+1 Very nice rig.
Fantastic. Looks fabulous.
Congratulations, looks great!
Thanks for the compliments
I also have a Motorvation Formula II LTD sidecar. Your SC headlight looks like mine, but a few other items are different. You appear to have a single brake light/turn signal lens. I have separate amber and red lenses. I like the fold-down luggage rack on the back of the SC that we have, but it seems you may be pulling a trailer? That should give you more capacity. I've got a 9 gallon tank in the SC behind the seat giving me pretty good range. At Interstate Highway speeds I can't get 26 mpg with my Valkyrie, but I've weighted the rig on a grain elevator scale and fully loaded for a long trip it weighs more than an old VW Beetle. Of course that included me on the bike and my wife in the sidecar.
How did you get a LED bulb into the sidecar headlight housing?
I don't have an LED in the headlight, YET, I have LED in the driving lights on the bike, you have to remove the inner housing the bulb goes in and I used a C-clamp and carefully flattened the inner ridge. that gave me room to fit the LED bulb in
mine came with the amber and red lenses on it, I chose to replace them with the single lens because I have my bike wired with a converter to bring it down to a 4 wire plug. I am converting my camper and the side car to LED lights so I don't need the separate lights
anytime we travel we are pulling our camper so we have a lot of storage
9 gals extra, that's a lot. mine had a 3 gal tank but it was so gummed up I pulled it out. not sure I can clean it out, prob. just buy a new one. maybe go up to 5 or 6 gals to match my bike tank size
I'm getting somewhere in the 21 mpg range, not sure what will happen when I pull the camper. I hope it doesn't get much worse
AJ1200 - 11/20/2014 1:38 PM
9 gals extra, that's a lot. mine had a 3 gal tank but it was so gummed up I pulled it out. not sure I can clean it out, prob. just buy a new one. maybe go up to 5 or 6 gals to match my bike tank size
I'm getting somewhere in the 21 mpg range, not sure what will happen when I pull the camper. I hope it doesn't get much worse
21 mpg sounds very low. You'll need a 9 gallon extra tank if not bigger. With my '94 GL1500 and Champion sidecar, am getting 30 mpg at 60-65 mph, drops to 26 at 70 mph, but then I rode solo and no trailer.
I am prob. off on that mileage, I don't really keep track of it anyway.
I am curious, do you get a lot of wind buffeting off the windshield of your car, mine is pretty bad, hits me right in the right shoulder and side of my helmet.
the strange thing is I can lift my hand up, keeping the heel of my palm on the throttle but extending my fingers straight up, like making a stop gesture with my hand and it totally blocks the wind.
I'm not sure if a ext. on the windshield or the ones that go under the mirrors are what I need to add to fix this.
AJ,
The wind buffeting off the sidecar windshield is a common complaint with all rigs. I see you have wind wings. There are eBay postings for taller wind wings that might cure that problem. If those don't work, then Bark Buster handlebar shields would do the trick. Ugly as sin putting dirt bike farkles on a Wing, but paint them white and go with what works.
I removed the SC windshield for better gas mileage and no buffeting.
Here is a link to my blog where I just posted new photos of my rig.
http://ccjon.blogspot.com/2014/11/meet-damu-white-whale.html
To determine your max riding range, fill your gas tank(s) plus one or two gallons in lawn mower cans. Secure the extra cans in the SC. Set odometer on zero and ride interstates (high speed = high gas consumption) until main tanks are empty. Note miles ridden. Plan your rides to go 80% of that distance between refueling on long trips in the future. The 20% margin is needed in case you encounter a high wind situation. Which you will one day. Then pour in the extra one or two gallons you carried along and look for a station.
Ride safe and long
There is no way I'd ever get my wife into the sidecar if I took off the windshield. We replaced the windshield this year because the old one was so scratched and discolored. I'm sure the windshield is part of the reason for getting 21-24 mpg. The frontal area of the sidecar is at least equal to that of the bike and its windshield.
I learned the hard way about old gas in the sidecar tank. I bought our SC used, but didn't know how long it had been since the sidecar tank had been filled. I regularly burn E-10 gas in my motorcycles and it does a pretty good job of cleaning the goo out of the fuel system. The old gas in the SC tank really messed up the carburetors in my GL1100. By the time I learned what was causing the problem the fuel system was pretty clean.
When I had the GL1100 on the sidecar the fuel pump on the bike would draw the gas out of the sidecar tank until the gas level was too low to reach the intake. I'd then switch over to the bike's tank. The GL1100 had a gas gauge so I could monitor how the main tank was doing. With the Valkyrie on the sidecar I have a 12v. fuel pump in the sidecar to get gas to the bike. I run the bike tank to the reserve, then pump out of the sidecar tank. The Valkyrie (1998) doesn't have a fuel gauge, so we went to using a timer for the sidecar pump so I don't overfill the bike tank and run the gas through the overfill onto the ground. I switch on the SC fuel pump for 20 minutes at a time. I do that twice. I can go about 250 miles and still have the reserve and a little gas in the SC tank for insurance. My wife has the GPS in the sidecar so I have her check for gas station locations. You will have to figure out what works for you.
Yea the SC tank has a elec. pump on it that I'm going to try to clean and salvage. I will prob. do like you, run to low fuel light then pump from SC to bike and continue.
I can't remove my SC windshield because I need it for the rag top, both of them. I have a full top with zip open windows and a plain top that just goes from WS to rear bars. I guess it's just for shade on hot days
my wife didn't like being closed up with the full top on it, said it was too much like being in a car with her helmet on
