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What Did You Do With Your Sidecar Today?

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Thank you, I took the generator off and blew it out with air. It wasn't too dirty. Now I'm having a hard time getting the brushes back on. Not sure how to spread them enough to slip over the bearing and armature.

SidehackRalf - 10/10/2015 8:53 PM

Thank you, I took the generator off and blew it out with air. It wasn't too dirty. Now I'm having a hard time getting the brushes back on. Not sure how to spread them enough to slip over the bearing and armature.

What year is your Sportsman? Ural upgraded to an automotive alternator in the early 2000's, as the former Russian made generator was notorious for seizing up without warning and taking out the timing gears and top ends with it. You may want to do the retrofit, it will be MUCH cheaper in the long run.

It's a 98. It's a starter-generator. If I goto a alternator, what about starting?

Today I threw caution to the wind and took Barb and the rig on a ride to check out fall colors and hit our favorite ice cream shop. She went reluctantly because of the latest mechanical glitch: and oil leak. But the lure of Ice Cream won out over her fear of being stranded by a breakdown. It turned out to be nearly 80 F, sunny, a little breezy, but otherwise perfect. The ice cream was superb. And now I can tell the oil is coming from the front of the drive shaft tube/flex boot. (Output shaft Seal?) Oh well, I have all winter.
Jim

2014 CB1100 Std, 2000 ST1100 with DMC Classic, 1981 CB650C

I'm an early riser, wife and son are usually late ones, but son (7 y.o.) came into the living room at 0530 (Sunday) and said 'Pop, Mom's awake, why don't we go for a ride?"

Didn't need to ask me twice! 🙂

Pre-op checks, geared up, and on the road at 0600, destination the far east corner of the island.

To put this into perspective on a 22 mile long island, the 'crow flies' round trip distance to Onenoa is 26 miles. Per the odometer it was a bit double that, and with all of the twisties, took 2.25 hours of travel time. Beat all of people headed to church, so the only impediment to speed was the road and my abilities (I'll push the envelop trying to learn by myself, but not with them).

Day's are getting longer and hotter as summer is coming on, but leaving early meant also missing the heat. Trades are still up though, which can be a bit disconcerting coming around a sheltered bend, then get hit with a 20 knot blast. Only was rained on once, and then not for very long (for all intents and purposes, it rains every day of the year here, only varies in just how much rain comes down). No whales sighted (they migrate right along shore).

Got home, brewed a fresh pot of joe, then had a bang-up brekkie with the first mango's of the season.

All in all, life is good! 🙂

Still winter(rainy season) had to visit the brewery where I checked a weathered steam installation when I got my own rain storm from above...On the way home it was that dark (still during day time) and wet I couldn't even see the washed open rain and sewage drain tops, luckily didn't drop into any of them (there use to be 3 open). Stopped at a small Aunt Emma groceries run by a Harley rider. Surprise: the first time in my life I saw Russian Baltika beer (no. 7 in 1Liter tins)
Obviously had to taste it and the whole family says it tastes good.
Now some work. dry the air filter, drain the carbs and let's see what the new day in supposed to be Paradize brings.
Sven

Finally got to go for a real first ride.
It's been a frustrating time to finally get on the road.

Bought a well sorted out R1200RT with a Hannigan, but had trouble with the Servo Assisted ABS brake system from the get go.
After several complicated system bleeds, finally confirmed that the module had failed. It's about a $4k ouch if dealer replaces.
In the end decided to do the ABSectomy.
Had to remove the module, which requires removal of all tupperware, tank, ....... Replumb both front and rear, a new hose, bleed system. Great brakes now.
Still more work to go
Since the speedo and brake light circuits go through the Servo Module, means taking that apart to get to the pc board with the plug and circuits. Then fabricating a waterproof cover and mounting. Woo Hoo now have speedo working.
But the dash warning lights still think the ABS isn't working so it flashes big red "brake failure" warning. Not something that is easily explained at a safety inspection.
That means pulling windscreen mirrors, dash, and finally instrument cluster to get to the lights. They're surface mount LEDs, so had to block them rather than just pulling bulbs or disconnecting wires. Reverse order gets everything back together.

