Basic Maintenance Conversation

I'm new to sidecars but not to motorcycles. My best maintenance suggestion is change the fluids regularly. Most modern cycles are well designed and  robust. But all the fluids and lubrications need constant attention. A well lubed machine will last.

@scott-h Hey Scott,  some thoughts on maintenance:

Doing as much of it yourself as is practical for your skills, or desired to acquire skills, is a big deal.  NO ONE will ever care about the maintenance quality of your bike/rig as much as you.  There are great people out there doing maintenance work, but they are few and far between.

Detailed logs on maintenance (yeah I am a spreadsheet nerd) are very helpful.  I write notes to my future self in a comments field that logs my observations and inspection results.  I'm not big on cleaning the offroad rig too often, so when I do maintenance, I usually wash it, prior, then take the maintenance activity as a good time to inspect a lot of the unrelated stuff that takes a beating.  I then will note how much brake pad remains on each caliper (quick visual estimate, not typically measured), what has cracked and needs welding, etc.

I tend to keep a running log of parts costs.  Probably just obsessive, on that, you can do really good quality maintenance on a reasonable budget, if you can gain the skills needed.

Keep the bike and your work area clean and organized (yeah, I know, do as I say, not as I do, for those of you that have seen my shop.)  Cuts time on hunting for tools, lost springs, etc.  Trays for small parts (even tupperware) can really speed up reassembly operations, if you get into something complex. 

Take a lot of pictures during disassembly, like way more than you think necessary.  They are your friend on reassembly, when you wonder which identical connector plugs into what identical socket.

Skill development:  Find a friend that has better skills than you, and combine maintenance days at their place, if they are amicable. 

Watch Youtube videos on bike specific stuff; there are many for almost any machine you can imagine for almost any activity.  The Ural stuff covers a lot of general sidecar alignment that applies to many rigs.

Acquire manuals.  Cheap manuals (Haynes, Clymer, etc.) generally are good enough for most activities; read the intro section for your bike and thoroughly read the section on the activity that you are about to perform.  Factory service manuals are usually the best.  It is possible to snag a copy on some of the bike specific forums, if you search the forum and ask nicely.  I carry soft copies on my phone, and find them very handy when out in the middle of nowhere.  Don't get hung up on all the special tools the factory manuals list; some are needed, but for most there are workarounds.

Build up a decent tool set for on rig/in shop:  I can be a tool snob, yeah there, I admit it.  However you don't HAVE to have $20k in Snap-0n tools to do most maintenance work.  You do need the stuff that fits your basic fasteners; usually box-end/open wrenches, short and long; metric/SAE sockets, shallow and deep, 3/8" drive, and maybe 1/2" drive; and yeah, 1/4" as well.  20 years ago, I would have laughed and said stay away from Harbor Freight/Princess Auto.  These days, they have upped their game on their better series of stuff, the Quinn and Icon lines.  Maybe not Snap-On, but pretty competitive, compared to the old days, and between 1/3rd to 1/2 the price.  Milwaukee and DeWalt are doing more with hand tools like screwdrivers, drill bits, etc. these days; Craftsman is still around, but not terribly impressive when compared to HF's Icon line.

Electrical:  It is probably good to have decent wire strippers, crimpers, a 12v test light, maybe a cheap (or really expensive) multimeter.  Sidecars have a way of forcing you to find electrical shorts and opens at inopportune times.  Usually inflicted on you by the builder.  Maybe a heat gun and a soldering iron if you want to make really nice connections and shrink sleeve them.  Extra points for an ODBII analyzer, if your bike has a port.  Reading the codes can save a lot of chasing when there is a problem.

Tires have a special place in hell...  I bought a Rabaconda tire machine for about $700, and there is no going back.  I have changed about thirty tires with it over the past couple of years, and it makes life easier.  Barring that, Motion Pro tire tools (irons) have a bead breaker that is awesome out in the sticks. 

Have swapped a tube out on the rear of my older Africa Twin, halfway up the back side of Mt. Lemmon.  The bead breaker function of those irons is handy.  You can also break a bead with your hand scissor jack that you carry as a sidecarist, though, right?  On two wheels, the MC side stand can break a bead.  Getting a tubeless bead to seat, on a wide rim, in the field, with a wimpy little compressor (no big air tank) can be interesting.  A 1.5" ratchet strap long enough to go around the circumference of the outside of the tire will squeeze the tire enough to force the beads outward to allow building up the intimal pressure to start the seating process.  Don't' be cheap on WD40, dish soap, or whatever you want to carry to help with bead seating with the afore mentioned wimpy compressor.

If your rig pulls to the right (left in those parts of the world that see things that way) at highway speed, it isn't set up right.  Lesser quality builders will just tell you that is normal.  If you want to get a couple of decent 8 ft. straight edges (I like 1" aluminum square tube, some like fluorescent light tubes), a decent tape measure, a level or a digital angle finder, and some bungee cords, you can use resources in the library here to adjust your rig's toe-in, lean out, spring preload, etc. to get the rig to drive straight at a chosen speed.  My chosen speed is about 80mph.  Others may choose higher or lower, but you can pick a speed that you want to spend time at, not fighting the rig.  If you go faster, the basic physics will force a gradual pull to the chair side, but it still should not be something you have to fight.

Suspension spring rates.  Part of the setting up of a rig is picking the right spring rates.  Few builders do this.  It can be somewhat iterative, as well.  However if you have a couple of bathroom scales that you can put a board across, under each wheel, you can add the two readings up and be pretty close to the weight on each wheel.  You can then maybe find out what spring rates are currently installed (mfg. propaganda, builder discussion, etc.), then measure loaded sag under your most typical operating scenario (camping gear? passenger? dog?) and attempt to consume 30% of the full suspension travel sitting still, with a little preload on the springs.  If it sags more, like 40%, well, probably next higher rate springs would be a good idea.  The correct spring rate can be calculated, if you know the weight on the wheel, and the ratio of wheel travel to shock travel (motion ratio.)  Or you can just give that info to one of several good suspension sellers, and they will likely match you up with the right springs.

Welding/Machining:  Unless you have a real interest in this, probably best to get to know someone that does, especially a professional that likes to build race cars.  Maybe trailers, as well.  If you do decide to go down this slippery slope; MIG (metal inert gas) is about the easiest to get good results with. You can also fuse steel with Oxy/Acetylene, stick weld, forge, and my favorite TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas.)  But do your really want to?  For machining, it is good to have a friend with a lathe and mill.  You might want to own a set of thread taps and dies, and a set of thread chasers for Metric or SAE, depending on where your rig is from.  Probably both, knowing most manufacturers.

Paint/Glasswork?  Every thing from rattle cans to flawless deep metal finishes.  It's only time and money!  This really depends on your desires and budget to achieve them.  If you have plenty of time and are a bit obsessive on surface quality/prep, painting isn't all that hard.  Finding a place to do it that doesn't have dirt, spiders, kids, pets, whatever, is a little harder.

That's enough for now...