First off, hello from Michigan.
I have been in the market for an early 70's BMW Airhead and stumbled across one with an Eagle Spirit Sidecar attached. The car is a 71' or 72' and in very good condition with double tube chrome bumpers and chrome luggage rack attached. The seat and interior are near perfect. It has a chrome spoked wheel, new tire and recently serviced wheel bearings. I have allways thought a hack would be something I would do eventually, but this one presented itself, so I am very seriously considering it. What are some things to look for in a sidecar, beside the obvious bent frame cracked chair etc?
Thank you in advance for the help.
I've got a Eagle Spirit myself. Had a real lot of fun with it years, and was really hard on it. But when I looked at putting it on a new bike a year or os some one told me how dangers they were. Point being the axel piovet is only connected at one point and sure enouft my is. I've looked at it as you can and see how to brace it up under the frame, out of sight. I realy liked the fornt foot reast and the grab handes that other don't have. I've been told that a passenger will get a littel wetter in the rain because for the fender connected to body and it carreies the water into the pasenger compartment, I don't know about that just heard. Don't let what I'm telling stop you from getting the car, I had a lot of hard fun with my car and never had any problems. Rudyr
If you don't want it , please send me info. It looks just fine in the pics. I have looked for one like that.
jcrow_t@bellsouth.net
If you've never ridden a hack, you really can't know what to look for except for the way it feels. Some of it will feel odd no matter what if you've never driven one. But at the same time some quirks in set-up cause other odd issues.
The frame should have reinforcement from side to side since the BMW has a weak bolt on rear section...or it should have a subframe
mount that does not rely on the rear bolt on frame for support.
You could look at tread wear for guess at toe-in /lean set-up. You could ride over some irregular slow dips (like when exiting many parking lots) to find steering wobble. You could accelerate fast to find right pull, or brake hard to find left push. Try a right hand emergency turn to find how "light" the hack is set-up (be cautious, it may fly, eh).
You could check for BMW having bent loop frame or broken motor mount welds.
Good luck. Please send me the info if you don't buy it.
As long as everything checks out mechanically...it will be in my garage as soon as the snow is gone. I will keep you in mind should I decide to sell the car. Thank you, Michael
Looks like it's in great shape. A fine addition to anyone's collection!
It appears that another beaming hacker is borne. If I lived up i the snow country , I'd ride mine. No anti-freeze. Managable if sikdded off road. There's a group over in NM USA who ride trails in snow....sounds like fun.....Whaat ya waitin' for...go get it! It's probably and unheard of good deal to boot.
Enjoy.
Snow riding is a blast. but Beemers and Guzzies have one disadvantage in the cold....you need very low viscosity oil and/or a camping stove for heat up the block before kicking it on...
The MZ and Jawa as 2 strokers do not have that trouble.. 2 kicks without ignition. 1-3 kicks with ignition...reng kleng kleng.
Have fun
Sven
Well, I spell that ring, ding- ding- ding. But , I agree . Having run Yam Thumper in enduro SERA , cold wet starts are kinda kalumphhhhh-ph...several times. When I rode the Yam IT250, even after being submerged it fired off w/o too much trouble. Once it hydraulic-locked and after taking out plug and dry kicking some, it fired off and away I went. 2-strokers are the best for wet and cold. Ya can also see where you've been. I really like the castor bean oil smell too. Gee, I miss that trail riding competition.
I read an thread about a new Ural..and another about some bad luck guy that did not make it home from 1st ride out.........bummer.
The submerged rig burnt the radio recorder, but started in a few kicks for to spit oil over all flowers behind...
since then I weren't able to ask hitch hicker for to throw in the cassete: "Play me the song of death..."
out of Ennio Ricone's "once upon the time in the west"
More then one kid had white noses when they stepped out of the side car...
Jon - 2/10/2010 12:05 AM
It appears that another beaming hacker is borne. If I lived up i the snow country , I'd ride mine. No anti-freeze. Managable if sikdded off road. There's a group over in NM USA who ride trails in snow....sounds like fun.....Whaat ya waitin' for...go get it! It's probably and unheard of good deal to boot.
Enjoy.
I'd love to go get it but the owner will not hear of it untill the white stuff is gone. This is probably a true test of my patients...or lack thereof.
