Thanks, Lonnie, I did E-mail Jay a while back, got a quick reply. The one thing holding me back on the Kenna, while overall a good looking rig, I can't get past the (to me) rather odd looking front end. And I forgot to ask if the single would be long enough for me to snooze in at rest areas when I am on my trips.
Hi from the Peace Country, northwestern Alberta.
My first post on these forums as well. Been a member of 5united for quite some time, as well as haunting a couple of KZ sites. Background on my rides is, #1, a 1973 BMW R75/5 picked up from Edmonton Motorcycles & Salvage in 1980. Bike was a former Shriner's ride from Saskatoon, SK. Had an unknown sidecar attached but it was gone by the time the bike ended up at the wreckers in Regina. No bites on it in Regina so they shipped it to the Edmonton shop where it found me. Rode the hell out of the bike for a few years then parked it in 1987 for a "two year rebuild". Well, the two years turned into 18 what with raising two kids and all. Got the bike back together in 2005 and FINALLY found a sidecar last fall, 2012. Unit is a one-off, built by a gyro-copter builder/flier in Grande Prairie, AB. Was attached to his friends 1100 Virago so I will be fabbing different attaching system for it this summer. I WILL be bugging y'all for advice and ideas. For now, I have back burnered but not forgotten my scratch built sidecar idea. Thanks to Claude from CSM, I worked out the geometry and sourced many of the materials for a chassis and developed a working blueprint for a bulkhead and stringer constructed fuselage type body. This may actually come to fruition for either my old KZ, or my new Vulcan (some day).
Ride #2 is a 1976 KZ750 B1 Twin, built out of the twin engine and main frame, with 650 Four C1 cast wheels, GPz brakes, 750 Four lights, etc. Like Johnny Cash's car, it was built one piece at a time, but is (mostly) all Kawasaki. Gotta have a solo cause the sidecar rig won't fit in the back of the truck when pulling the camper. Maybe Santa will bring me a toy hauler so I can take em both???
As to keeping with this thread, I acquired a Showa air over oil shock off of a Harley bagger years ago. I got the pair but one of them has a leaky seal. Thanks to the replies on this thread, I feel good about using this shock on my sidecar which currently has a rather feeble looking chrome motorcycle shock on it. Looks like vintage small displacement Yamaha or some such. I have one of those cheap little 12V plug-in air compressors that I "engineered" into an aluminum box. With about $40.00 in fittings and valves and a switch from Princess Auto, I figure I can make an adjust-on-the-fly system. Looking at the Goldwing shock in the photo, is it a Showa? Sure looks like the chromed Showa's I have seen on the net. Mine are black but had the HD chrome covers over them. Funny that some unenlightened HD riders think Jap sucks but like the ride those Jap air shocks give their HD touring bike!
Anyways, not tryin to start a fight.
Nuff for now.
Brent
Welcome to the forum, guys! I'm sure you can get loads of excellent info around here for your projects. Hopefully you'll both start dedicated threads so we can all follow along with your builds and YOU KNOW HOW WE LOVE PICS ha!
hi guys thanks for all your great advice,i have about 1500 mi on the air shock and cant believe the diference in ride quality of the whole rig. no more harsh action with big hits,very little lean or roll in corners.i actually seek out large potholes and such , with no effect on my passangers. on another note i think lonnies unit is a gold wing piece,thanks for the offer lonnie but i am trying to keep this mod simple.i have a small 12 volt air compresser on board with a gauge for manual adjustments on the road,seems adaquate or now.maybe play with an on the fly arrangment in the winter,as right now all i want to do is ride.
The Harleys use Showa front ends, why not their shocks too?
Just about anything manufactured these days is a multinational product, assembled with international parts.
Lonnie
Just my two pennyworth on this air shock topic. This relates to a trike but also about air shocks. Quite recently I had the front end( forks) changed over to air shocks by MMD. What a difference this made. The ride had always been hard both front and rear. I then had the rear also done with MMD airshocks and the difference it made was astonishing. You can control the pressure but have had little need to do so once it is set up, particularly the front end. Why I am on this forum? Love sidecars and would have one to-morrow but the wife doesn't like to ride in them now. Had scores of rigs in our early marriage , along with our solos, when we couldn't afford four wheels anyway( who wants four ). Still got the solos but had to settle with a trike, which is great fun if set up right. see:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzePaxhM-yg
Have a post in this forum concerning the use of a car tire on the rear wheel.
