Hi Guys I might start out with a quick intro. My name is Gav and I live in Melbourne Australia. I have been a motorcycle enthusiast since I was a kid and been pretty close to a daily rider, commuter, tourer and before I had kids a Moto trials enthusiast. I have always ridden a Solo Motorcycle to date and the thought of riding a Sidecar seemed a nice idea but not for me. Well that was until one day I met an eccentric Moto Guzzi riding Englishman out on the road and the family caught sight of his awesome Outfit.
Since that chance meeting on the road I become good mates with Guzzi Mark and had the opportunity to take his Outfit for several rides and I am actually lucky enough to be looking after it for him while he is on holiday
🙂 I now want and NEED an Outfit of my very own, which is where I might need a bit of help from you guys and girls.
My current daily rider tourer is my beloved 1970 350 Bullet. Now under normal circumstances I would think it is a bad idea to attach Sidecar to a 350 Bullet but mine has been a long-term project and has had a lot of work improving horsepower torque and most importantly reliability.
My thought at this stage is to copy the chassis on the globe sidecar attached to the Guzzi as it is in my shed and seems a fairly common attachment to the Bullet.
My first couple of questions are what do you guys think??? I am a confident enough fabricator and the Globe chassis is not overly complex. The only part I can see any difficulty fabricating will be the rubber cone suspension as I am not really sure where to source such a part. Is the swing arm and rubber suspension part available as a spare part anywhere??
Thanks in advance for any input. I am looking forward to getting in the shed and making a mess. I hope you guys don't get annoyed with all the Noob questions.
Welcome Gav. The young fellow in the sidecar sure looks like he'd enjoy a ride! I/m deferring to folks with more experience than I to address your technical questions.
Lee
MB5+TW200+CRF250L+GTV300+INT650
XL883R w/Texas Ranger Sidecar
Zuma 50F + Burgman w/Texas Sidecar<Mrs. SwampFox
Hello Gav, Ditto what SwampFox said. I suspect Jay at DMC would be a great source of information for you as well as being able to supply most if not all the parts you might need. He and the other riggers listed here on the www.sidecar.com site are always willing to help in any way they can. Good luck to you!!
Welcome to the forum. By the first picture looks like miles of smiles.
Gav, You have taken care for Your Indian Lady for such a long time. In my eyes, as somebody who just shot his Jawa 350 engine a few month ago, it would be a shame to kill the Bullet. As You tell, she will be good for a lot of miles and smiles more as a solo bike, but she would suffer too much for sidecar pulling. A rig has the aerodinamics of an open parachute. So as stronger the bike is as better.
For a sidecar I am convinced. Never again aircooled 2 stroker (my rigs were/are 250MZ and 350Jawa) but a watercooled 4 stroker with as many gears as possible. The new engine for my Jawa will become a watercooled 450 Husquarna out of a motocross bike with 48hp and 6 gears. Yesterday I just checked out if all parts are together before the engine gets reassembled.(as usual in the shop they lost a few bits).
Sven from Costa Rica
Thanks for the welcome guys!
Sven I think you may well be right. Just about every body I have spoken to has a very similar oppinion about putting a hack on my old 350 Bullet. But I have a plan........ The plan at this stage is to build a hack for the poor old 350 Bullet and concentrate on getting it handle and brake well and then worry about getting the power to an appropriate level.
The great part about the old Bullets is that the same basic design has been flogged all over the world for the last 60 years. Over the last few years I have been collecting a few bits here and a few bits there and I am not far off being able to make my motor 612cc. I also have the option of chasing an English twin engine 700cc plus that will bolt straight into my frame.
Tomorrow morning I am going to pick up some steel and am going to start having a play. Stay posted for a few pics and all the silly questions to beging!!
Gavin, the idea of an update to the twin is good. Oilcooling would have the same effect as watercooling. That is the good thing about the old english design that you have an external oil tank so you can install a temperature regulation either by a proportional deviation valve or an aditional electric recirculation oil pump acourding to the engine temperature.
Do the frame and breaks support the surplus power?
Sven
Welcome Gav , I have a few friends on Facebook in Australia, don't remember the towns right now. These guys love answering questions on here so dont't be afraid to ask. And my grandson loves to ride 6000 miles in just over a year and a 6 day road trip of 1350 miles this past september. Can't wait to see yer rig progress.
WVsporty I think your grandson might have a little bit more patience than my young bloke (he is only 4 so it will come).
As it stands at the moment I have a few lengths of 30mm x 30mm RHS with a wall thickness of 4mm (I will let you clever people do the imperial conversion 😉 ) sitting on my shed floor. I bought this stuff as my practice material and while shopping around fro it I was also able to find a great steel merchant who is not far from where I work. I plan on making the base frame out of this material. I have also found a supplier of rubber torsion axels and I plan on going to visit him during the week so I can have a bit of a chat on what he has available to suit my purpose.
I have made a quick sketch of what I am aiming to end up with. I have also added a few pics of where I am thinking of making the mounts for the hack. I would love a bit of input into this as Iam really only guessing they will be appropriate.
Here are the pics of the potential mounting points. They were a bit big and didn't attach the first time.
My grandson started riding at 2 years and 4 months. the above picture was taken Septmber 16 2012 in Maggie Valley NC at the Wheels Through Time Motorcycle Museum we left the day before , he was 3.5 years old
your using 1 1/4" square tube 1/4" thick wall and that much of it in your picture. Might be a little heavy for a 350 Bullet. here is what a Velorex fram look like. It's light weight but I have seen many on here and I have tortured mine with my Sporty and the grandson loves riding the Twisties in it.
Welcome to the forum Gav!
Another advantage to a frame design like Doug's (WVSporty) pic shows is that, if you keep the frame and the tub as seperate units, than you can swap out the tub for different modules. Say a flatbed with staked sides to haul camping kit or a rail with wheel chock for transporting a solo bike (think dirt bike or a roller being repaired). I've had the thought of building a wheelchair-capable tub so that I can give rides to those who otherwise can't strattle a bike.
That is definitely some good advice about keeping the frame and body as separate units. Sporty thanks for the pic of the velorex frame. Hopefully this weekend I can make some progress on the frame and then start thinking about a body build.
If any body has any links with any info on home built sidecar bodies I would love see them.
Oh, and for your lower mounts, it's critical that the lower mounts are on the same plane above the ground. Think of the hinges of a door. If the hinges are not properly alligned, then the door will slope up or down as you open and close the door. Similar thing with a sidecar. If the lowers are not at the same hight above the ground, then when you adjust your lean, your sidecar will twist, throwing off your tow-in.
