Busy day for everyone! I go get garden stuff cleared up at the end of the season and BANG!!! dozens of posts to get caught up with.
Scott, glad you made it home intact and without major pucker moments. Glad, too, that your dad was able to join your motorcade for the triumphal entry. I will concur that the seat on Goldwings is different than most others, and using highway pegs makes things much more tolerable on the "long" rides. I've never had any before so it's a new experience for me.
The yellow is genuinely an eye turner!
Ride on, Garth!!!
ETA for the inquiring minds: I put up 15 pints of pesto, 6 bags of dehydrated apples, 5 lbs of dehydrated potatoes and put another batch into the dehydrator between 9am and 430 pm. The larder is getting stocked.
You, Thane.....the OP of this story is named Chris S.....not Scott. Are you sure you weren't making potato pruno today ?
Two Million Mile Rider...All 7 Continents
Exploring the World in Comfort
Can’t get all the flames off cause the paint underneath hasn’t faded…but I don’t hate the subdued flames…I just can’t do that crazy in your face orange and yellow stuff.
This is after I waxed and buffed it.
Took these fugly (in my opinion) chrome frame covers off to expose the BEAUTIFUL black frame. Yellow and black bike, amazing!
There is a weird sound, at least to me. When the bike is just idling in neutral…almost like a rumble sound that goes away when I pull the clutch in…I’m researching it now, but posting here in case someone here knows 🙂
@miles-ladue it is apparently common in many makes and models of motorcycles and maybe even some cars…tons of threads about it on the forums, but here is just one. Tons of guys say “I’ve had that sound since 2,000 miles and I’m at 145,000 now”
FWIW my DL1000 makes a different noise with slightly different vibration when the bike is running in neutral vs when the clutch is engaged.
Illegitemi non carborundum est!
@thane-lewis I've been researching it, I guess it is also normal for GWings.
@miles-ladue i did make it home at 330 CST and woke up at 1130 today. My father insisted on meeting halfway, so we took our time to get home.
Chris S...not a Swampfox...I am going to answer your questions within this quote, and my answers will be in BOLD.
a few things I noticed that I'm not sure are normal on a sidecar (given my first ride ever with one)
1. When you hit the brakes, is the entire setup supposed to jolt to the left? For example, I have the cruise set to 70 mph and need to slow down to take an exit at 40mph. Once I hit the brakes to disengage the cruise, the motorcycle and sidecar go left. This may be because I am not braking properly and using more front brakes than the rear brakes.
# 1, you are a poopy head...a poopy head I say... for even thinking about using the cruise control on your very first Goldwing ride, and sidecar drive, towing a trailer. WhatsammatU ? I rarely ever use the cruise control on any of my motorcycles, because I am adamant that the rider needs to maintain full and complete connection between their brain, and their throttle hand. Never again admit to me that you used the cruise control !!!!!
Having read through your other questions below, I can now tell WHY your rig pulls to the left when you brake, and this is easy to fix, once you make some minor adjustments.
2. I set the front and rear tires to 40 psi and the sidecar to 32 psi, and the TPMS light stayed on the entire time, except for one stint when it went out for about 5 miles.
This would indicate to me that we move on to step # 2 in diagnosing the problem. If it were mine, I would remove the valve core from both eht front and rear tire, inspect the valve cores, check to see if thy are bad, worn, and matching. They are cheap enough, I would want to replace both valve cores, simply to 100% eliminate that question. Once both valve cores have been replaced (that just cost you 50 cents), I would reinflate the tires to 40 psi, and do another test drive of 10+ miles, and if the light does NOT go out, then I would move on to step # 3 in the diagnosis, which is considering a faulty TPMS sensors at one of the wheels.
Having said that....I am not a genius on this Honda TPMS system. I would do an Internet search for this exact problem you are having, and see if there is a common denominator that could be the cause.
I may just go the route of disabling the TPMS and adding an aftermarket TPMS solution...
2. I know Gold Wings have Linked braking, but how do you recommend slowing down/coming to a stop with a sidecar? Is there a way to make it smoother without the entire rig wanting to push left?
Yes, there is a smoother way to brake, so that the entire rig stops straight, or darn close to straight, but I think the primary problem is YOU, and I will address that in a coming up question. Stand by to be flogged.
3. As you know, these sidecars have a switch to change the camber on the fly for the sidecar (I believe that is what the switch does)...How would I just find the halfway point from the car being 100% lowered and 100% high? I think I would just prefer to have it at a 50% neutral setting, where it is completely flat, and just leave it at that setting and not worry about adjusting on the fly...unless the road just got REALLY BAD and I had to adjust.
Prepare to be flogged.....flogged I say.
To correctly set that ECC switch...as in Electric Camber Control switch, what you want to do is use it as little as possible. STOP playing with it. Learn to set it, and forget it, unless there is a real need to adjust it, due to severe road crowning.
