@andrew-baker I'll just cut off one of Willie's ears and if anyone says anything about the paint job I'll say "Willie DOG Go" over there painted it. It was a form of self expression.
Ok. That took me a second to figure out (Willie DOG Go/ Van Gogh) but once I did it was hilarious!
@andrew-baker I'll just cut off one of Willie's ears and if anyone says anything about the paint job I'll say "Willie DOG Go" over there painted it. It was a form of self expression.
Ok. That took me a second to figure out (Willie DOG Go/ Van Gogh) but once I did it was hilarious!
I went back and changed the spelling for the art critics,,,,lol.
I see where you tried to blame me.... but if you had asked me in the first place, I would have told you to call MY friend.... Chuck Loftin.
Chuck lives 220 miles away from me, and I am the one that convinced him to accept cookies for payment, rather than money.
Oh, and my painting skills are no better than yours.
Two Million Mile Rider...All 7 Continents
Exploring the World in Comfort
FlyingMonkeys. Here's a semi-interesting tidbit. You drove down to see Chuck's shop for the first time while he was building the leading link for the R100RT.
Hey! I was there too! Here's a pic I took that day of a group of typical hackers in Chuck's driveway standing around the rig that was FM's then mine then FM's again and now it's Thane's.FlyingMonkeys. Here's a semi-interesting tidbit. You drove down to see Chuck's shop for the first time while he was building the leading link for the R100RT.
Too bad I live in (A) Canoe up North (close to the white stuff) or else I would love to get involved with these shenanigans. Great reading, carry on
Part 9. Try, cry, and try again.
My buddy Doug came over. Yes, he and I look remarkably similar. His beard is longer; I have more hair and you will rarely catch me looking at a phone.
Hair length and phone digs aside he has been a willing volunteer and I’m really grateful to count him as a friend/adopted brother.
We followed the usual set up order. Wheel lead, track width, toe in, lean out, cry.
Wheel lead was limited because I was trying to connect a subframe from the company I won’t name to the tub setup that Claude did when he built the original R100RT rig.
I would have preferred an 8” lead but settled for 7”. That is still within the 10-15% of wheelbase rule (59.4” = 5.94”- 8.91” of lead).
Likewise the track width was set because of a previous faux pas (that’s fancy talked for I goofed it). Most people run 52-56” track width on these GS rigs. I was aiming for 54” but when I measured for the struts I tried to account for the final height of the sidecar and bike despite neither of them having wheels on. My accounting did not reconcile (accountant jokes are the worst) with reality.
I ended up with 56” track width. I’m not crying about that. The GSA is a tall, heavy bike and a little more track width will help keep the sidecar on the ground. Read the beginning to see why that’s probably a good thing for me.
With the sidecar positioned for wheel lead and track width, I leveled it out front to back and side to side. Naturally being a Ural frame that was not “dead on” both ways so I preferenced the side to side level for less tire scrub.
Toe in. I wanted 3/4” of toe in. I have two 1” x 8’ square tubes. I put one against the bike wheel, one against the sidecar wheel and... Measure, move the sidecar, measure, move the sidecar, measure, move the sidecar. If you’ve ever done this, you know this is the most time consuming part.
Next we attached the A-arm and front strut to the subframe and connected them to Claude’s lengthwise bar.
Note. I’m not a fan of using Heim joints to connect the struts to the A-arm. The center piece of the Heim joint sticks out further than the main part of the eye so it will stay put, but the rest of the eye can rotate around it. This company does a lot of them this way so I have to assume it’s ok.
Next I used the straps holding the bike up (attached to my ceiling’s I-beam) to get the lean out I wanted. (Crucial mistake). I was going for 1 degree stagnant (me not on it).
Pro tip. Remember to remove the angle meter before moving the bike. Apparently it can get jammed against the brake and become damaged.
Next, we attached the upper struts to the sidecar frame and top subframe mounts to lock in the lean out.
