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Ok I guess I will be chronicling my sidecar build and install.

15K views 27 replies 12 participants last post by  siouxindian 
#1 ·
Ok I have picked up the sidecar. It is supposedly a Spirit America. From the research so far it appears to be the protoype that California sidecar created the Friendship.
It is made of very thick ABS black plastic.. Can you say heavy? It has no cracks and supposedly has been being kicked around in back of garage for years. the frame has had the old swing arm and wheel removed. I plan on using a 500# torsion bar style swing arm. I am then gonna install a 12 inch style spoked trailer wheel and put a chrome wheel cover on it... Custom made cover of course.

I am going to weld in a solid 1/4 thick steel plate in the very middle. I then use this to mount the new torsion swingarm and also mount the hack down to the frame in eight points instead of the four it originally had. This way i know it will be more secure.

This all will be mounted to the GL1100A I am currently bringing back to life.

I am looking for mounts for the frame to body. I am willing to swap parts or cash. If parts it will be swap plus free shipping.

Tell me what ya all think. This is the way I can see that I can get back to riding, and look cool at it..
 

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#2 ·
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What year model 1100? 82 was the best year of ALL Goldwings to be the tug.
 
#4 ·
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SidecarMike has pointed out many flaws in my plans tho...hmmmmm gonna have to think about extreme beefing up of frame. I plan on fully welding in a 1/4 inch thick plate steel in the middle to fill the entire middle with a second brace running down the middle. This will in effect gusset the corners. I will also be putting fill pieces of same steel plate in both the ends. I will then mount the torsion axle to the plate steel.
 

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#5 ·
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Another picture of frame. I will beefing it up. Mike says he does not believe it would be good for my application? I have a tendency to agree with him, since he has obviously been riding hacks for a heck lot longer than me...lol


The frame is solid.. But needs attention.
 

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#6 ·
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This is where the Previous Hacker....lol Like that? hacked the swing arm and wheel off....like that too? once again I plan on installing a torsion bar swing arm to the center steel when I weld it in.
 

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#7 ·
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This is how I plan to install the sheet steel. The extra weight might even be good for stability? The blue area is where I would install plate steel. I suck at paint shop.....lol
 

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#8 ·
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Copper204, I don't know anything about Sidecars But I do want to say Good Luck In your Project and I wish you much success.

And be riding soon.
 
#9 ·
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I need to correct some of the things I said!

First off, when you said a Spirit of America, I was thinking in terms of this;



This is the one I was describing. I didn't know that Spirit ever made the California I that you are showing. Yours is much heavier than the one I talked about.

It did have some failings, but I think you are already past them.

The best thing that happened was the original axle and hub are gone. It was a goofy arrangement that pressed together with a bronze bushing that wore very fast and would cause the wheel to fall off. If you go with the torsion axle, pay close attention to it's positioning. My daughter put one on hers and ended up with less than an inch of clearance between the top of the wheel and the body. Every time she hit a bump it would rub the glass.

The next problem area is the two lower mounts. They are cups that attach to small balls on the motorcycle frame. The trouble is the balls are too small and tend to shear off at the most inopportune times. They are about 1/2 the diameter of the ball mounts on an old BMW or Ural.

Here is a kit that Dauntless (http://www.mysidecar.com ) sells to fix that problem and mount this frame to your bike. You just remove your lower mounts and, I believe these will slide right in and clamp down. The ends with the bolts are heim joints that fit in to the two lower brackets shown. The upper two will mate with your existing adjustable rods. You should have two of those upper rods.



This frame is nearly twice the size of the one I described in my PM. You will not need that 1/4 inch plate, though you may still want to throw a bag or two of lead shot behind the seat for weight.



Sorry I tried to scare you off. This one will mate well to even a 1500 Wing.

Mike
 
#10 ·
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I have been e-mailing back and forth with HACKN in www.sidecar.com. He is confirming that the hack I have is apparently the prototype for the friendship. I wonder if that makes it more valuable and maybe I should not hack it up? nah... I will strengthen it with the plates. this will add weight and piece of mind. I will then be using the plate as the mounting point for the torsion. I will oval the mount holes so I can set specific toe in, and camber. i did this same type thing to my old friendship. It made it stable and also with oval holes I was able to ridged and straight. By this I mean the cart body was perfectly straight with bike frame. I used the adjustable holes and metal shim washers to set camber and toe in. I actually stole this from a guy from England that had posted it on the net years ago. The neat thing for me is a welder buddy. He will place the frame on his plasma table and trace the areas to be filled. The laser will then cut those pieces to a perfect fit.. Last time we had to slightly pursuad the piece into the frame. Th is will also allow me to better install the body securely. Yeah you had me scared. we will mount this up to the project bike. This way i will get it all figured out. It will then be removed and sold to my brother.. The hack that is. I have found another hack up in Redding, California. the guy wants a reasonable price for. It is a newer friendship 11.

HACKN appears to have the mounts I will need for this one. Probably the same mounts you were nice enough to show me in your post..
 
#12 ·
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This is great, being able to watch a sidecar go together.
Keep up the good work & keep pictures coming.
It's all new to me & I'm sure a lot of others.
 
#13 ·
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copper204 wrote:
HACKN appears to have the mounts I will need for this one. Probably the same mounts you were nice enough to show me in your post..
Yeah. The photo is from Dauntless, but Lonnie, (Hack'n) is next door in Oregon and I'm sure he gets his stuff from Jay.
 