What you do to initially set it, is park the sidecar rig on a flat and level surface, such as a concrete pad in front of the garage, or in the garage itself, someplace that you feel is pretty level, without using an actual level to check. Then....hit that switch so that the ECC lowers the sidecar to the lowest point, meaning the sidecar is lowering, and it feels like the bike is leaning (a tad) to the right, towards the sidecar. Now...hit that switch again to raise the sidecar just enough to level out the entire sidecar rig, which is raising the sidecar.....not too much....just enough that you feel the bike itself is level, and you are not leaning left or right whilst sitting on the bike.
Then, STOP playing with the ECC switch.
Herein lays the problem you were having with the sidecar rig pulling towards left when braking. You had the ECC switch set so that the sidecar was more UP than it needed to be, and at the same time you had that rear suspension pre-load set at 25, which meant the entire bike was jacked up....literally jacked up....suspension wise and frame wise, with a cant to the left. Hit the brakes, and the bike/sidecar wanted to go to the left.
Level out the bike/sidecar with the ECC switch as instructed above, AND....set that rear suspension pre-load to 13, and the bike will stop much straighter than it did before.
lol, as expected...after I adjusted the preload and the sidecar camber, things seem better 🙂 thank you.
4. Sparkplugs on the side of the car near the sidecar look like they are going to be a stinking pain, considering the frame of the sidecar is only like 1-2 inches from that cover with the 5 bolts 🙁
Stop whining, that cover over the spark plugs will slide out from under that sidecar subframe fairly easy. I have done it on my '06 Wing w/Champion Daytona 2+2 sidecar, and even a BMW guy that has owned that same '06 Wing w/Champion Daytona 2+2 sidecar rig was able to do it, without complaining. Once you remove those 5 allen head bolts, you will see that the cover will basically fall out, and slide down under that subframe, and you can access the spark plugs. Use a small amount of anti-seize on the spark plug threads, and (again) I would install the NGK Iridium plugs, rather than the V-power plugs, but that is just me.
I had to remove the front cowl and the foglight on the sidecar side to remove the cover, not terrible..but it was way too tight for that cover to just fall out. I dunno, maybe the frame on this older model sidecar is different? I have no idea. I plan to do the iridium plugs here in the next 2 or so days, so I won't have to remove the covers again until I hit 100k or so.
5. I learned that maybe my hips are not flexible. The wing has a much wider stance than my Africa twin, so my hips and legs are spread out more. Actually, my knees and hips were hurting for a long bit of the ride. I am 6 foot with "decently" long legs, I am going to research and see what I can do about lowering the footpegs so my knees aren't so bunched up. I am hoping my body will adjust to this position!
I do 90+ % of my riding with my feet out on my highway pegs, and my legs are shorter than yours. (yes, I did measure both of our legs)(yours and mine)
I agree that the OEM footpegs can make a rider feel cramped, but there are solutions. Knowing (and you will learn this Grasshopper) that you can't fall over at a stop when you have a sidecar attached to your bike, and you don't need to put a foot down....you can spend more time with your legs extended, with you feet on the highway pegs.
If you can jack the entire rig up in the air, or...at least the sidecar wheel off the ground, do a test of spinning that sidecar wheel, then slamming on the rear brake, to see IF the rear brake pedal does in fact STOP that spinning sidecar wheel. It should.....but if it doesn't, then you might need to bleed the brakes, so that the rear brake on the bike also stops the sidecar. On all my Wing sidecar rig, I have balanced out all the brakes, so that in a panic or emergency, my rigs stop straight.
I need to remove the wheel from the sidecar anyway so I can replace the tire...I suppose, this begs the question...are there pretty obvious jacking points to lift the sidecar up with? Admittedly, I haven't looked under the sidecar to even check 🙂
Took these fugly (in my opinion) chrome frame covers off to expose the BEAUTIFUL black frame. Yellow and black bike, amazing!
Yellow with black highlights is definitely the ultimate combination. 😎
Came out looking great. Nice work on getting it all polished out. What an awesome deal. 👍
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
I have tried to reply to Chris's question about where to lift the sidecar...11 times now, and keep getting the Go Daddy error issue.
Let me try this without quoting Chris S from his post above...................(this is damn frustrating)
Chris, you asked what is the best way to lift the sidecar wheel off the ground, so here goes:
Lay on the garage floor, looking UP underneath the sidecar, forward of the sidecar wheel. You will see the black tubular frame of the sidecar, and at some point there will be a cross section of that tubular frame, where two pieces are welded together. That will be a strong point, in which to lift the sidecar enough to get the wheel off the ground. Place your floor jack under that point, put a piece of wood on top of the floor jack, to protect the tubular frame, then lift the sidecar enough to get the wheel UP off the ground.
Or, come 2,000 miles west to my shop.
Two Million Mile Rider...All 7 Continents
Exploring the World in Comfort
