I mounted a sidecar to my BMW R 75/5 and everything works wonderful except for the fork. The original springs in the fork seem to be too weak to handle the new situation. Does anybody have a suggestion about stronger springs? Are there any other solutions to this problem? 🙁
caprauna - 4/10/2012 12:02 AM
I mounted a sidecar to my BMW R 75/5 and everything works wonderful except for the fork. The original springs in the fork seem to be too weak to handle the new situation. Does anybody have a suggestion about stronger springs? Are there any other solutions to this problem?
Hi caprauna, welcome to the offset world of sidecars. You may never be the same again.
I have no direct experience with airheads, but we encountered a similar situation with Jena's Burgman rig -- the weight of the sidecar simply overwhelmed the stock fork springs. We replaced her's with progressive wound fork springs from Ikon Suspension USA, adding a little extra spring preload as well. Dave Gardner at http://www.ikonsuspensionusa.com/servlet/StoreFront has been very helpful -- his email is: ikonusa@gmail.com
Following Lonnie's suggestion with my Sportster, I have been satisfied with increasing the preload by adding a 1" spacer in the fork tube.
Lee
MB5+TW200+CRF250L+GTV300+INT650
XL883R w/Texas Ranger Sidecar
Zuma 50F + Burgman w/Texas Sidecar<Mrs. SwampFox
Progresive brand springs are nice, On my own air head I just made up some one inch spacers out of PCV pipe to take up the sag, Not as nice as new springs but the spacers did not cost me anything.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
I agree with the above thoughts and you might also consider heavier weight fluid in the forks. I have used Progressive springs and slightly heavier weight oil.
You may want to try the spacers etc first as cost is minimal. But....due to the age of the bike you may still end up doing the springs. My own /5 was much more sagged out than I expected so we did end up doing the springs. Even at that progressive springs are not that expensive. While you are at it with the spacers etc you may want to pull out the old springs and compare the lengths. Mine were way different which surprised me but it was an indication that all was not good in the spring department 🙂
