Hi all, been working on a sidecar rig, it's an old CSC companion I believe, pre-1991 since it has no shock. I'd love to have some input from folks that have dealt with this. Having a hard time finding a tire to fit is first issue. Would love to mount a disk brake to it if possible, any thoughts? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
J.C.
Several issues with this sidecar, First inspect the wheel close at both ends of the cast spokes, They are known to crack and fail. Next the torsion suspension has issues. Take the torsion unit apart and inspect the 5 flat springs for cracking. If there are any issues you will need to replace them. Florida sidecar products has a set up that I am told will work. You will also want to replace the bronze bushing that the every thing pivots on. We offer these. Your sidecar is also early enough that if one of the springs fails, it can fall out causing all to fall out and the swing arm come off. What California did on latter ones that has not been done on yours is to weld a wire across the square end such that the springs even if not retained can not fall out. Before you take the swing arm off give your self some witness marks so you can put it back where it now is as there are no marks other wise to line it up with. As to adding a brake, brakes are a great idea however they will not work with this wheel and I know of no other wheels that will fit under the fender. The axle is a 1 inch axle (a few were 1 1/8 but it does not matter as they use the same bearing races.) as such you can run a trailer type hub and run a 12 inch trailer wheel, we can supply you with a hub that has a brake rotor on it as well as a weld on part to hold the caliper and a brembo caliper. This set up would work with a 12 inch trailer wheel but again, it does not really fit under the fender proper. You also to change over to a bolt on wheel need to shorten the swing arm which of course moves the wheel forward which means moving the body forward which ends up looking even odder as the fender is more forward on these bodies then it should be as when wheel lead is set correctly (10-15% of the wheel base of the bike) the body ends up way behind the rear of the bike looking odd. So what some people will do is cut the fender off of the body and mount a separate fender.
This sidecar is old enough that it may still have the old type ball collet type mounts on the lower mounts. If it does you will want to change these out as they are known to fail. If you have any of the original frame clamps for your upper mount, they did not have any cross bolts in them and as such are also known to fail. You will either want to cross drill them for two 1/4 inch bolts or replace them. We have the replacement parts for both the ball collet set up and the frame clamp and for some bikes have bike specific mounting hardware. I can not quite make out what bike your have. BTW you can buy a new windshield at www.bikescreen.com As to a tire, the same tire that Velorex sidecars use will work. We are not a Velorex dealer.
My wife had one of these on a Moto Guzzi Eldorado years ago. We had the lower ball collet mounts fail on it. I had the same basic mounting system and frame on a Friendship 1 sidecar mounted to a GL1100 and have had the wheel fail, the lower collets fail and the frame clamps fail as well as the torsion springs fail.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
