Hello,
I'm looking to buy my first sidecar rig in 20years, had an R69S with a Ural chair.
I found the Motorvation and I kinda like the funky look but the frame is screwy. Look at the pic there is only about 1.5-2inch of ground clearance. I can't believe they designed it like this even if is a 1980 sidecar.
Can anyone shed some light on this? Is this typical? Is this a bug not a feature?
I think it must be some wonkiness in the universal hookup to the old Goldwing.
Thanks
Edward
I wish I had looked under the Coupe Royale model sidecar I saw in the shop at Motorvation several years ago. I agree, that tubular lateral frame under the sidecar does look pretty funky. I see the suspension has a shock absorber. I believe some Coupe Royales had torsion bar suspension and perhaps electric lean or trim control.
Is there a frame under the sidecar body to which the body is bolted? I've looked online for specs on the Coupe Royale, but I can't find such information.
The lower attachment hardware appears to be pretty low on the bike. Is there a sub-frame under the bike the attachments are mounted on?
I agree that the Coupe Royale is a very interesting looking sidecar, but it just wasn't practical for our situation, so I didn't spend much time evaluating it.
Hi TA, In this picture you can see there are what look like two rod ends on the body. One in the fore/aft direction and one lateral. Also there is a coil over shock forward of the hub carrier and air shock aft.
The connection to the GL1000 is directly to the frame. Not sure what a subframe would look like. But the 4 connection have brackets grabbing the frame tubes.
Edward
This more then likely predates Motovations ownership of this design. The ones they made they changed the suspension considerably. I have one concern on this set up. It has the old ball clamp type mounts for the lower mounts. The clamps on these had aluminum inserts that if any looseness at all then tended to turn to powder and fail. Other wise these sidecars worked very well. I set one of these up on a 1982 GL1100 I had put over 100K on with a different sidecar, up graded the bike for my own use and gave the 1982 GL1100I to my brother in law, mounted a coupe royale to it for his two kids to ride in.
On the bike if you do not know when the timing belts were last done I would change them out. It does bend valves should they fail. Honda Civic belts work that you can buy at the auto parts store.
Not much that can be done about the ground clearance. We can help should you wish to up grade the mounts or move the sidecar to another bike.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
I have also come across one of these with this suspension set up where the brackets that hold the hiem joints into the framing were loose and needed fixed at these are the suspension mounting points, Any movement at the wheel becomes a lot of movement as such it had alignment issues. Worth checking everything out as these were hand built about 40 years back.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
866-638-1793
Hi Jay, I don't know about Motorvation history, just going by the info plate on the sidecar. Looks to have been manufactured 4-25-81. If this is indeed how it was designed the ME (Mechanical Engineer) that designed this suspension needs to demand a refund from the University 🙂
My plan was to remove it from the 1980 GL1100(it's kinda ratty) and mount it on my 1987 GL1200. If it happens, I'll get in contact!
But if this is the actual suspension proper placement as designed, I'll pass on this cool funky sidecar since it dragged out of the owners gentle driveway and it would never make it up my gravel hill.
Edward
Ed, Motorvation Engineering, Inc. came to Sibley, IA from California. This sidecar is one of the older models and later models probably had modifications to the suspension. Mary Sontag told the story to me of wanting to move closer to where their parents lived in Minnesota, and that Sibley was offering an incentive for manufacturing companies to come there. She said her husband was a musician and somehow drifted into making sidecars.
Hi TA, Interesting story. Guess that's the problem with shade tree mechanics who are musicians by talent. So maybe no ME ever even looked at the chassis of these early builds. 🙂
Just an Update. I have settled my issues with the Coupe Royale and have bought the one that Steve was selling over in the classified pages! Steve is a great guy to work with, glad to have worked with him.
Does anyone have a pdf of the original Motorvation CR installation booklet that I could get a copy of?
I think that funky sidecar is going to look great on my 1987 Black GL1200A !
Thanks
Edward
Looking for a gullwing door 217 521 8831
