fitting a sidecar

[therealche]

http://simplysidecars.co.uk/sidecarfittings.html

A good source of fittings

[neddyo]

Thanks again for the link
therealche, an excellent source of sidecar fittings.

Nick.

[therealche]

Oh and forgot to say... nice looking bike! Always found the ES a bit odd solo, because the front end doesn't dip inder braking, but it is much better with a sidecar than normal tele forks. Mind you, the TS250/1 and sidecar I had years back gave me the best upper body workout money could buy!

[neddyo]

What's the ES150 like, is it much smaller and lighter than the ES250/2.
If it is it would probably suit me better than the as I'm a bit of a light weight,
thats why I am going to fit a sidecar.

Nick.

[therealche]

The ES150 is a lovely little bike, the manual gives a dry weight of 112kg against 156kg for the ES250/2.

[Guesi]

But it is not suitable with a sidecar (frame is too weak).

[neddyo]

Hi Guesi,

I didn't explain myself very well, I meant to fit the sidecar to the ES250
and to ride the ES150 solo.
Thinking the 150 would suit my size better.

Nick.

[therealche]

One of each sounds a great idea!

[neddyo]

ABSOLUTELY

[Skin Jm]

Hi a mate of mine has fitted a sidecar to his 251 i was just wondering wht steering damper have you used please thanks

[mr_luke]

What make of sidecar has your mate fitted? My Squire has a strange arrangement for the front top fitting which uses a big bolt right through the steering tube, and has a bearing between said bolt and the sidecar support. This includes a very basic friction damper, which can be adjusted with a nut on its underside. If he's not got anything odd like that, then MZ did make a friction damper which also fitted through the steering tube, and could be adjusted with a big plastic knob which went in place of the plastic cover on the top yoke. Ost2rad.com do sell some parts for this, but I don't know what your chances would be of getting hold of the complete assembly...

[Tony the Skin]

What make of sidecar has your mate fitted? My Squire has a strange arrangement for the front top fitting which uses a big bolt right through the steering tube, and has a bearing between said bolt and the sidecar support. This includes a very basic friction damper, which can be adjusted with a nut on its underside. If he's not got anything odd like that, then MZ did make a friction damper which also fitted through the steering tube, and could be adjusted with a big plastic knob which went in place of the plastic cover on the top yoke. Ost2rad.com do sell some parts for this, but I don't know what your chances would be of getting hold of the complete assembly...

The sidecar in question is a light Squire on a 251. I will be with the owner this weekend and will try and get some pictures. It travels well at a steady 50mph or 80kph. Steering tends to shake a bit at low speeds hence the idea of a damper if it can be done. Budget is limited so high cost steering options are not on the cards. The young owner and myself are aiming to do the Elephant Rally in Jan 2014 which is a round trip of approx 1250 miles from the NW of England.

[mr_luke]

Same chair as mine then. If it does have the same front fitting (I have seen some which don't), then the bits for the damper do look like they might be quite easy to lose while it wasn't fitted to the bike, if someone wasn't really sure what they were looking at. They do mostly look like they'd be quite easy to replicate at home, if you needed to. If it turns out that it would be useful, I could take a few photos of the setup on my bike.

I've tried riding mine without the damper and, as you say, at higher speeds it's fine, but at 10 - 20 mph it's quite unpleasant. The damper solves the problem, so you're on the right track. The Elephant rally sounds like a brave undertaking - I'm jealous!

[Tony the Skin]

Thanks for that Mr Luke. Photos would be useful.

[breakwellmz]

This may be of interest chaps-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200993001800? ... 1438.l2649