#16 ·
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A friend posted this on another site. I can put you in touch with him if you wish.
*********************
Kevin posted a link to a Spirit of America sidecar body patent
that showed what looked like a California Friendship 1.
Like this:-
http://s758.photobucket.com/albums/xx221/fredintoon/XS11rig/?action=view&current=Picture007.jpg
What you see attached to my XS11 is a Spirit of America "American Spirit"
It differs from the CF1 in that it's body is made from roto-molded Marlex
where the CF1 is a fiberglass layup. The S of A frame has an L-shaped swingarm
with a spring-shock while the CF1 has a dubiously engineered torsion bar set-up.
My own sidecar is unique in that Norm Pottruff grafted the hub, brake and wheel from
an early Honda Civic onto it.

*******************************
 
#18 ·
#19 ·
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Sidecar mike, I have been trying to find out the make of my sidecar but it seems you nailed it for me. I need to rustle up a mounting bracket for the front/neck mount, to fit my '82 1100. It needs some paint and a new windshield, but Rocky has already tried it out for size and wants to take his first ride in it.,,
 
#20 ·
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Big Cahuna wrote:
Sidecar mike, I have been trying to find out the make of my sidecar but it seems you nailed it for me. I need to rustle up a mounting bracket for the front/neck mount, to fit my '82 1100. It needs some paint and a new windshield, but Rocky has already tried it out for size and wants to take his first ride in it.,,
OK. From the photo, I can tell that you have the sidecar I was originally warning copper204 about.



Before you start, take your bike and sidecar to the local feedmill and weigh everything, including you. Now, divide that figure by 3.

Your motorcycle, going down the road fully loaded, must weigh NO MORE THAN twice as much as the sidecar.

I seldom carry a passenger, so I set up my sidecars to go down the road empty. My 96 weighs around 850 pounds. Add 270 for me and junk in the sidecar equals 1170 pounds. That means my sidecar needs to weigh 600 pounds to go safely down the road. You can alter things to change this figure a bit, but this is where you need to start.

That particular model sidecar's frame won't support that much weight.





Here is a cut and paste of the original PM I sent him.



*****

I think you are making a mistake. The Spirit of America cars were built for scooters and motorcycles up to 500cc. Putting that on a GL1200 would be a very good way to hurt someone you love. Everybody tells you that when you turn right the sidecar will come off the ground and cause you to crash. What they forget to tell you is that when you turn left, the bike tries to push the sidecar through the pavement. I bent my Hitchhiker frame twice that way and it was a lot heavier than the Spirit frame.

I would order one of these frames (or build one like it) and put your body on it. http://www.dmcsidecars.com/Sidecars/sidecar%20frames.htm

Here is the best place I've found to order mounting parts;

http://motorvation.com/mntdiag1.htm

And here are photos of my Valkyrie Dnepr rig without the body. This is the best I have.

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/SidecarMike/98%20Valkyrie/



Remember you want the upper two mounts and the lower two mounts to be on horizontal planes and you want the two upper ones as far apart as possible and the two lower ones to be as far apart as possible.



If I remember correctly, on my GL1200, the upper front mount was on the front frame rail. I had to remove the middle verticle vent to run the mount through that hole.

The rear top mount was in front of the shock, near the top. I remember having to grind a corner off of the back top of the side panel to clear the mount.

For the bottom rear, I took the rear passenger foot board triangle piece off, made a 1/4 inch steel plate that fit behind it and extended down and out around the muffler.

The bottom front is the one I can't remember. I first tried to attach it directly to the crash bar, which did not work. I remember I took that crash bar off and built something else using those mounting holes, but I really can't remember what. You have tokeep in mind thatI sold that bike over ten years ago.

I'll help any way I can, but please think about the size difference. I think you'd have to add at least 150-175 pounds of weight to the sidecar frame and I just don't think it is heavy enough to support that weight.



Mike
 
#22 ·
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No, it was a Dnepr.







A Cozy is even lighter weight than the little Spirit.



Here are a couple Cozys mounted to vehicles that suit them.









A friend had one like this mounted to a 2004 Silverwing, but it was really too light weight for that. It was very hard to keep it on the ground.
 
#25 ·
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SidecarMike wrote:
No, it was a Dnepr.







A Cozy is even lighter weight than the little Spirit.



Here are a couple Cozys mounted to vehicles that suit them.




A friend had one like this mounted to a 2004 Silverwing, but it was really too light weight for that. It was very hard to keep it on the ground.
very nice side hacks and how much for a gallon of petrol 3 cents :smiler:
 
#26 ·
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I just finished remaking the lower mounts on an '80s vintage calif. car that used the Bell style lower mounts. Instead of pitching the original mounts and spending the big bucks for the updated style with heim joints, I took the bell fixtures to a machinist friend and had him machine two pieces of round stock to fit tightly inside the bell, and bore and thread them the same fine thread size as the new heim joints that i purchased at my local WW Grainger store for approx $30 each(they're the same industrial strength joints). I then welded those pieces inside the bell fixtures and ground the welds smooth, and you can't tell the difference. He also took some regular hardened nut and put them on the lathe and narrowed the up to use as lock nuts. Remaking the bike mounts was a whole other project, but the bell fixture mod. saved me some serious money.
I also have a 93 Aspencade with a Champion car with the current style bike mounts, so I had a newer system to give me some ideas and some approx. measurements.
For the lower front, I used 1" heavy wall square tube that I ran directly under the oil filter and ran flat stock back to the lower engine mounts on each side of the engine. I cut the tube long enough that it came out the right side to a point under the valve cover, but not to the point that it was noticeable if I had the car off. Then I ran two support straps up to the engine guard fasten points and gusset as needed. On the outer end of the square tube on the right side, I welded a piece of round stock with a hole bored in it to accept the bolt that goes through the heim joint. I notched the square tube and angled up the outer most few inchs to kind of follow the angle of the lower tube of the engine crash guard. That got that lower joint position off the ground a little. It turned out nice, but there is not an easy way to hide that bracket like I could on my 93. I wish had taken pictures, but I didn't and I just sold the bike.
 
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