I pulled the sidecar out of mothballs and started figuring out the mounting. The main frame mount looks like it will work. A little concerned about how far back the hack wheel is tho. I think I can adjust it forward once I get everything tied together.

Plan is to remove the body and paint it after I get it mounted. Should be fun.  

Thank you. I will plan to post pictures as I go. I’m waiting for some hardware so will be a bit before I get it hooked together.

A little background. The bike that was on the sidecar (Royal Enfield) was in my shop for an engine rebuild. I had just finished it and was adjusting timing when the engine backfired and sprayed flaming gas and started on fire. There is quite a bit more to the story but I lost my shop and 7 motorcycles 😢

It’s what brought me to the Savage/S40. I needed a thumper to put the sidecar on. I think the Suzuki is a better choice that the Royal Enfield for a lot of reasons.  

ohiomoto wrote on 09/09/20 at 04:47:34:


Appreciate the words. I actually liked the Royal Enfield. I had taken a lot of time to do the engine right, using British parts and building fixturing to balance the crank, etc. Many look at the Savage/S40 as a bit crude, but in comparison to the Royal Enfield it’s light years ahead. Overhead cam, 4 valve head, electronic ignition. While the braking could be better, it’s still better than the drum brakes on the RE. There is also room for improvement which was very limited with the RE.

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So that shock act as a steering dampener ?

https://www.cyclesidecar.com/store/sidecar-steering-damper-2-year-warranty

Rear is just a strut. The car itself has suspension. Wiring is already done on the car just need to connect to the bike. It weighs 200 lbs.

Thanks for the positive comments, it’s what keep us going on these projects. When I lost the RE in the fire I still had the hack because it was stored in my barn while I rebuilt the motorcycle.

So then I found myself with a sidecar and no bike. I looked around for something suitable other than another RE. It needed to have a single down tube frame in order to use the RE mounting hardware. It also would be nice if it were a thumper, because the low end torque is important in getting a rig moving.

So far it all seems to be working out. I’m doing some minor changes to the mounting and waiting for some hardware to show up and I should be able to finish the mounting and test it out.

Here’s a picture of the original rig when I bought it with the RE having a blown engine. I paid $2K and had about $500 in the engine when it started on fire.