Seat placement homemade body

Welcome to the forum Al. I don't know for sure the answer to your question, so I will defer to folks around here with more experience than me. Please keep us informed of your project --- including pics if you can.

Welcome Al,

and yes, pictures or it didn't happen! 😀

Most sidecars sem to have the seat just ahead of the axle. A few have the seat back above the axle.

Lonnie

Thanks for the responses. See attached photo (if i successfully attach it....) Any ideas on vintage/model of Watsonian this frame is from? Was told it was from a Watsonian Classic but find few photo's of sidecars with that type fender in google images. Thanks a lot, Al

Most of the weight has to be inside of triangle made of bike and sidecar wheels.

i believe it is a monza classic, they still make them.

The Watsonian Monza, Monaco, Palma and Oxford models of the 1980's had that same wheel and frame configuration.
Take your choice.

Lonnie

lonnie is pretty much on target with his statements regarding various models using the same frame, watsonion in the 1960s built the single seater monza, the child adult palma, the monaco which was a cousin to a palma with an externally accessible trunk and the bullet nosed grand prix, all mounted on the "silk"chassis. on todays watsonions the designation classic appears to refer to models equiped with the style fender shown in the above photo, i notice that the wheel cover is the same style, i have on a 1971 monza. i have a book about watsonions that shows a different style in stainless steel in the mid 1980s. you probably have an older silk chassis, as lonnie said"take your choice for the model". fyi watsonion are 100 years old this year .

Thanks a lot everyone for the information. It's very helpful.
First coat of paint on the new body today. Will try to attach a photo of the roughed in body before "refinement" - doesn't show windshield. Used a piece of 1/4" plexiglass, heated it in the oven (don't tell my wife!) and bent it around an 18" pipet. Not perfect but it will suffice.
This is a "proof of concept" project as I'm building it in hopes my autistic son will ride in it. That requires a process of familiarization before it gets attached to a bike as any new activity takes time for adjustment. He's willingly sitting in it while stationary, so will next try hauling him around the yard with riding lawnmower - Now that will probably be a first in the annals of sidecar craziness! Rigged up casters on the bike side so it rolls around. Low budget operation since the keeper of the cash is reluctant to free up much for an "experiment". At any rate, I'm having fun working on it and shopping for the appropriate, inexpensive bike to attach it to - needless to say my 225 Yamaha dualsport is not the perfect match... Al 🙂

Well, sidecar body is complete! Crude but see above about the "proof of concept" concept. Next project is to connect it to bike. Here's a link to photos of Watsonian frame, homemade tub, and bike it wll be mounted to - 2009 Royal Enfield Al http://s1158.photobucket.com/albums/p606/al--470/Sidecar/

Looks pretty darn good, Al.

Lonnie

Probably a first in the annals of sidecar madness, here is photo of Jesse riding in sidecar pulled by riding lawnmower! Working at getting him used to it before connecting to bike. So far, so good.... Thought you all would get a kick out of this. Al

Jesse's first ride on the road today! 4 miles, 40mph top speed. He did it! See attached photo.

That smile looks like he's enjoying himself.

Lonnie