This is when I found out that the brand new strut was the wrong size. Initially I thought it was my mistake since I hadn’t gotten the length of the lower struts right.
But when I checked the invoice it turns out that once again the company didn’t check their work and sent me a 6” strut when I ordered an 8”.
The wait gave me time to finish the wiring.
The hard part was remembering where I decided to position the Hexcan and associated harness. I also mis-marked the turn signals so once I got everything all wired up I had to disassemble and switch two wires.
The strut came in and I replaced the too short one (and sent it back). Remember when I said “crucial mistake”?
When I used the straps to get the bike at the right lean out angle I cranked them too tight and lifted the bike slightly out of its normal sag position. When I loosened the straps the bike settled down into its normal position and the tub was no longer level.
This wasn’t a hard fix. I just loosened the front strut bolt, loosened the jam nut, jacked the tub back up to level, re-positioned the eye and redid the bolt.
Everything all attached it was time to roll the rig out into the sun and take some glamour shots.
As I’m snapping away I notice something doesn’t look right.
In fairness, I always had my doubts about the front lower strut connection. I just didn’t know why I was concerned.
I was advised that it should work. Um yeah, no it didn’t.
A lesson about jam nuts and threaded eyes. The jam nut keeps the eye from turning in one direction. Nothing will stop it from turning in the other direction or stop the bolt/eye assembly from turning together in that direction.
So having the eye parallel to the ground meant that rocking the bike would get the eye to turn (loosen) and the whole rig to sink.
Frustrated, I disassembled all the pieces and took Claude’s long bar out. I took the bar, threaded rod and eye over to my friend PJ and they welded the eye onto the bar. Being structural I wasn’t confident enough to do the welding myself.
The problem with this plan was to change the level or height meant loosening three clamps and rotating the whole long bar. Not the end of the world just a little extra work.
Reassembly was easier since I didn’t need to reset the toe-in. (I didn’t change the length of the struts or height of the tub frame.)
Everything back together I got on the bike and rocked it hard from side to side. Guess what? The tub shifted. Turns out the front strut wasn’t the only problem. That @#%!#@ A-arm was moving too.
I took a page from Claude’s assembly (pic) and put set bolts in the A- arm's clamps.
I drilled a hole in the center of the clamp and welded nuts onto it. I did this myself. My wire speed was a little high but better too much material than not enough. And I got good penetration.
Doug and I re-assembled it but Doug forgot his hammer drill so we couldn’t crank down the bolts. Because of that I haven’t tested it yet.
And that fellow three wheelers is where things are.
If after cranking the bolts down HARD the sidecar still won’t stay put, I’m going back to the drawing board and putting different connections on.
My R1200GSA had a DMC subframe and a DMC sidecar so obviously not the same as yours. However, I replaced the heim joints on the lower A-arms with solid rod ends like this --
Got them from Amazon of all places -- LINK
Also, on DMC rigs the A-arms are flipped over, like this --->
From your pics I'm guessing it's not possible for you. But I'm wondering if this would be a way to change your wheel lead?
About the A-arm tube clamps rotating, I had that problem on a DMC rig in 2017 and it turned out that I simply had not used a long enough wrench to crank those bolts down. I was using Grade 8 bolts which can handle a lot of torque without stretching. From your pics I'm not sure but are your bolts stainless? Maybe swap those out?
Sure looks sexy in all that beautiful gray paint. 😍
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
Got them from Amazon of all places -- LINK
Also, on DMC rigs the A-arms are flipped over, like this --->
From your pics I'm guessing it's not possible for you. But I'm wondering if this would be a way to change your wheel lead?
Thank you for the link. I'm definitely going to change the heims for solid rod ends like that one. Also thanks for the tip on heavy handing those bolts.
My A-arm is a mirror image of yours just so I could squeeze it in there.
Flipping it and mounting it behind Claude's clamp would put me at 10" of lead.
Making these two different types of mounting systems work together has been a real head scratcher (and it made me drag out my college math!)
