Hello All, I am a n00b to this board as you can see from my post count. I am very interested in side car rigs as a way to continue riding as I get older and my knees and hips are not able to support the weight of heavey touring motorcycle. with that said on to my questions.
I have a 1996 Kawasaki Voyager XII that I am thinking of puting a sidecar on. It has a bit over 75K on the clock and still runs very well getting close to 50 mpg most of the time. I have added a Super Brace and Progressive Springs to the forks up front. I have Progressive HD412 shocks out back. I have done away with air suspension front and back. I has a number of other mods also, but the drive train and chassis are other wise stock. It has the 1200cc I-4 motor with 5-speed overdrive transmission. It is shaft drive. I am running Dunlop Elite 3 on both ends of the bike.
Is this bike a good canidate to mount a hack on? I have been told it is not due to fact that frame on right side by the engine in bolted together so the motor can be removed from the frame. There is a section of the right downtube that comes off. If it is a good canidate what car would be best? The Motovation web site shows that they offer a mount for putting a car on my bike http://www.motorvation.com/kw12mnt1.htm , but does that mean I have to use their car? I like their Formula II rig, because of the ability to carry 2 children(I have 2 great-grand kids) and I think the styling would go well with the Voyager. I am also open to finding a used car also. From want I have read the best setup is to change the front fork to a leading link setup, but is it necessary? I have not found any place that makes a fork for the Voyager, plus it maybe cost prohibitive right now. It appears these forks are in the $2000 range. I would like to keep the cost of adding the car to under $4000 for the time being. I would probably change at least the rear tire to a car tire a some point, does anyone have any recommendations there? Does anyone have any pics of a chair mounted on a Voyager? or can give a link to some? Possibily showing the mount setup?
Thanks in advance for your patience with a n00b. I hope to learn alot here.
Marty
Marty, I have no experience with the Voyager so I defer to folks with more experience, but I have seen 2 with sidecars mounted: 1 in Florida in a pic, and this one in person at the sidecar lunch gathering in Cushing, TX last May. I don't recall the owner's name, but, if I recall correctly, he is from the DFW area:
Lee
MB5+TW200+CRF250L+GTV300+INT650
XL883R w/Texas Ranger Sidecar
Zuma 50F + Burgman w/Texas Sidecar<Mrs. SwampFox
I don't know about the mounting set up for a voyager - but if Motorvation makes a sub-frame for your bike it will work to hook up any side car as long as the side car mounts will match what you have on the bike. I just mounted a used side car on my HD for under $2K. See pic's in my album. Yes it is a Motorvation sidecar and I'm using a Motorvation sub-frame which provides three of the four mounting locations for my set-up. I hope you get fixed up - I should not have waited so long.
Crippled Ol' Man - 2/5/2011 11:11 AM
I don't know about the mounting set up for a voyager - but if Motorvation makes a sub-frame for your bike it will work to hook up any side car as long as the side car mounts will match what you have on the bike. I just mounted a used side car on my HD for under $2K. See pic's in my album. Yes it is a Motorvation sidecar and I'm using a Motorvation sub-frame which provides three of the four mounting locations for my set-up. I hope you get fixed up - I should not have waited so long.
It appears as if the mounting setup for the Voyager, but uses clamps for 3 of the mounting points on the frame. The upper and lower front mounts are clamps as well the lower back point. The upper back mount uses a existing stud on the frame where the right saddle bag guard mounts. I would probable be a better mounting system if it used a sub-frame. If I am correct I believe what they are offering is what is called by some a "unverisal mounting".?
The Voyager will make a good solid sidecar platform.
It's best to match mounts or sub-frames to the sidecar you choose to mount, new or used.
The Motorvation bike mounts are with eyes to accept their sidecars' 4 clevis mounts. Some other sidecars use eyes for the upper struts and clevis mounts for the lower bike mounts. Some use Ball and collet mounts for the lowers. Hannigan uses eyes on the bike mounts but mount their cars with an eye to eye connection.
Since you are in the DFW area get ahold of Perry Bushong at Perry's Motorcycles and Sidecars in Fort Worth. They were BMW of Fort Worth and have set up a lot of sidecar combos (not all Beemers) through the years.
Raked triple tree mods are available for a lot less than LL's and they offer the same ease of steering while retaining the stock bike appearance.
Lonnie
Hi;This might be of interest to you!On Ebay there is a bike similar with hack listed!Was closer I might even be interested at that price!!Item # is 250769556208!Good Luck!
Hack'n - 2/5/2011 12:23 PM
Since you are in the DFW area get ahold of Perry Bushong at Perry's Motorcycles and Sidecars in Fort Worth. They were BMW of Fort Worth and have set up a lot of sidecar combos (not all Beemers) through the years.
Lonnie
I went yesterday and talked with Perry, a very knowledgable man. I am going to get something going here in the next couple of month.
Moodierr - 2/12/2011 8:31 AM
Hi;This might be of interest to you!On Ebay there is a bike similar with hack listed!Was closer I might even be interested at that price!!Item # is 250769556208!Good Luck!
I appreciate the link and that rig is very nice. My problem if I bought would be how to get it from Maryland to Texas this time of year with all the snow & ice on the ground? Only if it had been closer to my location.? If the weather was better is would consider flying up and riding it home.
