More Bikes!
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My brother Dave and I took his truck into Portland to round up the rest of the fleet. We did alright, getting another low mileage KLR, another Bandit in almost perfect condition, and a Yamaha V-Star with only 4,000 miles!
We loaded the V-Star
and the KLR into Dave's truck and I road the Bandit home. We'd had pretty good
weather up until we got the Bandit-then it started pouring rain, and it did not
stop until I got home, 70 miles later!
It cleared up once
we pulled into the drive. After we unloaded the bikes Dave took the V-Star for a
spin...
I don't generally name my
bikes, but the V-Star has been named "Piglet" 'cause it's just a baby Harley.
It is
destined to become a trike;
the other bikes will get sidecars.
HACKED!
I just got in from a day in the garage. I got my subframes and one of the modified Ural chassis' back from the welder last night and I spent most of the day setting the Ural up on the red Suzuki.
My God! That was fussy work! If anyone wants to do this just to buy the mounts from Dauntless-it is just too much hassle to one off them!
I have two Urals I am putting on the Bandits. Set it up with 1/8" toe in,61"
from outside tire to outside sidecar tire, a little over 15" lead and eyeballed
the lean out- actually works pretty well. Barely perceptible wobble around 5
mph, but not bad at all, seems to corner ok and be fairly neutral up to 60 mph.
Didn't go far, so time will tell, but so far it looks good...
Joel says he has the modifications on the other chassis done, so I am going up
to his shop tomorrow to pick it up and should have the other Bandit done this
weekend too! The bodies still need some dents smoothed out and new paint, but
that's just cosmetic.
I have two more bikes to hack, a pair of KLRs. Those sidecars need a lot more
fabrication, so they may take a while, although I do have one subframe to fit
the Kawasaki done already and the pieces cut out for the other one.
I was concerned I was getting too much flex with the Bandit mounts so I changed things around a bit. The top front strut mount was moving, so I drilled the frame and bolted the strut eye flush to it, reducing the leverage. I also moved the rear strut aft to the end of the sidecar frame. This helped but I still had too much flex at the bottom mounts so I ended up adding a brace from the rear of the subframe to the center stand pivot and a stiffening bar along the bottom pipe run between the two clevis fittings. This seems to be working well...
Joel came over and we spent the evening welding up mounts on the Thompson Cyclecar chassis Dauntless Motors donated to our effort. Looks like I may be able to get the KLR rig up and working in time for the May 6th class!
Dauntless Motors also donated a brand new set of KLR mounts! Thanks Jay! I started bolting them up to the other KLR tonight. The Dauntless mounts are so much cleaner than what I was able to fabricate myself. Definitely first rate hardware! This means I should be able to get both KLRs set up with sidecars, hopefully this weekend!
Jay also donated an old Hitch Hiker sidecar chassis, which will become the platform on the blue KLR. Joel came over Sunday and welded up a bracket for a torsion axle on that sidecar.
He also brought the painted Ural bodies back and we bolted them up the the Bandits and did some test rides. These bikes are FUN!
I strapped a chunk of beam onto the black KLR for ballast and rode it to work today. Handles great! I can't wait to get the seat and body finished! Joel came over in the evening and we mounted the Hitchhiker to the blue KLR.
I've moved
the top rear mount on the Bandit to a main frame tube. I am not wild about clamp
mounts, but bolting the rear strut to a larger tube should be an improvement...
I took the wheels off the red Bandit and loaded them on the deck of one of the KLRs last night. Today I will take them in and have dualsport treads installed; gotta give the students every advantage when we go to measure their braking distances! When I got the tires back from All Seasons Sports, Mike came over and helped me remount the wheels. The bikes seem to handle well with the new tread and they sure look ready for the grass track!
Nils came over the other night and helped me finish up the black KLR. There has been so much to get done-I could not have gotten it all ready in time without help from my friends. Thanks guys!
Just finished up the sidecar for the blue KLR tonight. I need to snug down the mounts and it should be ready to go!
We spent about 6 hours over a couple of days laying out the driving range and painting marks where the cones go. Jack Sheppard and my dad, Jim Wade used a gps and a transit to mark the boundaries...
I finished up the KLR last night and rode it into town today. Picked up and installed the sidecar seat. Later, I met Dad and Mike over at the driving range and we spent the afternoon finishing up the marks. I took these photos of the KLR over there after we we were all done...
The May class was a blast! Check our schedule for the class most convenient for you!
