basket case R60/6 via craigslist for $100.00. Bought it sight unseen and didn't even know what year/model it was. When I picked it up (300 miles away) I found it had a 9 gallon Heinrich gas tank (rare). It was missing the cap, tool box cover, etc. but I was able to scrounge up all the missing stuff via the internet for minimal cost. Also found a rare old pair of Henry's /5 floorboards for $50.00. The internet is a great tool!
