Just so you know, Thinking of Fucking with this. 
@mgv8 Ha! Now, just how do you hope to improve upon perfection?! 🤣
Well Friends,
The scaled up testing of the repairs continued over the past couple of days. I got out on two rides that were kind of at opposite ends of the design spec that Black Betty is configured to perform in.
The first was a paved road only ride with a few friends out and around Superior, Kearny, Winkelman, Christmas, El Capitan, Globe, and back to Skunk Hollow.
This one started with a friend in Austin mentioning that one of his friends happened to be out in my general neighborhood, and perhaps I would like to ride with him? His friend turned out to be a really nice gent with a BMW R1200GS, who happened to have some other friends in the area with bikes.
By the time we got it sorted out, the roster included some sort of massive late model Indian cruiser, another GS, and a younger lad on a Ducati ST3 (liter bike sport tourer).
So the bike roster dictated a paved road only ride, which was fine. We met up at the designated home and were treated to sandwiches and coffee at the beginning of the ride!
Temps were a little Chilly, ranging from the low 40's to maybe a high of 60F (15C), with just a few rain sprinkles in Globe towards the end of the day.
Got a late launch but made it out to the first gas stop in Winkelman; only to find no gas at the station... 
We had been maintaining shall we say a "brisk" pace, and I was sweating it a bit for fuel. Ended up being fine with the ride up from Winkelman to Globe, for the next gas stop, but I was pretty close to needing to stop and dump a rotopax into the tank; 5.8 gallons went into a 6.4 gallon tank.
Stopped in Globe at one of the Mexican eateries (El Ranchito) on the main drag of the historic district. Both food and service were quite nice.
It was getting close to sundown by the time we finished "lunch," so we ended up curtailing the planned route up through Payson to running back down the highway 60 towards Phoenix.
A fine time was had by all, and nothing broke or fell off through some substantial lateral forces in the twisties. I look forward to Chris's next Phoenix visit!
I ran home and decided to change out a rear tire before the next day's planned ride. Cords were just on the verge of becoming visible on the rear Mitas E07 Dakar, at 3,746 miles. Probably would have been fine for the next ride, but since it was at the other end of the spectrum; somewhat challenging dirt roads, I decided to go with a new tire.
It was then nap time...
Next day, met up with Greg on his KTM 790 for a little dirt riding to see how the frame/mounting repairs would hold up to some shaking.
Weather remained a little chilly, with a start at 8:30 am at 36F (2C) and maybe a high of around 58F (14C) towards the end of the day.
We decided that the day should be an exploratory wander around the north side of Tonto Creek, north of Roosevelt Dam, with the idea of finding some roads that we had not been on, yet.
With that in mind, we decided to take the newly reopened Apache Trail up to the dam, then cross over new bridge at Punkin Center and explore. The route looked a lot like this:
Most of the exploration went on in this section:
The topography got quite interesting, as we climbed up out of the lake bed:
Scenery on the the Apache Trail never disappoints, coming up out of Tortilla Flats:
Stopping at the dam for snacks:
c't'd next post
c't'd
Across the new bridge into the sand!
This was one of those days when you realize that you are doing exactly what you want to be doing at a particular moment in time... no thinking about anything else.
Gaining some altitude, the views kept improving:
One of the more interesting features of this set of roads, that I did not think to photograph, was a reasonably steep hill, maybe 30 meters long and 20 meters high, that was covered in about 4 inches of moon dust type sand. Usually the sandy sections are at the bottoms of washes; so this was indeed something amusing. I was kind of glad the tire on back was new.
Road quality continued to deteriorate the farther we got away from civilization... not terrible, but there were quite a few embedded football sized rocks and a fair few that were no longer embedded.
Things got a little off camber from time to time, as well:
This is where we decided we had gone in deep enough, for this day. It was getting later in the day, and we were a couple hours from home, yet:
Both of these roads will merit further exploration, earlier in the day, next time. They were very pleasant and there was not other traffic.
We made it back to the Tonto Basin combination IGA grocery store/Ace Hardware/Chevron gas station for some refreshments and a sit in the sun to ponder life.
I did a cursory inspection, since I heard a little rattling towards the end of the dirt ride. You can imagine how pleased I was to find that the only thing that had worked loose was a roll of wrenches had dumped and unrolled on the floor of the hack! Nothing else seems to have loosened up after a pretty good beating.
I think I can say "nothing broke or fell off" on Black Betty, at least! Greg's KTM may be another story. We need to take a look at why his swingarm loosened up on the highway ride home!
I felt pretty good about the results of this continued testing phase of the improved rear top mount and the highly reinforced A arms.
Next... a new center top mount!
Ok, spent the afternoon in the shop. The design for the new top center mount finally gelled in my mind, after considering a few ways of doing it. Here is what I ended up with:
Started out with about a meter of 1 1/2" x 1/4" thick mild steel, and cut a short piece off to make a special wedge lock to go in the triangle shaped hole in the bike's steel frame, heaviest part:
Heated it up cherry red and forged it into the shape that I imagined would work:
Made a rubber backing by drilling a hole in the conveniently located tire I had just taken off, then slicing a strip out:
Jury is still out on whether the tire slice is too thick and I should just use a couple layers of inner tube to provide a little cushion/grip as the wedge tightens up against the steel frame.
Drilled and installed a bolt for test fitting:
Ok, so I stole this idea from Heed Bunker crash bars that I used to have on my old Africa Twin. They had a deally bobber like this one, that one end of their crash bars mounted on to.
