I am looking at getting my first hack together. My current top choice is an EFI air-cooled Bonneville 865 from around 10 years ago. But a used Kawasaki W800 https://www.kawasaki.com/en-us/motorcycle/w/retro-classic/w800/2021-W800 also seems appealing.... especially the Canadian market ( I live in Toronto) street version. https://www.kawasaki.ca/en-ca/motorcycle/w/retro-classic/w800/2020-w800-street
https://driving.ca/reviews/road-test/motorcycle-review-2019-kawasaki-w800-street
The new Royal Enfield INT650/Interceptors seem to be gaining quite the aftermarket and appear to have deservedly shaken off the poor quality reputation they inherited from previous models. https://www.cycleworld.com/story/buyers-guide/2021-royal-enfield-int650/
Has anyone built a rig using either of these bikes yet?
Hi Nick, I know we spoke on the phone, postings stick around pretty much for ever as such I am going to answer.
Yes, we have done many of the Bonneville and also make triple tree's for the wire wheel version of the bike. Lots of positive feed back on these bikes. The W800 we have only done one but did tool to reproduce the mounts. No steering modifications. The Enfield 650 we have nothing.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
Thanks again for the info Jay! You and your staff clearly are the heart of this community!
In Germany I had been at a W800 meeting and there were quite a few W800 rigs in various tastes present. (Just a few miles away from where this summer a flash flood took out a town) That summer I had a afternoon long direct comparison ride together with my buddy and his 1000ccm Boneville with 86hp switching bikes once and again even on farm +forest roads....and a few fields of which one was freshly ploughed.
Damn it, we both agreed that the long stroker W800 with only 48 hp, but short low gears and a very elastic torqueful engine right from idle revs on, is way more comfortable and probably sidecar worthier then the short stroker Bonneville, where specially in town you had to shift up and down the whole time.
I was already negotiating for a nice W800 rig, when the C19 story started and could not even return to Germany for 2 1/4 years now.
If you do not need long highway rides and look for a cheap , very reliable and on top stylish option I would go always with the small handy W800.
I own 2 solos and simply love these bikes and am amazed how well they behave specially off road and on VERY steep mountain tracks. Not kidding, Waltraut and Trudel are pure mountain goats. (Photos: Trudel on Galicia's coastal road . Yupp, that is the road! Later blackberry ruts narrowed down the track to get torn trousers. / Waltraut when she got new more appropriate shoes. )
Best regards from 10ºN, 84ºW.
Sven
That sounds like an awesome experience! Thank you for sharing it!
by the way, it wasn't until this photo that I noticed that I did mount the back tire in the wrong orientation and had to take it off once more.
part of life.
I started as student with a light weight winter beater MZ rig. My son made his licence with the Ural rig. You will be amazed how handy and versatile comes a rig and how well it teaches physics.
The dogs love rig riding... hopefully you will see soon a dog with a grin from ear to ear and yourself too.
I have a pet boxer, so she is always smiling! Except when she looks like she opened a tax statement......
As one new to sidecars myself I suggest you locate a source for trail compensated triple trees as part of your pre-purchase research. Upon installing a TSC Ranger on my '79 Sportster I found that there aren't too many places that make trees my forks. SwampFox on this site gave me a URL for Custom Triple Trees, which answered my question.
Suggest you check with DMC Sidecars: https://www.dmcsidecars.com. They seem to have a pretty good selection of trees for late model bikes.
You may not have any problems operating with the stock trees, but I found them to be poorly adapted to use with a chair.
