So now I'm 100 miles into hack ownership. Been a long frustrating $$$$ road. Was it worth it? You bet your butt it was. I JUST picked it up Fiday night... Let me tell you about the downsides in this process. Champion makes a good product and their people are very polite. However their business practices are very unfriendly.
The side car arrived at the shop for the install first week of may. The shop I was working with is an independent repair/fabrication shop. The go between for ordering was DMC Sidecars. Jay was the Bright Shining Star in all this. If I lived out there or closer to a sidecar specific shop i would do everything there. I already mentioned the white wall BS Champion pulled but heres the next straw on this camel's back.
The shops getting close to finishing up and realize they don't have some parts that were supposed to be shipped. They call champion and champion says they will send them. Then they back out at the end of the day and call the east coat when my shop is closed and tell them they won't send them unless somebody pays for them. They have a picture of the parts laid out on a table with my order form in the picture. This is Wednesday last week. I find out Thursday whats going on and call Champion. Rob a very polite man informs me about the pic and sends it to me. It on a table and not in a crate. I tell him it can be a million miles from a table to the crate. He doesn't budge. I say ok, I need the parts overnighted to my shop pull out my Debit card and have the $135.56 parts sent over night for $57.
I get off the phone call the shop and tell them if parts aren't there tomorrow call me immediately. Friday noon no UPS I get a call. I Call champion they tell me there was a mix up they will overnight them Saturday delivery and they will eat the shipping charges (They only ate the extra Saturday delivery charges so I paid the overnight charges).
My Shop gets the parts at 9am, they will close at 4pm. SO I'm expecting some riding that weekend. 3:30 PM and no call from KGB Performance and I go there. It obvious to me I'm not getting my rig. I'm a little hot. Did I mention that a 7:30am the UPS tracking tells me that delivery has been rescheduled to monday and that I ripped through one customer rep to the Manager who allays my fears and tells me it will be delivered.
Champion gets a 2 stars for customer service but 5 Stars for their product.
KGB Gets 3 Stars for communication but 5 Stars for quality of service and fabrication of custom exhaust brackets.
DMC Gets 5 stars for Communication both with Me and Bonus points for helping KGB with installation and set up consultation.
To be fair I don't know if KGB lost the parts and they should have inventoried back in the beginning of may. But KGB shop is small and I went there and there were no "extra" parts laying around.
Paul
Congratulations! You made an excellent choice. Have had mine for 10 years, and has turned out to be an amazingly tuff rigg. I have the integrated brakes and tilt as well. Bought mine used in 01 for $4000 during a trip through L.A., had Champion install it at their Huntington Beach shop, took'm about 3-4 days for about $1100 including a new sub frame. I really kind of lucked out getting a Champion as I did very little research, I wasn't playing with computers at the time, and new no people in Alaska with sidecars for advice. I did stop by the Liberty shop in Washington, but would of had to wait 6 months. My bike has a supposed weight of 720 lbs dry, pulled through a weigh station while touring, we had a gross vehicle weight of 1750, the car is 190 lbs, with myself at 250 lbs, my wife at 130 lbs, and all of our camping gear. Have had surprisingly few problems with it, when considering my driving style, weight carried, and poor Alaskan paved or gravel roads. The only real repair, besides standard miscellaneous wiring repairs, has been that two out of the three fender mounts have broken and had to be modified for more flexibility to accommodate our ruff roads. MY ONLY complaint is with the interior fabric, its like Velcro, and dog hair really sticks to it, in my case the interior is black, I had a yellow lab, he died 4 years ago and I am still picking out his hair. I now have a black lab so its not really a problem any more.....I Love that T.I.L.T......Enjoy your new car.......
When the legend will check the brake disc because I was badly bent, as the Brembo part # is printed on a thin outer edge and fold it. The exchange has been bent, but not so bad. It got worse in my time, and it was working.
Thanks for your images. This seems very well packaged and well made. I am glad that the Indian wing as I want a bolt, and the Cape. Waiting for photos of hacks installed this summer. Thanks again!
Here you go:
One?? lol. Seriously man. Show it off! I love the looks of the legend sidecar
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11940086@N05/5826701436/
Will post a lot more after I get her painted this winter.
Pauk
Very Nice!! Looks great with the drifter. Our son falls asleep in the sidecar all the time also. Course, so does the wife LOL
A very beautiful rig!
