Sidecar for 1974 BMW R75/6

In general most of the sidecars on the market will work on your bike, some really light ones you may have to have some ballast in the sidecar if your wife is not riding with you. You will need to make sure to use a sub frame either one of ours or sourced elsewhere as the frame tubing on the BMW is quite thin. "leaner" sidecars usually work best on bikes with a lot more ground clearance then your bike has. They have all of the draw backs of a sidecar with the only benefit is extra passenger capacity, they can still fall over. Some of the lower priced sidecars (see the post on RT sidecars and safer whole sale) by the time you have them on the bike are not a great value assuming you can ever get them to work. Of course our classic would work as would are M72 type sidecars which are a lot easier for your passenger to get in and out of. The Watsonian I have not seen their sub frames for your bike so I can not speak to these in particular. For our sub frame to work requires additional parts to convert these sidecars over to a boss and clamp type set up, we also relocate the front lower mount as from Watsoinan it attaches to the fiberglass not the frame. You could also consider the Russian Sputnik sidecar we offer for $3495 complete with the sub frames you need. My wife ran one for years on an R100S once painted (we will not paint these) they can look great on your bike. If you want a brake on the sidecar as your bike has a drum rear and a single disk in the front the way we do these is to change your front brake master over to one with the reservoir on the handle bars (gives a better feel to the brake) that is designed for dual disk type brakes on the front. This give you the capacity to work a sidecar brake. This can be done with a quick disconnect as it sounds like you plan on taking the sidecar on and off. Chances are once you have the sidecar on the only time it will actually be taken off is for major service work. While I have never owned a /6 I did have a /7 for many years while my wife had the R100S as such I may be able to help with more specific questions.

Jay G
DMC sidecars

www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793

Thanks Jay for this advice. It's very helpful. About the brake. I checked with Tom Cutter, one of the top experts on BMW Airheads. He told me that, unfortunately, my 1974 R75/6 has the older style handlebar controls, essentially the same as what was on the /5's. This means that in order to switch to handlebar mounted master cylinder, I would have to switch out everything that is mounted on the bars. Cost for parts, and some may be hard to get, would be about $750. Might it be better to have something like the cable operated drum brakes that are used in some sidecars like the Velorex? The advantage is that this would put the sidecar brake on the rear brake pedal, and leave the front disc brake alone. Although, I've seen on this forum that some people have trouble getting the Velorex system to work. The other option would be to not have a brake, but I'm not sure that is a good idea.

The drum brake as used on the Velorex can be hooked up similar to what we did on the Sputnik's (when we could get the Russian drum brake wheels) What we use to do is take a bracket that came with the Sputnik and modify it. We have also made one from scratch for the Velorex but had to have the Velorex in our shop (we do have one used velorex that has been up graded to boss and clamp lowers that I can make you a deal on, you can see what we do to these at this link http://www.dmcsidecars.com/the-result-of-improper-sidecar-mounting-and-the-proper-fix/ ) What we do is make a mount that picks up two of the studs that hold the final drive of the bike to the drive shaft. This bracket is used to attach the cable housing to the bike. Then we use a tread coupler to make a clamp that goes over the rod that works the rear brake. A thread coupler is like a really tall nut. We drill a hole in the side of the coupler so that it can slide onto the brake rod. Then we use a bolt in the coupler such that when it is tight it pinches on the brake rod. Before we put the pinching bolt into the coupler we put a washer, 3 links of a small chain and a second washer. The Velorex brake cable has a hook on the end of it, you run the hook into the end link of the chain. Really pretty simple to fabricate and while it is not idea, it does work ok and is fairly cheap to make.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793

Thanks. It is good to know that this is possible. That's a clever way to attach the brake cable.

I have a Kenna single attached to my 95 R100RT. I run with the 37/11 rear end. The stock rear end 33/11 is geared too high for sidecar use, especially real world driving with a passenger. Our weights are about the same. On flat ground, with little wind the R100 has enough power to handle the sidecar but in the mountains and fighting strong headwinds it is down a bit on power. What it basically means is that you can keep up with traffic up to about 70 mph but you have limited power to pass etc. Not a problem but you have to get used to a bit slower way of riding. Not a bad idea on a sidecar.

I had a R75/6, and the bike likely would be down a bit on power for hauling a tug, especially loaded 2 up. There where a couple of different rear ends that would lower the gearing slightly, which would help. Of course a lot will depend on how you plan on using the rig. Hope this helps.

Thanks cycleman. I appreciate the advice.