friendship 1 on a sportster

Yes Lonnie you are correct, the LL front end I have through SRK engineering www.srkengineering.com.au about $2600 Australian. The big benefit is that they rise under brakes and don't dip and are much more solid and therefore don't flex during cornering. The down side I think, they are not as nice looking as teles. I rode an outfit a few weeks ago with tele forks and I have to say I couldn't wait to get my own outfit back. Would I do it again? Yes I would the difference is so dramatic, it really is like power steering. I also have 16" wheels all around, not sure if that adds to the feeling of stability. Lonnie?
Jim,I also have an old XS 650 Yamaha outfit, doesn't go far these days, but it could pull the chair along well, just like the KZ I imagine. No LL on that, just good old fashion arm power!!

With an auto tire on the front, trail reduction is a "must have" for comfortable piloting whether LL's or raked trees.

L.

We have a 2007 1200 Sportster with Claudes CSM1a aluminum car. It is on his site at freedomsidecars.com, in the gallery but it is under the heading of a Yamaha 1100. 😮 (white with a black tool roll on the forks) You will be able to see the sub frame they built!
The aluminum car is heaver than single fiberglass car and Harley springs and shocks are the softtess things out there. They were replaced with stronger and LONGER suspension to get the rig back to 5" of ground clearence and stop us from bottoming out (have an amazing dent in the belt gurad)!
The handle bars are wide almost small beach bars and add a riser with alot of pullback, that got me sitting straight up in the saddle and eased the steering alot.
The rubber mount engine eleminates almost all vibrations excepte idle.
Alittle over 10,000 miles this way with no reason to change

I am in Arkansas, Swampfox have we been emailing lately?

smith8833 - 9/26/2011 7:54 PM

We have a 2007 1200 Sportster with Claudes CSM1a aluminum car....

The handle bars are wide almost small beach bars and add a riser with alot of pullback, that got me sitting straight up in the saddle and eased the steering alot....

I am in Arkansas, Swampfox have we been emailing lately?

Yep, that'd be me. I too added small bar risers so I could sit-up more, even after installing the modified triple trees. Maybe if 'n we meet up at the Razorback Rally we can compare notes.

The Sportster works well as a sidecar bike, The rubber mounted ones are a bit nicer, they came out in 2004, We have bike specific mounts for both the rubber mounted engine and the solid mounted engine bikes post 1986. The 883 has enough power to pull a sidecar, you will however find that often you will be using 4th gear on the freeway rather then 5th gear.
We also offer triple tree's and leading links, for me I would go with the tree's much less money. On the trike kits we build for the Sportster we always go with the tree's as they work very well.
In general with very few exceptions "universal" mounts are a poor way to go, while many people manage to get them to work for a while I find that over time they tend to slip, when you pull the sidecar off and go to put it back on things seldom line back up and usualy requres realignment of the sidecar.
If your sidecar is an older California sidecar that still uses the balls for the lower mounts you will need to up grade to the 5/8 inch hiem joints, We have the parts to do this as well.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793

I just ordered a set of vibranators for my '06 sportster, I'll let you know how they work when I get them in the handlebars.

Bob Hunt - 9/27/2011 9:08 PM
I just ordered a set of vibranators for my '06 sportster, I'll let you know how they work when I get them in the handlebars.

Bob, please let us know how it they work. I have tried a low-budget alternative with satisfactory results: Squirt some clear silicone caulking gel into the handle bars, slather more gel on a roll (or 1-1/2 rolls) of plastic-wrapped pennies, insert the rolled-pennies into the bar ends, then cap hole with a little more caulking and let it seal over, then install the grips. Probably not for everyone, but, along with some "gel" grips, it worked well enough to permit to ride the rigid-mount Sportster pretty much all day (well, not continuous all day) without my hands going numb.

Will do Swamp Fox. They have some kind of liquid in them and I've read several testimonies saying they take out 80% of the vibes! We'll see!

Just got the vibranators this morning, got them on the sportster and have been riding all day, such a difference you wouldn't believe. I'd say they take at least fifty percent of the buzz out of the handlebar, no more hands going to sleep. Well worth the hundred bucks for the two. The right one is a bit hard to get the little ferrules back in the push and pull throttle cables but worth the trouble!