I'm looking for any tech information on Ultra sidecars made in La Luz, NM during the 80's. A friend has located one nearby to San Antonio, Texas and asked me for advice. I searched and came up with zip so perhaps folks here can help me at the very least by suggesting sources for information. He rides a V Star 1100 Classic. The car he's looking at needs work to the paint, the photos I have are small and don't show much detail but the car is attractive and appears to have most of the mounts and struts intact.
Any ideas out there?
Wow, I can't help you out, but that is a good looking sidecar. I really like that.
I thought the same thing! I like the lines but I suspect it'll need a lot of TLC before it's ready to roll again. If he's willing to do the work it'd be a keeper! The sun fading indicates a lot of time stored outdoors which is hard on fiberglass but a new coat of resin will strengthen the body and help restore resiliency to the glass. Sand blast every thing metal and powder coat it, new carpet, seat cover and windshield, paint to match. It's definitely a project sidecar. People have done more with less before.
The Ultra was made by Moline Sidecr [not the city, a woman's first name]. If you can find one that is in reasonable shpe it's certainly worth the effort. The build quality was very good and the tirm level was VERY high. The only fault is that they are heavy but one the right tug it's not an issue. If you buy it, I have a photocopy of their sales brochure and I'll send you a copy if you want it.
Original price [in gel coat] was $3,390.00, way back when. Full optioned it ws $3,620.00.
We sold one a while back. Nice sidecar. Well made with a lot of forthought. Torsion bar suspenion. Nice trunk and flip front. Only complaint by some was the closeness of the windscreen to the passengers head. Weight is not an issue.
The new photo makes the mounts look fairly easy to adapt to my friend's V-Star 1100 Classic as they seem similar to many that are currently on offer.
Any thoughts on that?
My friend is hesitant about buying someone else's problems and then not being able to use the car. If mounting might be made easy then he'll consider it more thoroughly after he sees the car on Sunday (18th). I told him to take lots of photos.
Claude, what do you think the difficulty level of mounting this car might be for the V Star? Is there anyone you know of in the San Antonio Texas area that might be able to help?
Originally written by Tomcat101147 on 1/16/2009 12:20 AM
The new photo makes the mounts look fairly easy to adapt to my friend's V-Star 1100 Classic as they seem similar to many that are currently on offer.
Any thoughts on that?
My friend is hesitant about buying someone else's problems and then not being able to use the car. If mounting might be made easy then he'll consider it more thoroughly after he sees the car on Sunday (18th). I told him to take lots of photos.
Claude, what do you think the difficulty level of mounting this car might be for the V Star? Is there anyone you know of in the San Antonio Texas area that might be able to help?
If I remember right the mounts were pretty straight forward and allowed quite a bit of adjustment. Maybe a little fabrication would be required but not that much.
As far as mounting a sidecar to a V Star goes they are a pretty accomodating bike to do so with. Upper rear is very easy if th eowner is willing to have a hole drilled through th elarge gusset in the bike frame to receive an eyenut. Upper front can be via a frame clamp.
We do usually build a partial subframe for th elower mounts to speread them out more. The lower rear can be placed farther back with the use of a subframe. The lower front mount can be moved forward with a subframe to clear the floorboards and all of that. If you do not want to go to the trouble of doing a partial lower subframe you can deal with the lower front mount with a simple bracket bolted to the floor board area. The lower rear can be placed forward more but we just do not care for that as much.
Possibly Lonnie will have some decent pics of mounting a sidecar to a V Star without using a subframe.
Here's a couple of V Star mounts.
Lonnie
This is looking like a very do-able project. I'll pass along the information. I gave him a thread link so he can read but I'll remind him to update. You guys are most helpful!
