Hi, I am attempting to hook a New Old Stock Bingham Mk 1 sidecar to my Honda FT500, 1982, cafe racer. I developed a bad right knee to go with my defective left leg from the knee down and no longer feel confident riding the Honda on 2 wheels. It took a while to find a small light chair to hook up.
And now for the problem.
I have both upper mounts in good spots and fairly secure but the lower mounts are the problem. The bike uses the motor as a frame section and the front down tube comes down and bolts to the motor at what you can all a motor mount and the back of the motor attaches near the swing-arm. A friend helped me and he has welding equipment and fabricated a section from the foot peg attaching bolt up to where the rear foot peg was bolted, that should provide a spot for the rear lower mount to attach to an eye bolt. The front is a bit weird. I was thinking of running a flat stock down from the mounting bolts to just under the sump and welding a piece going back to about where the motor ends and getting that attached to the center stand mounting bolts or holes. I would run a piece of metal from the front "vertical" extension to part way back on the horizontal part to strengthen it and there would be an area along there where the other eye bolt could go. I would fabricate a couple of clevis ends to a threaded rod to attach the eye bolts. I think all the hardware needed for the short struts is available at McMaster-Carr.
I would appreciate any input on this setup and any info from anyone who has attached an FT500 Thumper to a chair
Many moons ago I had the same bike {in red} with a Velorex sidecar. I was working in a fab shop at the time, and made a complete sub frame for it. ( over kill for that bike ) but I was hauling around my kids. So safety first. I came off the foot pegs and ran down tubes from the front engine mount. The rear top mount was hooked to the shock mount. What your picture shows will work well. Have fun.
Mensch,
I'm not the ultimate expert but I'd bet that all three of those clamps are going to slip, particularly the one on the front down tube. To give it half a chance, turn it so that there is a straight line between the mounting point on the frame and the point on the sidecar frame. Any side forces are hard on frame clamps. Welding to the frame is not recommended.
You don't need a center stand any longer and that's a very strong point on the bike. Serious full conversion sidecar rigs almost always use that location. Make a bracket that ties in where the center stand used to be.
Finally, there are sidecars [particularly light ones that don't carry heavy loads] that run with three attachment points. It isn't ideal but it can work.
I'm sure we'll hear from other folks with different and maybe better ideas.
Good Luck.
Al, I was planning on turning the front clamp and changing to a straight strut and might need the angles one for one of the lower mounts. I pondered 3 mounts but still am not sure, I probably will not have much in the hack like people and stuff, maybe the dog if she will get in this one, as I have my KZ for passengers, I just want it to hold me up. Welding the frame was never in the picture, and if I tighten the clamps as much as the ones on the Kawasaki, they will not move. Thanks for the positive input.
And thank you Dave also for your input.
MotoMel