If this config doesn't work or ride well, I'm resigned to cutting up Claude's mount and welding something else on.
Funny thing is I got here because I was trying to keep it simple. As Maxwell Smart (Agent 86) like to say, "Missed it by that much."
Part 10. Not a failure.
While I’m not superstitious, I still behave that way sometimes. I’m not willing to proclaim success because it seems like a good way to have the gods kick you in the dangly bits.
The stars of today’s show were:
As well as my buddy Doug, Drone’s advice to really crank down the bolts for the A-arm, and the new “set bolts” I welded on.
Day started with cranking down the connection points. I tried the pneumatic impact hammer first. (So technically the day started changing the air hose connector on the impact hammer. )
Then I tried the cranking down on the bolts with the breaker bar. I got additional movement with the breaker bar so that became the tool of choice.
It was little nerve wracking put that kind of grunt on the bolts but it was a greater of two worries deal. Worry about having to replace a snapped bolt in the comfort of my garage or worry about the sidecar leaning in while I’m going down the road. Crank it down we did.
I put tape on various clamps and bolts so I could where it moved if the sidecar shifted. Then I measured the height of the front and back of the main connector bar and the angle of the bike at the wheel.
First test (it has failed this test each time so far). I climbed onto the bike, stood on the pegs, and violently shook it from side to side – not unlike going down a washed out dirt road.
Measured everything, checked the tape lines. Everything stayed put.
Loaded the sidecar with (2) 60 lb bags of concrete, took new measurements and rolled it outside.
Test two. I drove it down to the sewer parking lot (really) and came back. 1.5 miles total. Drove it into the garage. Checked everything and found no changes.
Test three. Live human test. Doug got in the sidecar.
Like he said, better to have a failure with him in it than Chloe.
Doug has only ridden in the sidecar once and only because his bike broke down and we had to go get the trailer. Pretty sure I have this word for word. “Never again. Felt like I was in a beer can hurtling down the road at 70 mph.”
Live human test was a success.
Not only did the sidecar stay put, but I had the missing for too long – sidecar grin.
I painted some registration marks on all the things that can move, so I can see at a glance if anything shifted and that is the end of this build report.
Well, of course it isn’t really because you know I’m going to meddle with stuff.
I do have a cruise control kit that will give me factory like cruise control on the GSA. Push button on, raise or lower speeds with buttons, goes off with the brakes. Kit’s just sitting on the shelf waiting for winter. Heh.
Part10B - Smile for the camera.
I’m planning on posting ride pics in another section of the forum and save this thread for technical stuff.
But my initial 10 mile ride impressions were:
- Man, I missed riding
- The brakes are way stronger (than the 84 R100RT rig)
- Good pull and low down grunt
- Louder than I expected
- Lighter but not too light steering. Lighter than my R100RT but you still know you’re driving a sidecar
- I did get minor headshake when pulling out (Only when I had the concrete ballast but not when I had Doug in the sidecar). Need to adjust damper a click.
- Man, I missed riding.
Woo Hoo! Welcome back to the road. Just in time for perfect weather. Then there is the most beautiful time of year for riding. When the leaves change. Oh man, years ago I had the great fortune of traveling from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh at the height of the autumn colors. WOW! You definitely live in a stunning part of the world. 🤩
Enjoy the miles of smiles! 🍻
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
Congratulations! 
That breaker bar is huge! But, yes, that's exactly the kind of socket handle I used on mine, though mine is maybe a 15-incher. I can kick myself though for not telling you which kind of grease is the best to use under those tube clamps. Did you go with regular axle grease or something more exotic?
And, oh yes, we can tell from your pictures that you're not superstitious!
Hey @drew, late to this topic; just read the thread. Glad you got things sorted and that you and Chloe are ok!
Congratulations on building your skills up on welding, painting, alignment, wiring, and all that fine stuff. Never hurts! (much 🤣 )
You put together a lovely rig on a shoestring, well done!
