After lurking (and LOOKING!) for months....I'm hot on the trail to owning my own hack! Wahoo!
I've run across this old Terraplane, and have a feeling that I can bring her around. She looks to be pretty complete, but I would love to have some input from the rest of you pros before I jump in head first.
Here's just a few quick and dirty pics:
See anything glaringly obvious that I'm missing? Side trim/moulding is coming off, but otherwise, everything looks to be there. Plexiglass screen is in decent shape, but not perfect. Cover is worn, but could be patched or used as a pattern to make a replacement. Tire is weather-checked and will need replaced.
What else can you all discern? See any major red flags? Any strong feelings about the Terraplane?
That looks like a good starter if the price is reasonable. Seems to be all there and no significant body damage.
I have a new 16' length of the body edge moulding to replace the damaged part if you get the rig and a brake control ass'y. if it has/had brakes.
Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars
Hack'n - 6/17/2012 3:28 PM
That looks like a good starter if the price is reasonable. Seems to be all there and no significant body damage.
What is reasonable for this one? Just judging from the pics?
I'm so new at this, that I'm hesitant to make an outrageous offer, especially when I'll need some money to have it painted and replace the moulding and necessary brake components.
Any ideas?
Hard to say what it's worth to you. Does the owner have aprice number. It obviously been neglected, needs TLC and a lot of work to be in top shape. It doesn't look like hard rust is apparent but the chassis could use sandblasting and repainting. The body sorely needs paint ( pricey these days). New tire and mounts for your bike. If it's free you'll still be in it maybe $1,800. It depends on how much you can do yourself and how far you want to go with it.
Lonnie
On issue with these sidecars is that they have a non adjsutable 3 point mount system. Looking at the mounts in the photo they look like either GL1000 or GL1100 Goldwing mounts. As they are not adjustable the 1980 / 81 Gold wing used different "pylons" (lower mounts) then the 1982 /83 has honda changed tire size and as such the bike sat different. In the photo of the mounts you do not have the original "trim grip" On these sidecars the single upper mount was made such that you could adjust it while riding. You have at least one home made strut shown in the photo. Most sidecars use a 4 point mount that is adjusatable. As we own all of the NOS vetter parts if you intend to mount it onto a bike that Vetter made the mounts for we may be able to help you. We sell the NOS Vetter mounts for $150. They will be missing bolts, have no instructions and look like they have been stored poorly for 30 years as they have been. We also have a kit to convert the sidecar over to standard fully adjustable 4 point mounts. The 100% bolt on kit for the sidecar side runs $750. It gives you a standard boss and clamp lower mounting system. ONce this is done it will work with all of our mounting kits and most mounting kits made by other US companies.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
Isn't the trim grip shown in photos 2 and 4 still connected?
Lonnie
that old Bell helmet belongs in the Smithsonian!!, nice chair there, good luck,....crawf.
Looks pretty good to me, I've got one on an 80 honda f and love it. If you could get this puppy for five hundred or so, go for it, especially if it will be going on something from the early 80s for which Jay probably has the mounts. Don't worry about the brake you you won't need it .....Mike
So I've been away for a bit....let's do some catchin' up.
I can get it for a song, I believe. The seller needs some work done around the place, and I could knock it out in a day or two, I'm thinking. She'd be happy, and so would I.
It's definitely going to need some cosmetics: paint and some trim, to begin with. The tire is a must as well. Toothwater - think I can get by without a brake? That's a plus right there.
As far as tugs are concerned, I've got a few options but my preference would be my late '70s R75/7 if I could get it to come together. Got some measuring to do, especially with that big 'ol jug sticking right out there....but I know it's been done before. The old style tug with the older hack just does it for me. Love that look. If it's right for this rig, not sure yet. Hope so. Guess we'll have to wrangle with all the details as we go. Jay's got some mounting kits listed on his site, so I know they're out there.
I'm working on it.....I'll keep you posted!
Yes we can supply mounts for your BMW by converting it to a 4 point mount however your BMW does not have all that great of brakes, I ran an R100/7 rig for many years so I know how poor the stock brakes are on this bike. I would run a brake on the sidecar however the stock Vetter brake was a joke at best. They came with a non floating rotor and a non floating calipar with a single piston so they really only worked by warping the brake rotor. So the brake should be up graded. On your /7 the front brakes can be up graded. I found that going to a master up on the handle bar rather then under the take really helps the feel of the brake. The next step I did not mine was while going to the newer type maser I also up sized it and ran dual disks on the front, I may still have the fork leg to do this. The last up grade I did was to go to a leading link front end at which time I switch the front brakes over from ATE's to Brembo however to do this you either need a custom wider front end with the brake rotors spaced out to clear the spokes or to run the snow flake wheels or lester wheels. Of course then the next issue you are going to find is that the R75 lacks the power needed to fight much of a head wind or alitiude. My bike was an R100 and it did not have the power that I wanted on the freeway for fighting head winds so on mine I put the larger valves and carbs off of an R100S. This made a huge difference.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
