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Sort of new guy and mostly finished rig
Hi, have asked a few questions over the past few years, and with some help from members on various topics, i have arigonthe road!
The car is a Vetter Terraplane,and tne tug is a Yamaha XV920, assembled from spare parts from another project. So far my wife and dog are really liking it!
Lots of stuff done, probably more than I can remember, but here's a list off the top of my head
Tug:
chair subframe
adapted XV920R bodywork and footpeg brackets, Kaw ZG1000 rear fender
front header relocated to left side
left-only muffler to keep sound away from monkey ears
Kaw ZG1000 oil cooler with thermostat
Sea-doo fuel cutoff/selector, using one side of tank as reserve
920R forks and brakes
Leading leg adapters, larger brake rotors and GSXR 4-pot calipers
steering damper
LED conversion on everything except headlight
Relocated coils and regulator under right sidecover (Battery in sidecar)
Chair:
Re-wired, with custom relay circuit controlling all light functions from low-current signals from tug (hi beam, brake, right turn, etc)
Interior and storage compartment lighting. USB outlets, Aux 12V with small fan.
Small car battery,master cutoff, and plug-and-go float charger connection setup
Custom fiberglass work for flush mount LED DRL/Hi-beam, right marker/indicator, rear turn, tail lights
"Habenero" metalflake paint/clearcoat
fresh marine carpet and neoprene upholstery
Custom wheel hub with 2" bearings and lug pattern to match Virago brake disc mount pattern
Virago wheel machined to mount on wheel hub
Virago brake disk and caliper setup mounted to original leading-arm suspension
Custom brake master cylinder setup
Thanks. It's all period correct. Bike, fairing and sidecar are all '81 - '83. Yes, I'm using the original setup... so far, so good.
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Taming the tendency to headshake took a little bit of effort. The front forks were just too limp for sidecar duty. The excessive sag was also causing the relocated front header pipe to hit on speed s. So I upgraded using some springs I found on Amazon (!). I was able to increase spring rate from ~25 lb/in (guess at the factory springs) to 50 lb/in. Now the front has about 1 inch of sag with the rig loaded and never bottoms out. 30-weight fork oil to increase the damping to match the increased spring rate.
I decided to move the front header pipe back over to the right side. To avoid interference with the sidecar attach subframe, I redesigned the subframe using a large, heavy-walled DOM tube for structural purposes with the exhaust running in a thin-wall tube inside. It worked out really well.
The final fix for the remaining headshake was adding a better steering damper. I used the VW bug damper, thanks to info found here at USCA. Now handling and stability are stellar. The front header is not hanging in harm's way, and the look is cleaner.
Here is the subframe in progress
Completed
Steering Damper
Happy dog
Well, 8 months and a few thousand miles later, The rig is serving well. I had to re-do the caliper mounts on the leading leg adapters after one broke.
Other than that, no problems. Tire wear seems minimal. Weirdly, I have felt no need to adjust the twist grip trim, from putzing around at 20 MPH
up to dicing with rush hour traffic on I-635 at 75 MPH. The GSXR front brakes and re-purposed Virago brake on the hack have proven powerful enough in all situations.
Best of all, the dog seems to really enjoy riding in it.
