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Gl1800 and CSC Friendship II SE

I'm new to the Forum and to the sidecar world. I am installing my first hack, a Friendship II  Se on a 2008 GL1800 with ABS and have 2 questions. Is there a wire or plug I can tap into on the bike to hook up the reverse light on the sidecar? The sidecar was previously on a GL1500 and I have the extra brake line and double banjo bolt that it came with. Will this work with my GL1800 the same way, connecting it up to the front caliper, or do I have to hook it up another way? I did purchase a subframe from DMC and everything else seems to be working out great.

As it is easy to get to, and easy to find just hook the wire to the main battery cable at the starter motor that energizes the starter. Ok so yes the back up light will come on every time you start the bike, so what, it does not hurt anything. As the starter is used to move the bike in reverse it will work the  back up light. Or a lot more work you could get into the wiring power one side of a relay with power off of the on off switch for the reverse. Then go to the wire that energizes the starter to complete the circuit to the relay, one would have to supply the ground which can be done with a 5 pin relay. Then have the relay energize the back up light. The advantage to this is you can also add a switch that turns on the back up light should you want some light at night for setting up camp.  I do some where have the color codes and quick drawing I did the last time we did it this way however as you can see it is a lot easier to just live with the back up lights coming on every time the starter runs. If with this set up you still want a switch to be able to turn on the back up light just for lighting. You can do so with a switch providing power to the light however you will need to put a diode in the line back to the starter motor other wise you would be trying to energize the starter motor with the tiny wire that the light needs. A diode is in essence a one direction valve. And always remember when doing wiring," Resistance is futile."

On the brake hook up, the only real issue is that the GL1500 the banjo bolt comes off the end while on the GL1800 it comes off the side. If you do not have a quick disconnect coupler in the line this will be an issue as the fitting will be twisted 90 degree's. If you have a quick disconnect it acts in essence as a union would making this a non issue.

BTW as people will be reading these posts years from now,  if going the other way, hooking to a GL1500 going to the front brake is an issue. Not enough capacity on the master on the GL1500. The fix use to be to rebuild the master boring it out to 5/8 inch, relocating the internal bleed back hole to the reservoir by sealing the original with JB weld then drilling a new hole and use a pre linked brake GL1100 rebuild kit. Or  now you could go with a GL1800 master. Color is different and banjo bolt location is different so you might need a new brake hose on the bike. Or the way we now do it is to hook the brake on the GL1500 to the rear. The reason in the past this was not done is the rear master is a real pain to get to, could take the better part of a day to do so. So we skip the master and hook the brake up to the rear brake caliper, easy to get to, just remove the saddle bag. Pressure is pressure, does not matter which end of the hose it comes from. No idea why in the past this was not done instead of the master rebuilding. It works fine.

Jay G

DMC sidecars

866-638-1793

http://www.dmcsidecars.com

Hours Monday - Thursday 6-4:30

Big Tom has reacted to this post.
Big Tom
Jay G DMC sidecars www.dmcsidecars.com 15616 Carbonado South Prairie RD Buckley WA 98321 866-638-1793 Hours Monday - Thursday 6-4:30

Thanks Jay for the help! I was able to hook up the reverse light to the starter solenoid and it works great. I'm still working on the brakes, I do have the line with the quick disconnect so this will be next.  On the other side of things, the subframe you guys made worked out extremely well. Over the past few days I've been adjusting and testing and adjusting and testing... I finally have the settings at a point where I've minimized the low speed wobble and I'm having some fun re-learning to ride. It seems to handle like a sports car on the turns. I need to tighten up the head bearing on the bike to spec, so I've ordered the socket. I also would like to replace my tires, when my front tire gets worn I tend to get a slight deceleration wobble and its at that point. So Can you recommend what the best tires would be for my rig with out making any modifications to the bike? I've read that a car tire works good on the back. It's been an interesting and fun project so far!

Guys, it always pleases me to hear/read about how some hint/instruction on a public panel helped someone out, like in this case.

What makes me worried though is, that David's tug machine is a GL1800 with ABS, and apparently he is interfering with the ABS at this point, plugging in an additional device into a (hydraulic) circuitry which wasn't designed for that. It's a matter of additional volume of brake hoses, brake calipers, as well as a "softening" of the overall elasticity of the brake hoses as such, as "seen" from the ABS control unit, due to the new, and unplanned for(!) parallel connection of brake hoses.

An ABS is a delicate feedback loop mechanism, where the information from the rotational sensors of front and rear wheel are constantly monitored for diverging information, i.e. whether one wheel is blocking or not. If so, the respective (blocking) brake caliper has its pressure released and re-established at short intervals, so as to keep at least some rotation (and associated sideways traction) still available.

This kind of modification is definitely not for the faint-at-heart. But keep in mind: not being faint-at-heart makes you neither invincible, nor invulnerable.

For various reasons from my limited experience on three wheels, as well as my very profound experience on two wheels, I would prefer the sidecar brake to be connected to the tug machine's rear wheel brake. Among those reasons is the predominant inportance of the front brake, due to dynamic load shifting from rear to front. With the front brake contributing up to 80% or more of the total brake performance in emergency situations. Personally, I'd rather tolerate some degradation of the rear brake performance, than of the front brake performance.

I advise some serious brake tests off of public roads, at various (increasing) speeds, up to the point where the ABS kicks in. To verify, the ABS is still operational after your modifications.

 

CCjon has reacted to this post.
CCjon

Speaking of attaching a sidecar brake: this is the Russian way 😎

My Ural does not have an ABS. But it has three dedicated master brake cylinders for front, rear and side wheel. The brake pedal action is mechanically(!) coupled/transmitted to the sidecar master brake cylinder. Each master brake cylinder has a dedicated brake fluid reservoir, too. So no interference with an existing ABS required.