Scott. I just received a text from someone using the name Princess Wiggle Butt's, and she wants to know why she can't go for a sidecar ride in the rain ???
Two Million Mile Rider
Exploring the World in Comfort
I've been wondering the same thing for the past year. 🤔Scott. I just received a text from someone using the name Princess Wiggle Butt's, and she wants to know why she can't go for a sidecar ride in the rain ???
Evidently Royal dogs of Scottish descent require a dry and protected perch on rainy days, where they can view the grounds in warm, dry comfort. 😉
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
Quite excited to see how this rig pans out.
I'm thinking it will be a sweet ride.
The concept of solo optional is not to my understating a practical viability.
Once the wiggle butted one lays claim to her ride you can take your proper role as chauffeur.
Test ride #2 in the books. Happy with the progress. 42 miles to get a good overall feel and see if this is worth the effort (spoiler alert... it is! 🤩).
Back country roads that wind around, up and over the benches. Elevation between 5,000' and 7,000' asl. Speeds up to 65mph (max speed limit in this area). A couple of 8% grades.
Some emergency maneuvers, and testing what it takes to lift the sidecar wheel at a school parking lot on the route.
After the ride yesterday the rig went back on the "alignment rack".
- Reset the sidecar wheel height from 1-1/2" above bike tires, to a more reasonable 3/4".
- Adjusted toe-in via the lower suspension links to get a better alignment with the fender.
- Leveled the lateral angle of the sidecar (it was leaning in towards the bike).
- Adjusted Toe-in via the bottom struts
- Reset wheel lead to 7-1/4" to lighten the steering feel a bit.
Handling is "sporty". The steep rake of the Speed 400, with the short wheel base, and fairly short rear swing arm makes for a quick turning bike. The 4.02" of trail provide good stability at speed.
Power is "sporty" as well. Mostly due to the gearing, which is very short in the first three gears. One mod that was made previously is changing from a 15T front sprocket to a 16T. This spreads the gears, and feels very good with the sidecar (still too short as a stand alone bike though).
Bike responds well when kept in the 6,200 rpm - 8,500 rpm range. No problems pulling the 8% grade at 60mph. Would slowly accelerate above that speed if kept in 5th gear.
I'm pleasantly surprised. It is a better performer than expected. Very solid link between the sidecar and bike.
While a dedicated subframe would be a godsend for ease of setup, the cheat using the engine guard is surprising stout.
So it's a keeper, and I'll start work on completing the sidecar to match this bike. 
Some outdoors pictures.
Matched the hood line with the rake of the bike. This will help when matching the paint lines between the bike and sidecar.
Ground clearance.
Tire wear slightly inset. Added a bit of lean out to the bike after returning to the spyder's den.
Still to do is adjust the sidecar tire camber.
Spyder Monkey wanting to know what "victim" means...
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High desert fall colors showing up.
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@scott-h Hey Scott, really nice to see this rig coming together! Looks like it has FUN written all over it!
Here is what i have been wasting some rather limited (lately) free time on. A "free" Yamaha 2008 Yamaha FZ6.
A good friend gave it to me, when his BIL offered to let him haul it off, 6 years after it tried to kill him in LA traffic with a wheel lock up at 70 mph in the left lane.
Rumor had it that the engine/transmission was seized, and it was a parts bike. Sat near a warehouse, under a tarp for 6 years.
Free bikes are a lot like free puppies... the fun began with figuring out why it wanted to kill its prior owner. Much therapy was required!
Turns out the front brakes had developed a nasty habit of locking up at highway speed due to dragging seals and a plugged up port in rhe master cylinder that didn't allow pressure that built up to bleed off.
Once rolling, found a few issues with fork seals and a blown pressure regulator in the FI system, but all fixed now.
It's current mission is lane splitting on a 26 mile daily commute with several long stop lights. Knocks 30 min off a 1 hour commute, each way.
Thinking that a really light HP sidecar might be fun, in it's future, but still mulling that around. It is a lot of fun to rip around on as a solo bike. 100 hp, 450 lbs wet. R6 4 cyl engine, but set up as a sport tourer vs track bike. 14k redline.
Scott's jigger is a fun jigger.
100hp 14k rpm would be a frenetic fun jigger.
Not a different page of the same book or even chapter.
Different book altogether.
Start writing.
@scott-h Hey Scott, really nice to see this rig coming together! Looks like it has FUN written all over it!
Here is what i have been wasting some rather limited (lately) free time on. A "free" Yamaha 2008 Yamaha FZ6.
A good friend gave it to me, when his BIL offered to let him haul it off, 6 years after it tried to kill him in LA traffic with a wheel lock up at 70 mph in the left lane.
Rumor had it that the engine/transmission was seized, and it was a parts bike. Sat near a warehouse, under a tarp for 6 years.
Free bikes are a lot like free puppies... the fun began with figuring out why it wanted to kill its prior owner. Much therapy was required!
Turns out the front brakes had developed a nasty habit of locking up at highway speed due to dragging seals and a plugged up port in rhe master cylinder that didn't allow pressure that built up to bleed off.
Once rolling, found a few issues with fork seals and a blown pressure regulator in the FI system, but all fixed now.
It's current mission is lane splitting on a 26 mile daily commute with several long stop lights. Knocks 30 min off a 1 hour commute, each way.
