Broken DMC Frame Problems - Maybe Check Yours • Broken DMC Frame Problems - Maybe Check Yours • USCA Sidecar Forum • United Sidecar Association %

#1 · January 22, 2023, 2:13 am

Here are a few photos taken this evening of the multiple breaks I found in the frame of my DMC Expedition sidecar, delivered on September 7th, 2022. I found these during my inspection, while diagnosing another design problem with the hack wheel shock system.

It is the "Extreme Duty" option with double wall tubing and a "reinforced" shock tower assembly. It is attached to a Honda Africa Twin, and has just under 8,300 miles, mostly highway back and forth from Arizona to PNW to get other problems fixed. It has been on some gravel/rocky roads, but never off-road.

This thread is not started to bash the defunct DMC. There are plenty of others for that purpose on other sites.

I do think if you have taken delivery of something that came out of their frame shop in the past year, you better take a look at the welds around the shock tower support. The pictures are self explanatory:

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Cheers, Dane AKA "Ben Franklin" on Adventure Riders Forums Why not?

#2 · January 22, 2023, 9:42 am

Dane....aka...Ben Franklin...may I suggest that you give your 4 month old sidecar rig a full and complete bath, so that pictures can be taken and shown to your insurance company, and they (and we) could then clearly see the damage done with the cracked frames ?

If I remember correctly, your bike is a 2021 Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports w/DCT, and the DMC Expedition sidecar with the extreme-duty frame, that DMC took 10 or 11 months to build...from beginning to when they handed it off to you....is that correct?

Possibly an insurance write-off ?

Any chance that Texas Sidecars (now that they have bought out DMC sidecars) could/would remedy these frame issues for you, under warranty?

I see the point of your post above....as a polite warning or suggestion to others that may have received a sidecar rig from that same company, that they too should carefully inspect the framework and welding of their sidecar, to be certain that it is safe to continue operation.

From what I see in your pictures, it is clear that it is no longer safe to operate your sidecar rig. What a shame, as I know you were enjoying it.

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Two Million Miles, and All 7 Continents

#3 · January 22, 2023, 3:21 pm

Yes, a polite warning to others with frames from the same manufacturer, especially from the same time frame.

Yes, 2021 Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sport, purchased new for the build.

Yes, I was enjoying it, in between fixing failures. However it is definitely not in a safe to operate state, now.

I am exploring options with TSC, and thinking about next steps.

Overall, just pretty disgusted with the experience.

Will clean it up and take more pictures with better lighting when I feel like looking at it again. I mostly felt done with it, when I discovered all the broken welds, last night, while looking at it to figure out how to fix the fact that the shock is leaning back so much that when the swing arm travels up, the spring collar at the base of the shock hard bottoms on the swingarm after 29mm of shock travel from full extension to hard impact.

Basically, the whole project has been the waste of a perfectly good, new motorcycle.

This was the problem I was working on, just prior to discovering the broken frame:

The shock was actually canted back, so the lower spring collar served as the hard stop, when it hit the swingarm. This put enough sideload on a new Ohlins shock to blow the shock out.

This very crude, not to scale sketch, shows that it was delivered with a 6.5 to 1 ratio of shock compression to wheel travel, with the shock leaning backwards to create a negative progression, or an actual regression in spring force to compress the shock spring. I had hoped to fix this by figuring out a remount position for the lower shock and building new rockers for the tilt mechanism that would have moved the top shock mount slightly forward of the bottom shock mount. No use, working on that, now.

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Cheers, Dane AKA "Ben Franklin" on Adventure Riders Forums Why not?

#4 · January 23, 2023, 7:05 pm

Been following along with this never ending series of fails. I think it would try any ones patience to pursue all the fixes that have been needed on this brand new rig. It could be such an awesome rig and it should be. Take a break, find that craftsman that can take it there for you and it will be.

Just hope some of the others that were just done there don't have the same series of issues yours has. TSC will have their work cut out for them selves just dealing with the angry phone calls. 🙁

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