Thanks to claude, who sent me a eyebolt for my attachment - as I was tearing my hair trying to find one - anywhere, I am breaking in the motor on my refurbished kz650 w/ 71 eagle spirit sidecar on our backroads.
My strut attachment bolts have mixed head symbols. Five line to 3 and some have nothing.
Do I replace these with hard (and brittle) or milder and malable?
While I'm here, my forks set up a medium (but scary) shimmy when removing a hand up to 40 mph. It becomes worse when the 55 lbs ballast is placed in the nose of the car and better (but still there) when placed in trunk area. When time allows, opinions please?
thanks, Monte
If using some of the larger bolts (1/2" +) with your Eagle spirit you can use Grade 5 bolts and nuts (3 bars). For any bolts that are smaller I would use grade 8 bolts with grade 8 nuts (6 bars).
In metric that would be 5.5 or 8.8 markings on the bolts.
Lonnie
Northwest Sidecar
Regarding your shimmy: When driving a sidecar one should keep both hands on the bars as much as possible and do not drive hands off.
With a fiberglass car, soft ballast should be used. Hard or sharp edged ballast can easily fracture the fiberglass body if it shifts around.
Any loose ballast should be placed behind the sidecar seat in the boot area. Front loading can be downright dangerous in a downhill or left turn braking situation. The weight shift can make the car dip it's nose in the sand and pick the rear bike wheel off the ground and dump you. (What wind sailors call "Pitch poling). Can you say somersault?
Lonnie
Originally written by montanadedman on 6/10/2006 4:12 PM
Thanks to claude, who sent me a eyebolt for my attachment - as I was tearing my hair trying to find one - anywhere, I am breaking in the motor on my refurbished kz650 w/ 71 eagle spirit sidecar on our backroads.
My strut attachment bolts have mixed head symbols. Five line to 3 and some have nothing.
Do I replace these with hard (and brittle) or milder and malable?
While I'm here, my forks set up a medium (but scary) shimmy when removing a hand up to 40 mph. It becomes worse when the 55 lbs ballast is placed in the nose of the car and better (but still there) when placed in trunk area. When time allows, opinions please?
thanks, Monte
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Monte,
Use grade eight (five line) bolts. There is no reason to mess around with anything else. Costs are not that great. Use elastic stop nuts or at least lock washers on them. Note that these nuts should have a couple of threads exposed out past the edge os the nut when installed. Face all vertical bolts so they go in from top to bottom.
Also, I would still plan on upgrading the struts and hardware soon if you are using the early small bolts etc. Be sure to cross drill the large block of the strap clamps ( two grade 8 x 1/4" bolts in each)if you have the kind with just the grooves in them.
DO NOT PUT BALLAST IN THE NOSE!! Doing so can get you an upside down rig and a trip to the crash house. Put ballast in the rear and as far out toward the wheel as possible.
If the rig does not wobble with your hands on the bars them keep your hands on the bars.You shoudl check all of the pivot points on the bike, steering head bearings, wheel bearings. etc to see if all is tight. Also play with front tire pressure. Recheck toe in. Make sure mounts are not flexing as the bike and sidecar should act as one unit when hooked up.It also may be that your front fork springs are sacked out and shoudl be replaced.
Take it easy ...let the rig speak to you and have fun.
