My wife and I are well into our 60’s. We currently ride a Suzuki GSX1100F Katana and I am in the process of putting together a 70’s Suzuki T500. We are interested in a bike/sidecar combination because getting on/off the bike is not as easy as it used to be. Also, we moved to Alabama a few years ago where there are a lot of neat, unpaved roads around that aren’t real comfortable on the heavy Katana.
From browsing the internet I’ve found three sidecars that I’m interested in: Champion Sidecars Escort, California Side Car Friendship II and Texas Sidecars Ranger.
Is it possible to mount any of these sidecars on the non-tube Katana frame? I’ve seen a little here and there about sub frames, but haven’t found much specific information. Is that a possibility? Is there a similar sidecar that I’ve missed that would be more suitable? The probability is that, once mounted, the sidecar would never be removed, so easy attachment/detachment is not an issue (that’s what the T500 is for).
Have you checked with the MFGrs. of your sidecars of choice to see if they are aware of any mounting kits for your bike? Next choice would be sub-frame vendors. If no luck there next would be fabrication of a sub-frame on the bike.
It would be no problem to mount a sidecar to this bike if the bike were at our shop. If you look in the off road section of our web site www.dauntlessmotors.com you will see a couple of Triumph Tigers (including my own orange one which is for sale) as well as some BMW bikes These bikes do not have lower frames to attach a sidecar to.
We have sidecars priced from $2495 (kenna) to over $10K (Liberator) with sidecars priced in between.
Thank you.
Jay Giese
Dauntless Motors Corporation
866-638-1793
Martin way back in the 70's I had a Spirit Eagle sidecar that is in the range of a Velorex or Texas Sidecar for size and maybe a little lighter. I had that sidecar on a number of bikes over the years and the most useful and fun was on a 500cc Yamerhammer twin. The weight of both was a pretty good match with no ballast required and it was much easier to work with than my 750 Waterbuffalo was. When the Wings came out I sold that sidecar because it was too small for it but now wish I had it back to put on a 500 or 650 again. Oh well live and learn.
Right now I have a Champion Escort on a GL-1800 and would consider it too big, heavy and overdone for a 500. It could be installed I suppose but when the Sidecar overshadows the bike the Fun Factor goes away.
Myself I would be looking more at the Texas Sidecar or Velorex in size plus they would be much less and you could use the $$$ to build a good Subframe or have Jay do it for you.
Jerry
With a Katana, i personally would keep my eyes open for a Vetter Terraplane for your setup.
While my bike has a regular tube frame, it wasn't near strong enough to take on the weight of a touring sidecar. The winter 2003-2004, was devoted to fabricating, from scratch, a perimeter subframe for the sidecar mounting, using the engine mount points (4 places total) to attach the subframe to the motorcycle while leaving the motorcycle frame itself entirely unmolested.
It's not a difficult task per say, but you do have to have a creative, technical streak to you to figure it out - oh, and access to a MIG/TIG welder is a must. I started by downloading all of the photo's i could find on the net of others subframes, and then spent several evenings strategizing how i would fit it all together. If you want the photo's i've accumilated (and still kept) email me at wstrong at cogeco.ca and i'll zip them all up and send them to you. It took me quite a while, since the subframe fabrication had to be done in stages, both on and off of the bike, and welded together at a different location from where the bike was being worked on at the time.
I used by and large, 1" x 1.5" rectangular, 3/16" wall thickness tubing. The most difficult part of it all is likely to be fabricating the engine mount points themselves - i cheated, and modified some surplus engine guard mounts for some of the attachment points. I've got some photo's of my own personal setup, on my website (see link in sig).
Good luck.. anything is possible with a bit of time, money and elbow grease 🙂
Thanks for the information guys. I think you’ve caused me to change my plans a little bit.
First of all, I haven’t had a lot of luck dealing with manufacturers directly (not just sidecars, and none of the manufacturers I mentioned) and a lot of luck posting on forums like this one.
Actually the original plan was to sell the Katana, use the proceeds to finish the T500 and get a Spirit Eagle. I have some photos I got somewhere of an older T500 Cobra / Spirit Eagle with a metallic orange paint job. Very, very slick looking. I did have some misgivings about the setup though. I had a 75 T500 that I rode through 81. It was a lot of fun with just me but not so great with a passenger.
Anyway, I found out nobody wants to pay much for a 17 year old, almost 50k mile bike even if it will do 150 mph, sub 11 second quarter miles and handle pretty well. It’s worth about half as much as a very ordinary 10 year old 883 Sportster. Plus, I’m pretty sure I can finish the T500 without selling the Katana.
So the plan now is to stash the Katana as soon as I get it to 50k (about 1,400 miles), finish the T500, and, when I get some money together, get a sub frame made and put one of the sidecars I mentioned above on the Katana.
And if I really hit the lottery or something, I’ll chug on up to Seattle to get it done. I love that place. I spent most of 1963 up there on a pre-commissioning detail for a guided missile destroyer being built at Harbor Island and a couple of months over in Bremerton.
