first off i want to say hello. from what i can see so far this place looks pretty well organized and people seem pretty helpful. so here i am 🙂
now to the nitty gritty! i recently aquired an equa-lean. i understand parts for these things are pretty darn scarce. well i need to completely go through it because it was in a flood down in southwest texas a few years back.so far here is what i know i need.
seal and hinge between the windshield and body replaced. ( im pretty sure i have a hinge that will work)
tire
wheel bearings
maybe the seat ( not certain on that as i have yet to remove the 200ish pounds of dried rio grande mud out of it, but from what i can see the seat is in bad shape)
misc bolts ( i think everything is there but they are really rusty. flakey rust bad even)
the straps that are on the inside to hold the windscreen bubble locked in place. ( kinda look like rubber bungy cord material with bumps on the end that pop into a bracket)
good news is the frame and body appear to be in really good shape and with the price i paid for the side car, i shouldnt be hurting too bad once all the parts that need fixed are replaced.
if anyone can turn me on to a place to pick up any of these replacement parts i need ( not so much worried about the nuts and bolts as im sure i can get those from a hardware store) i would be forever in your debt. aftermarket things would be fine i just want it to work, and work safely. once i get this stuff replaced, then ill focus on mounting hardware and im sure ill have some more questions for you fine folks
edit: forgot to mention i THINK im going to be mounting this to my 1st gen vmax. havent completely made up my mind yet as i also have an electra glide but the shape of the sidecar looks like it would fit better with the vmax as far as looks go. ( not to mention there wont be any chance of having too little power for the extra wind resistance haha)
Truck supply shops have had the rubber straps and metal bracket they hook into.
Auto or boat upholsterer for redoing the seat.
Wheel/tire and bearings are basic trailer stuff.
Any bearing shop will hve needed bearings if you have a sample.
L.
What Hack'c said and
I just went thru my Velorex and replaced all the bolts 'cause they were old and crusty , I used all stainless nuts and bolts. Cheaper than chrome and easy clean
Any idea what grade bolts to look for? Dont want to buy too high grade due to brittleness but I cant see the marks on the supplied bolts due to rust.
Also, anything in particular to ask about for the tire? Speed rating is my main question since I do live in the south where it gets hot and last thing I need is poor tire blowing out due to heat with my 5 yr old in the side car....as far as I know speed rating has to do how well it deals with Heat
Scooter dealer might have a tire for you.
For high stress orimpact connections use grade 8 bolts (and nuts), otherwise grade 5 is sufficient.
L.
The Equalean's used a small trailer tire. We played around with a few of these, ended up giving one equalean we had away for free as the customer left it at our shop for several years and never came back another we left behind the shop untill some one stole it. We were never able to get the sidecars to work as well as we feel a sidecar should. We had three different mounting sytems on the 3 sidecars we had in the shop. It would apear the Equalean kept trying differnt things to get them to work correctly. Part of the issue is that the leaning mechanism is at the front of the bike while the main mass of the bike and the contact patch with the ground, the tire is at the rear of the bike. It was kind of like having a wheel barrow with 8 foot long handles, all reactions were a fraction of a second late. One shop I know of in Canada has taken the bodies and mounted them on standard non leaning frames.
I would hook it up to your bike, make it safe and try it before putting a lot of effort into recondtioning it.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
Here's a rigid mounted Equalean seen at a Sidecar Rally in Nelson, BC.
L.
You can email John Goff (jg@teleport.com). He is a Flexit (newer leaner than Equalean) sidecar owner's group (yahoo) web site owner and rode Equalean rigs before.
As other poster noted, I think you should concentrate on the motorcycle mounting and lean mechanism. John told me once he had a catastrophic failure of the leaning mechanism of the Equalean. Maybe you can use heim joints as I did with my home-built leaner instead of Equalen original hardware. I know one person who did that to his Equalean + Yamaha Venture Royal rig.
Well, thanks to john, hes given me enough info to feel comfortable with starting tear down. Decided to just go completely through it. Apparently a previous owner had an air pump added for some reason...
The pump was to adjust the suspension (Monroe air shock).
L.
I was under the impression the equaleans didnt have an onboard compressor though????
We have seen the on board air done exactly like yours so I suspect it was factory
Jay G
DMC sidecars