Finally off to enhanced safety inspection so can get title changed, new plate and I was ready to go.

So that's what i did with my sidecar today, last week, and the week before that and the two weeks before that.

Great news is that I finally got out on the road.
Did some neighborhood laps and a little parking lot exercises.

Think we are really going to enjoy the bike and sidecar.
Dave

Congratulations Dave, I admire your skill and determination. How can BMW justify $4k to replace an ABS module!

Happy hacking,

Sid

ABSectomy,, I love it Wow I have to wonder as well how can you justify 4K for just the ABS module replacement

USCA # 8913

Welcome in third wheel's world, Dave.

After some small "crash" in september (stupid offroad shortcut to home) I had to rebuild my hack. So I rebuilt, tuned and restored it:

Details here: http://sidecar.com/mbbs22/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=13908

Looking GOOD!!!

c64club, my first impression was, John Deere makes a sidecar rig? Looks good to me. I spent all day yesterday on a John Deere 4450 chopping corn stalks.

In real, the green is just JD green, thanks, no better description for this color. It could be nice to paint some elements yellow.

I would add duct tape to the list.
Yesterday, I synced carburetors on my '99 Valkyrie. It was an easy task using the Digi Sync tool (www.thedigisync.com). The unit is an electronic marvel. I am hoping to improve mileage just a bit and allow the engine to work at its best. Today I'll do some local riding, run errands while checking out my handy work. It is getting colder in the Catskills.

Since selling my last rig to Tom Wells since it was too much for me to handle, the only sidecar rigs in the shop have belonged to clients.
Judy has only had a few sidecar rides since last May as monkey on test runs.
A few weeks ago she said she missed having a Harley rig of ours in the shop and maybe we should try to set up another that we could use for short hops like our traditional Sunday morning breakfast runs.
Since the cold weather is impending and I no longer have any tolerance to cold anymore, I suggested waiting till spring and if my medical condition hadn't declined by then we could shop for a likely candidate for a tug that I could handle OK.

Long story short:
An hour later I was perusing the Harley ads on Craigslist and found a low mileage 2011 Harley 1200 Nightster that was only one mile away. We checked it out, Judy liked the look of the bike and the loud pipes and we bought it. The owner rode it to the shop since I can't handle a solo bike anymore.
We had a new unsold 563 Tour Velorex in the shop so Judy's brother handled the heavy lifting and we mounted it to the Nightster.
I added a windshield and some decent grips, took a bunch of pix and it started to rain, so no test run that day.
The next day I looked at the pix and wasn't satisfied with the attitude of the sidecar. It was about 2" down at the nose so I dismounted it, fabricated a new front mount and remounted and aligned it and it looked skookum with the sidecar level. And it matched the bike well.
Took it for a couple mile test run, it ran out well, then Judy got her first ride in her new Harley sidehack rig.
Mum's a happy camper now, I just hope we will be able to get some use out of it next spring.

Lonnie

Attached files

Judy and Lonnie,
Really good news, Glad to hear you are on wheels again. To know that you were without any tub, was an idea I could not feel comfortable with. At least to give it a small pet once in a while, when it will be too cold outside, will be a small mood rising thing.
https://youtu.be/teJfuKdzbOo

Remember you live now and must do things "in life".

For the rest: Tell yourself every 15 minutes:
"I want to live!
I want to live!
I want to live!"

For sure it is the best medicine I have ever heard of and have seen astonishing results.
Including me myself.
Best wishes from the one who was born on "All Souls" in the year Mr JF Kennedy declared himself to come from my birth town.
Sven

Good news are always good. I still can ride a solo bike when i have "better day", but I can understand the lack of hack, and the happiness coming from having a tug back. Big hug for you.

That is a nice looking rig. I'll be watching for more comment on how it works out for you.

Today my rig "celebrates" fourth anniversary of first ride as 3-wheeler. Since then it changed its look few times, but it's still the same bike.

Congratulations Lonnie and Judy!! Here's hoping you get to put lots of miles on it next spring if not a few yet this year. And, as always, wishing you the best health-wise... I've put just over 4,000 on the FX since riding it away from your place. And I managed to put a bunch on the FL as well this summer. Life is good!!

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