May weld the bolt head down, but does not seem necessary, at this point:
Two layers of inner tube, it is:
c't'd
C't'd
Had to break out Grand Pappy's ancient 1/2" drill to drill a 3/4" (19mm) hole in the remaining piece of strap iron. That drill is about to turn 100 years old, but still puts holes in things.
I decided to start with the hole that would allow this new bracket to hook under the mounting point bolt that is part of the bracket that clamps around the poor little aluminum seat rail that has been serving as a top rear strut mount on the rig.
Under this mounting point:
3/4" (19mm) bolt:
You have to use your imagination... pic of me trying to take a pic of heating the strap iron cherry red with the gas torch in one hand, camera in the other.
End result: first test fitting after bends: Some thought went into the angle that the "Z" bracket is bent to. There is a small window where the black plastic cover behind it (on the right), can still be removed to access three fuses, without removing the "Z" bracket, or having the mounting point hit my knee.
Decided to double up the thickness between the mount to the frame and the position where the center strut top mount would go:
A little poor welding later, some holes drilled, and it fits quite nice. 19mm hole in the end to the right of the strap is where, after quite a bit of sitting on the rig and imagining different leg positions, I decided to put the attachment point for the newly created center strut. Will likely put a layer of rubber between the "Z" bracket and the bike frame to tighten the whole mess down against.
The goal was:
1. Provide a place for a center mount to attach to.
2. Tie in to the angle iron bracket that is clamped to the aluminum seat rail for the top rear strut to attach to, and provide some additional strength for the top rear strut mount, i.e. share the load with the aluminum seat rail that has been it's sole means of support for the past couple of years.
And of course we paint it black!
Will mount it in the morning, once the paint dries.
Now that I know exactly where the location of the mounting point falls in relation to the mounting point on the hack top frame tube, I can go online and order the correct length strut and associated hardware for making a new center, turn buckle style strut!
Update... installed, waiting for rod ends and turnbuckle strut to arrive.
Female threaded rod end will thread onto 3/4" 16 stud sticking out.
Do you wear MX boots when you ride?
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
@scott-h Ha, I am a little lax in regards to manly footwear.
Occasionally a set of Alpinstars adv mid calf boots, but more often than not a pair of Vasque Sundowner hiking boots with the steel shank arch.
I don't seem to put a foot down much, anymore! 🤣
@scott-h Ha, I am a little lax in regards to manly footwear.
Occasionally a set of Alpinstars adv mid calf boots, but more often than not a pair of Vasque Sundowner hiking boots with the steel shank arch.
I don't seem to put a foot down much, anymore! 🤣
Same here. lol
Funny how sidecars do that. I have an excellent pair of Sidi Crossfire SRS boots, and wouldn't think of riding away from the house on an adventure bike without them on. But on SYZ hiking boots mean I'm doing some serious off road. Otherwise it's a pair of Double H roper boots, or... gasp... running shoes. 🤣
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
Well Friends,
Probably a dull post so skip if you aren't into brake servicing...
Decided that it was time to replace the pads on the hack caliper. Had a set on the bench, waiting for just the right inspiration and had gotten tired of the squealing from a glazed rotor when I applied the rear brake set. Decided that was the right inspiration.
Pulled the hack wheel and took a look... yep, disc was pretty shiny, and quite glazed.
Old pads had 1.55mm of lining left, after 36,000 miles of service. New pads (Brembo BRMB-1021, P32F brake pads for those of you with DMC hacks) had 4.75mm of lining as their starting thickness. I have the proportioning valve set to just lock the hack wheel at maximum rear brake pressure.
Got out the trusty 60 grit brake rotor milling machine (DA sander) and scuffed up both sides of the rotor. If you get the angle just right, it contacts the entire depth on the rotor and spins the rotor slowly and at a constant speed while sanding.
At least I was pleased with the result:
A little re clocking of the brake line to allow access to the inside pad (yeah, it clears the fender stay) some anti-seize on the cleaned up pin and pad backs/edges, and I called it a brake job.
Checked wheel bearings and swingarm for slop, didn't find any, so pumped the swingarm pivot full of grease and declared it maintained.
I had not ridden her since putting the 3rd strut on, yesterday, so decided it was a fine evening to run to a big box store and buy some shrubbery to plant tomorrow afternoon. (We must have more SHRUBBERY!!!!)
All in all, I was happy with the result of the labors. No brake noise, could chirp the hack tire with vigorous rear braking to the point of the anitlocks kicking in and didn't bang my knee on the new strut (yet!)
Took some right angle right turns at a good clip and flew the chair a few times. Cornering was nice and tight, no wiggly wiggly.
Now if that bad bitch would go on a diet and loose about 100lbs, while still retaining the rigidity...
Now if that bad bitch would go on a diet and loose about 100lbs, while still retaining the rigidity...
Funny, that is exactly what Black Betty said about you.....lose 100 lbs, and still get it hard.
And...You call that a sidecar disc brake ???
THIS is a proper sidecar disc brake.
However, kudos to you for getting 36,000 miles out of those puny brake pads, considering the Combat Warfare driving you do, and do it so well.
Two Million Mile Rider...All 7 Continents
Exploring the World in Comfort
I was looking at the rotor on Black Betty (that sweet girl!) and thinking a wave rotor would be pretty cool. Then I see Miles post... 😍
Since Skunk Hollow has a Tig welding facility, a new subframe and sidecar frame made from Chromoly would lighten the load. 😎
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
@scott-h you got that right! Getting closer and closer... I may still have a few lessons left to learn on this one, but make a stronger and lighter subframe and frame are definitely in the longer term plan!
Ben those rod ends your looking for we have them custom made for our stuff
