I'm getting ready to order a new rear suspension for the bike and I need some advice on what to consider given the weight of the sidecar. I'm looking at the progressive 412 series and trying to decide if I need the regular or the heavy duty. Since I'm only 170, progressive said I'd never need more than the regular series even with the sidecar, but they couldn't give me a weight threshold to consider upgrading to the heavy duty shock.
Bike 1980 Yamaha XS850 Special
Chair: I've never been able to get a good answer on this but it's not too heavy, maybe 120-150 lbs unloaded? The body looks like an American Spirit, but it has a torsion suspension. There are no markings on it so maybe it's Frankenstein together from two different sidecars.
That body style with torsional suspension is probably an early CSC Companion. All of the Spirits and Eagles had swingarm/shock suspension Weight should be closer to 160#. Even the Spirits weighed 140#.
Lonnie
One nice thing about progressive suspentsions shock. They have lots of spring rates, I would go with slightly heavier then stock, you can always latter go with a heavier spring if need be. Your sidecar is most likley a California companion sidecar. The suspentsion works on a bronze bushing. This bushing wears and once worn the sidecar will not hold an alignment and you will have a bad head shake. It is a good idea to once a year or so take the suspension aprart, inspect the 5 flat springs for cracking, replace the bushing and grease every thing up really well. The springs are no longer made however people have cut down VW bettle springs. We stock the bushing as do most bearing suppliers. If your sidecar has a cast wheel you will want to inspect both ends of the cast spokes as they are known to crack and fail. If it has a wire wheel replacing tires can be interesting as the wheel is slightly larger in diameter then standard and it can be very difficult to get a tire to seat. www.bikescreen.com can still provide you with a windsheild for this sidecar. If the sidecars lower mounts are still using the 5/8 inch balls with a "tulip" over them these are known to fail, keep an eye on them or better still change them out the the current 5/8 inch hiem joint mounts. If you have the California sidecars frame clamps these early ones did not have cross bolts and are known to come apart. It is a good idea to either drill them and cross bolt them or change them out. We have the parts to update the mounts.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
