Hi all,
I live in Greensboro, NC. I am a long time Guzzi and BMW rider. In the mid 1990s I acquired this 1990 California III with California Companion GT sidecar. The bike has been lowered a bit to match up with the sidecar and it handles remarkably well. I just put on Metzlers Block K tires on the bike (not shown in pic). Very pleased to be on this forum and to learn from all of you.
Here is a picture of the whole bike and sidecar.
Welcome aboard, lots of great people and info to be found here
that's a sharp looking rig
being from NC you should try to make the Sidecars in the Smokies rally next month.
Nice looking rig! welcome to the group here. I'm in Mooresville and only been around here for about 9 months since I hooked up a sidecar to my Nomad.
As AJ said, the rally in Stecoah is coming up soon. the URAL guys are also having a rally then end of April in Sanford NC.
there's a few of us here in the central NC area. if you want to get together, give me a holler.
Thanks NC Dave. I am only about an hour from Sanford and that sounds like fun. But I looked at their info for the rally on the ural forum and they said " If you are part of the Ural/Dnepr community (or are interested in joining) you are welcome....................other riders (I will refrain from mentioning the brand) need to find someplace else to go." I am not sure they would want a Guzzi there. They are having a Ural rally, not a more general sidecar rally. I understand their position on that. Maybe we can meet up later in the spring. Thanks for your reply to my post.
I believe that was a nasty comment aimed at those who ride v-twins which make lots of noise. I never read it as targetted to me. just take your sidearm with you when you go...just in case. 😀
Well, I do not have a sidearm and my Guzzi is a v-twin (positioned the correct way) with straight fishtails. Oh well.
Welcome to the slightly off-center world of sidecars, John!
Nice rig!
A few things to watch very close on this rig, first your lower mounts are the type that are known to fail, keep a close eye on them. I had these mounts fail on two occasions, The first was on my wife's Eldorado with the same sidecar as yours, pulling into a local Guzzi club camp out the front lower fell off. The second failure was with a Friendship 1 on a GL1100 I had one lower let go then as it had the early type of frame clamps with out cross bolts(yours might still) as second mount came off. Next thing to watch for is your sidecar wheel. These wheels are known to fail, Inspect the cast spoke bases on both ends in side and out side of the wheel. I have seen a rim come completely off. On my own bike I found 6 cracked spokes. It looks like your suspension has been up graded so we need not go into the original systems weak points.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
Thank you Jay for this advice. I will watch the mounts carefully. So far the tire rim is good. Had it off over the weekend and inspected it but I will keep an eye on it. I appreciate your help with this.