Thinking that a really light HP sidecar might be fun, in it's future, but still mulling that around. It is a lot of fun to rip around on as a solo bike. 100 hp, 450 lbs wet. R6 4 cyl engine, but set up as a sport tourer vs track bike. 14k redline.
Wow! 🤩 The FZ6 is an awesome bike.
Something to ponder. I specifically built Speedy & the Spyder so that the Spyder could stay in it's web, while Speedy and I have two wheeled fun. I'm betting you could design something even better for the FZ6. Like the Speed 400, the FZ6 has a steep rake, even less trail and a short chassis. So it's a good one to work with without the need to modify the bikes geometry. 😎
Speedy is as simple as removing the two upper clevis bolts, two lower Joint bolts and two electrical plugs mounted on the bike. Cleaning up the appearance is a matter of removing four bolts on the front lower bracket. Everything else is pretty discreet.
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
100 miles later, averaged 53 mpg. Other than goofing off in the school parking lot, the rest of the mileage was pretty average for around here. Same basic loop SYZ averages around 37 mpg depending on the winds. Today was fairly mild wind wise.
SYZ is to a Jeep Rubicon what Speedy & the Spyder (S&S) is to a Mazda Miata. Horses for courses. 😎
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
Trying to figure out what connectors the Indian mfgs use can be exhausting. Ran into the same issue on the old KTM 390 built by Bajaj. Now it's round 2 with this Triumph.
The goal is a break out harness for Brake, Running, Right Turn, that plugs into the existing harness connectors. Along with searching through all the regular suppliers (Eastern Beaver, Cycle Terminal, Kojycat, etc.), I've even run through all the automotive suppliers I've used in the past.
Harness is made by a company in India called Dhoot Transmission Pvt limited. It's like they make their own connectors, which makes no sense. In this case the connectors are very similar to a Sumitomo MT090 connector. But just different enough that an MT090 won't work.
4 pin connector for Running/Turn signals:
Brake lamp connector:
You can see how the locator tab is just a bit different. There is a company that specializes in finding connectors. If I can't figure this out by c.o.b. tomorrow, I'll contact them. If that fails I'll get a job with Dhoot making harnesses for the Speed 400, and sneak out with what I need. 🤣
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
Cue Johnny Cash: “I did it one piece at a time…”
Illegitemi non carborundum est!
May have found the manufacturer of the electrical connectors. Ultra Wiring Systems in India.
I'm guessing the connectors I'm looking for are in their C-90 series. Bad news is, I can't find any retailers.
Sent them an email to see. Very doubtful I will get a response. So I'll wait until Monday, then go a different direction to create the harness needed. Just in case, keep paws crossed please.
Worst case, I'll hire Angelina Joli to break in and heist a bag of each... Or maybe Tom Cruise. He could ride a Himalayan through the plant gathering all the pieces needed. Or maybe Liam Neeson, all though that might get a bit messy.
Connector repair kits for dealer/retail customers is a bit of a sore subject with me.
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
Weighed the rig today using scales under the front wheel, rear wheel and sidecar wheel.
These are the Amazon Postal scales. According to the booklet, they are accurate to + or - 9 ounces.
The three scales were off each other by 2 ounces with an approximate 26 lbs weight. Two scales read the same, one scale was off 2 ounces. That's reasonable.
Fully fueled, sidecar empty.
- Front tire = 216 lbs 12 ounces.
- rear tire = 240 lbs even.
- sidecar tire = 120 lbs 12 ounces.
With 52 lbs ballast under the sidecar seat (How it feels stable to ride fast winding roads).
- Front tire = 216 lbs 12 ounces.
- Rear tire = 257 lbs 6 ounces.
- Sidecar tire = 154 lbs 10 ounces.
Give or take a couple pounds this is pretty much as expected. Bike is purported to weight 385 lbs, and the sidecar at 190 lbs. Attaching the sidecar to the bike increased the bike weight approximate 75 lbs. Plenty of room for rider weight.
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
I've had this idea to build a rig that would travel easily in a smaller Toy Hauler travel trailer. Something smaller, lighter and "zippy". With enough oomph to run 65-ish through the mountain roads, while not being afraid of gentle forest service roads.
Was able to pick up a smoking good deal on a '79 Motorvation Spyder T1, and an almost new Triumph Speed 400. The Spyder is a restoration from a member on ADVRider. Here is the thread where he did all the great work: https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/salvaged-spyder-of-neglect.1663561/ Really excited to pick this up. 🤩
Not sure how this will work out. Please keep your paws crossed for success. The bike is small, and the Spyder is about the max weight and size. But if it does the pairing should look pretty great. Proper design for the setup will be critical. The subframe is going to take some real thought as the Triumph uses a hybrid chassis.
The enticement for the bike is all the reviewers stating it is "... under-geared, with great mid range power." Also the reviewers like the quick easy turn in with the 17" wheels. The sidecar was a choice between this Spyder or a California Friendship 1. The CF-1 is about 40lbs lighter, and may have been an easier mating. But the Spyder is sexy, with the link suspension and a slightly smaller body that matches the size off the bike better.
There is a whole lot that has to be done to both, and the goal is to be done by next spring.
Info on the Motorvation Sidecar company including the Spyder T1: https://florida-sidecar-products.com/pages/motorvation-sidecar-history
Thought this was a pretty balanced review of the bike:
That is exactly why I built this !
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