Found this on Craigslist on one of those odd searches.
The bike is an Aspencade with 65k miles. Owner says the sidecar is a California.
Just wanting to know more about the sidecar, maybe what to look for when I go check it out, that kinda thing.
I can see there's one mounting bracket attached to the right side on the front wheel and what appears to be 2 brackets going into the frame as well.
How easy is this to take off when not needed?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
This will be my 4th Gold Wing in my stable (again) and should be a daily rider.
I've also got 2 85 Honda Interceptors and 2 Honda Trail 90's.. a '68 and '69.
The 90's are for sale if anyone is interested.
Can't help with any info on the sidecar, but the shock looking tube going to the front fork is a steering stabilizer. It helps prevent front end wobble, but also makes the bike harder to steer. You could try taking it off, and see if you have a wobble problem, it looks like the bike may have modified triple trees, can't tell for sure, if it really does, often the steering stabilizer isn't needed.
The sidecar looks like a Watsonian. Doug Bingham at Sidestrider is the expert on Watsonian.
fly
I believe you nailed it on that one Fly.. No wonder I couldn't find it on the California Sidecar website.
On the Watsonian website, I see a canvas roof for it. Might be something to pick up later. Also it appears I'm missing a hubcap..
I'll have to see if the guy has it stored away somewhere..
Lloyd - 5/23/2013 10:58 AM
Can't help with any info on the sidecar, but the shock looking tube going to the front fork is a steering stabilizer. It helps prevent front end wobble, but also makes the bike harder to steer. You could try taking it off, and see if you have a wobble problem, it looks like the bike may have modified triple trees, can't tell for sure, if it really does, often the steering stabilizer isn't needed.
Thanks for the info Lloyd, I'll definitely look at that stabilizer. If it's something that can pop on when I have the car on there easily enough, the mount will stay on the bike.
Currently I have no plans to keep the car on for daily running back and forth to work. I drive thru Portland, Oregon and it helps to be able to react fairly quick at times.. A sidecar would also keep me out of the bicycle lanes or splitting lanes..
Nice thing is, they have a carpool lane heading north out of Portland that allows motorcycles..
Portland is a bicycle friendly town and on some license plates it shows a bicycle and the words Share the Road. I want a sticker for the back of my GW that says I'll share the road if you share the bike path..
Thanks again for the help.
GG
If the bike does have modified triple trees, won't it be less safe to ride solo? I'm not up to date on this kind of stuff, so maybe someone could jump in and clarify?
Trees modified for reduced trail make the steering very quick for a solo rig. While this makes a sidecar rig a lot easier to steer it reduces the self centering that is built into a bikes stock steering geometry. You will have to steer the bike back to straight after taking a corner as it loses most of the caster effect.
A slight bump could also possibly start a tank slapper (extreme wheel wobble) with a solo bike.
Lonnie
Nice rig ,chair is a watsonian,possibly a monaco or a palma , cast spoke wheels off of mini coopers should be a direct bolt on
Well, I drove out there (2.5 hours one way) and was looking forward to riding that scooter home but, it didn't even look good from 30 feet away. Rust everywhere. It's less than 2 blocks from the Pacific Coast in Oregon and the poor thing will prolly just end up as a parts bike. The sidecar was in decent shape even though the guy kept trying to tell me it was a California Sidecar (Emblem on front of car, manual he got with the bike on how to install it). He had told me he couldn't go lower than $2,800 on it and when I told him I really wasn't interested, he said "Well don't you at least want to make me an offer??"
Poor ole fellar needs cash but, I didn't really need another GoldWing to part out. Although you can definitely make a good bit of money from one.
This poor scooter looked so bad, my wife didn't even get out of the truck to look at it.. That's bad..
If anyone is interested, it's in Pacific City, Oregon and it's on the Portland Oregon Craiglist. Here's the link: http://portland.craigslist.org/nco/mcy/3832402085.html
Thanks for all the responses!
GG
Nice looking rig!
It's a Watsonian Monaco, I have owned one for12 years. Doug
