After the advice of some of you meddling sidecar professionals I decided to get "better" mounts.
Starting with a design for another Xs850 special that dauntless made I talked to my local fabricator. He made me the following setup. I have a bunch of grade 8 bolts on the way to replace the rusted up originals and I'm getting the whole thing powder coated next week. However with no further adieu here are some pictures of where I am right now.
Front brackets
Wanted to go with something like this
but there were too many clearance problems with my exhaust
Rear Brackets otherwise known as $$$$
And here's how she looked when I wheeled her out of the shop and started taking her apart to carry the sidecar home in the car. Why didn't I ride it? Well measuring out the lean, toe in and getting everything tightened well with 30 year old rusty bolts before a ride down I95 seemed foolhardy.
It's worth it. The lower frame on there is too short to go without a subframe and the frame tubes are too fragile. Been there, Broke that! :0)
Like Mike said...get a subframe..its worth it and necessary! frame on the bike is much to small and fragile.
the mounts you have now should be coming STRAGHT off the bike..not at angles. they will be pushing on the brackets sideways. more stress for breakage.
Bob, he has a rear subframe on it. He'll be fine now. Mine had the rear upper near the seat which meant I had to remove the upper strut to use the kickstart, (which was frequently necessary!) and a homemade extension on the lower rear. Nothing but headaches. I wish I had spent the money to do it like his is done.
Alright- so the back is fine but the front needs another subframe? There's really no good place to attach one but I bet I can have a bar run from that bottom brace to the other side and up the top brace. Or something else if you all feel that is needed.
the 1/4"thick angle iron subframe on my /5 boled to the passenger peg mount, ran forward from the rear mounting bracket, attached to the 2 engine mounts bolts and continued forward a short way, with the front SC mount attached to it. at that point an extra U bolt was attached to the bike frame. this was really not necessary, because the subframe was strong enough by itself, but was added as an safety backup.
So I should have the rear subframe attached to the front mounts?
He was referring to a BMW /5 which has a very flimsy rear frame section and is not a double down tube type perimeter frame.
Support from across both downtubes will give a sturdy front lower mount and the upper strut attached to the downtube near the steering head will afford a sturdy front upper strut mount.
Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars
Originally written by Hack'n on 3/20/2008 3:16 PM
Support from across both downtubes will give a sturdy front lower mount and the upper strut attached to the downtube near the steering head will afford a sturdy front upper strut mount.
The original plan called for a bar connecting to the two front engine mounts like this one
Unfortunately it wasn't possible given the exhaust options I had available. There wasn't enough room between the headers
However, the lower mount is only 2.5 inches below a cross brace between the bike's two down tubes and 4 inches above the engine mount. Is that sufficient or should I have the fabricator weld another cross brace either right above or below the lower mount? Maybe both?
I moved the upper clamp 2 inches higher where it's directly below another cross bar between the down tubes. There isn't any place I can put it higher than that.
So is the rig as it is right now still unsafe? Unwise to use?
Everybody's situation is different, but I think you will be fine now. Have fun with it. Now that the temps are up but there's still night time freezing, I really miss my sidecar.
Originally written by Hack'n on 3/20/2008 3:16 PM
He was referring to a BMW /5 which has a very flimsy rear frame section and is not a double down tube type perimeter frame.
Support from across both downtubes will give a sturdy front lower mount and the upper strut attached to the downtube near the steering head will afford a sturdy front upper strut mount.Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars
Lonnie, my /5 DOES have a double downtube in front. as do the older BMW styles. the problem is the lower part of the front
downtube is not supported enough. as the poster mentioned ,an additional cross brace over to the left side will help a lot.
More bracing will never hurt. No sense in being concerned if it is 'good enough'.If in doubt build it stout.
Yeah- but if it's safe as is- then I save $300 which as a grad student is fairly important. I'm all for overbuilding things otherwise.
$300? my local welder will weld it uo for $20..if i give him the pipe all ready to weld.
Originally written by storysunfolding on 3/20/2008 7:22 PM
Yeah- but if it's safe as is- then I save $300 which as a grad student is fairly important. I'm all for overbuilding things otherwise.
I finally took a look at your photo album. That black 750 honda is beautiful. Is that one you put together?
You are less than 200 miles from us. Feel free to come up some time. Hope you can make the RON DEE VOO with your new rig.
