Sidecar recommendations for GS

[Hugh]

Greetings,

Sidecars are great fun, brilliant in the snow, but pain in the butt if stuck in traffic whilst enduring a good old heavy downpour.

My first bike was a Matchless 350 G3 fitted with a Watsonian Bambi sidecar, much later I built a Norton ES2 Wideline to which I added a Watsonian Palma sidecar, fitted out with a child's car safety seat.

Perhaps contact Watsonian and see what they can suggest for you;

https://www.watsonian-squire.com

If you do fit one then please let us have photos.

TTFN

Hugh.

[mark vb]

Desmo (who I don't think has been on this site for a while) has a Ural fitted to his GS1150, and spent a few months in S. America with it. It is possible to fit the Ural to the 'frameless' GS and in his case it was done by Watsonian.
Watsonian had a used Ural last summer, it may possibly still be for sale.
Below is another, similar 1150 outfit I saw when in S. America last year! It was with an organised group led by Helge Pedersen who was himself riding a GS1200+chair from Columbia to Tierra del Fuego.

[Bign1971]

Thanks everyone for your comments it’s been really helpful. But today I have been offered a KMZ sidecar for free. The only thing is it’s the wrong side. Is it worth taking it and modifying it or starting from scratch and having one built?
Thanks again
BigN

[sledgegreen]

KMZ is the name (one of the names?) used for the Russian sidecars before the break up of the USSR, so it is the same pre-war BMW design as Urals and Dneprs.

If it is in reasonable condition, then the tub should be perfectly useable on the left side of the bike. The sidecar chassis probably won't be usable without modification, because the shock absorber mount needs to stick up, not down. However, that is a simple steel hoop so should be a simple cut-and-paste job for a decent welder.

There might be other parts which are salvageable - wheel, hub, lights etc.

Here is my bike, with Dnepr tub which is designed for the other side.

IMG_0886.jpg (191.61 KiB) Viewed 1745 times

[sledgegreen]

Hi Jim

I tried to send you a PM a couple of weeks ago, but it seems that it never got sent - I just found it in my Outbox. I can't see a way to release it, so here it is:


Hi Jim

I saw your post earlier this evening, before I saw this PM, and I have already responded in the thread.

My sidecar is mounted on the left side of the bike - this is a requirement of UK law, unless the bike is of a certain age. I am not sure what the relevant date is - I think it is early '80s, but don't hold me to that.

My sidecar body is a RHS one - if you look at the photo I put in the thread, there should be a cut-away section of the wall just in front of the side car wheel, to make getting in and out easier. Mine is next to the rider's left foot.

I think that my sidecar chassis is designed for left hand mounting, but it might be modified from a RH one. It is essentially a flat frame, with the only significant protrusion being the shock absorber mount. It is almost entirely hidden by the sidecar wheel in my photo, but it is just a steel hoop. I didn't think about it earlier, but I suspect that the body mounts will also be side-specific. I think that these will all be simple jobs for a decent welder.

HTH. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Regards, Jon