[Hercules]

Good stuff Beowulf, glad you got it sorted out!
I wouldn't be able to invest so much time! Happy for you ☺

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

Had an old friend drop by for a week or so... put together a youtube video that he could share with his kids, grand children, and great grand children.

You might find it long and dry, or you might be a *******!

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

Got out on a little ride today. Just celebrating the first thousand miles or so on the frame repairs and front brace addition. I am liking the new "feel" of the rig, at least when compared to the feel with a cracked frame.

Three friends invited me on a not-so-technical ride on an old favorite road, Barkerville to Willow Springs Ranch, Florence to Oracle, or therabouts.

The weather was superb; day started out at 65F (18C) and maybe climbed to 75F (24C) over the course of the day. There was just enough wind to help clear the dust away, if one chose to ride a little close.

This was the general route from Skunk Hollow, with a fine lunch stop at the Saddlebrook Resort dining hall as a turnaround point.

We were on a KTM790 (with new cams) an Aprilia Toureg and a BMW R1200GS. We all rode at the pace we felt like, and managed to rendevous from time to time at way points.

For those of you not tired of my youtube videos, yet, here is the view from the nose cam on the sidecar:

 

[Dieselboy]

From the video, Always fun to find you have final drive issues . . .having owned both, and dealt with it, better to be on a Honda IMO.

Glad the repairs worked on your frame.

 

[Beowulf]

From the video, Always fun to find you have final drive issues . . .having owned both, and dealt with it, better to be on a Honda IMO.

Glad the repairs worked on your frame.

That is a fact!

Took a look at it yesterday. Seems a mesh strap got in the wheel, wrapped around the brake disk hub, and took out the big seal.

Now looking for a puller that will get that drive flange off (the one the disc bolts to.) Always something!

 

[Beowulf]

Well friends,

It seems my left TFX shock blew out on my LL, shortly after I sent the right one off for rebuild.

Got some feedback from Jeff, over at TheBeemerShop.com that the shaft on the first one was kind of sand blasted and maybe I would want to get some sort of shielding going on them.

So.... here is what I came up with:

Shown on the old Ohlins that is serving in the spot, until the TFX unit returns from CA.

A thing of beauty, no?

Some left over military grade sheet rubber from a helicopter build... Soft and compliant.

Guess I will do the hack and pusher rear shock, as well.

 

[Hercules]

Did both shocks fail due to being damaged by sand? Was it the seal or the actual shock?
Did you have any standard neoprene covers on them before?

 

[Beowulf]

Did both shocks fail due to being damaged by sand? Was it the seal or the actual shock?
Did you have any standard neoprene covers on them before?

Seals went out in both shocks. I have not sent the 2nd one back, yet, but assume it failed for the same reason (sand blasted) as the first one. Both failed within 500 miles of the same usage. Maybe 12,000 miles or so in mostly desert.

Nope, didn't not have covers on them.

Dude at shock place at first told me not to run them, as they trap heat in the shock.

He changed his mind after seeing the first shock, and rebuilding it!

Both failed shocks kept damping, but the leaking got pretty bad, so would have stopped working, once they ran out of oil.

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

Went on a two day road trip up through central AZ with three good friends. Had a blast on "The Bagdad Rollercoaster," then up through Seligman, stayed over at Williams, then back down through Jerome, Cottonwood, Camp Verde, Strawberry and Payson.

Weather was splendid, 40's to 70's F, with just a little light rain up around Seligman, Az.

Day1:

Day2:

Few ride pics:

Ctd...

 

[Beowulf]

Ctd

A fine time was had by all!

Here is the rather longish youtube video. Still working on sound management:

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

I decided to add some new capability into the shop...

I think it is a cloth welder of some sort.

Bought it cheap at a thrift store (used junk store), since I have a few things that I would like fixed in the textile department of life.

Took it apart, cleaned it up, oiled the stuff that looked like they needed oil, greased the gears, tensioned the belts and put it back together.

Amazingly, it functioned, and rather quietly at that.

Bought a few spools of thread and experimented on a pants leg that was no longer required on some jeans that were destined to be shorts as the weather heats up in Skunk Hollow.

Seems like it works on the basic stitches that are built in. Supposedly can do fancy stuff with additional cams, but not particularly interested in that.

So... loaded up some upholstery thread and attacked the windshield skirt that has had the center fastener ripped out for quite a while. Had bought the metal pieces from TSC (@SIDECARUSA ), but never really fixed the material.

It took a while to figure out what "foot pressure" and "upper tension" adjustments did in the context of tougher, thicker material, with thicker thread, but eventually stitched a patch in that won't likely pull out very easily. Guess it is a lot like TIG welding: both have a foot pedal, and strong isn't always pretty!

Back Side:

Front Side:

On the rig:

Front:

Japanese heavy metal machine from the 1970's, made by Maruzen, sold as Kenmore 158 series through Sears. Has a high amperage motor for thick stuff.

Found a manual for it, online, so who knows what mischief I will get into with this thing?

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

Got out on a very pleasant, but emotionally challenging ride, Friday.

235 miles or so up the Beeline, out and around the north side of Lake Roosevelt on the A-Cross road (old 88, aka NF60), then back around through Globe, Miami, Superior, down the 77 and back around on the Florence Kelvin Highway.

The day was warm, but splendid. Temps started out in the 80's F (high 20's C) and got up to about 104F (40C) towards the late afternoon.

I was joined by Greg, a fine riding buddy on his KTM790 Adventure R. Spoiler. The KTM was not the bike with equipment issues, this time around.

We did some lovely twisty black top to get to the dirt:

Then proceeded to some fine twisty, rocky dirt roads that wound up and around the canyons above the north side of the lake:

We had an equipment failure that kinda sucked:

Apparently, someone, who shall remain nameless, hit the front ABS wire with an angle grinder, during the original fabrication of the rig. Once I got home, I was able to diagnose with the codes read from the CPU, and a multimeter.

I suppose I could have done this on the road, but the the lack of the shop manual (now cured with a digital copy saved on my phone) and the frustration level in the sun at 40C, prevented me from accomplishing that. Instead, I chose to ride it the remaining 144 miles home in "limp mode" at around 30 MPH, in 1st gear. It sucked, but there were some high points:

Got to see lots of wild life on the back roads at dusk; couple of the Javelinas, below:

Got to see an amazing sunset turn many colors as it progressed (yeah riding directly west at the time.)

ctd

 

[Beowulf]

ctd

Got to watch, from a distance, a moron teasing a rattle snake, while he was wearing shorts and sneakers, to get an up close photo of a pissed off snake. (That light spot in the road in the lower left is a good sized rattler, coiled and looking for a shot) Sheesh...

This guy, in a SxS, had a pretty amazing flying rattle snake story to tell, from earlier in his ride:

If you want to hear it, first hand, here is a link to my rather longish video:

Here is a LINK to the technical post on the repair process, the following day.

 

[Beowulf]

Went out on a little night ride to test out the rebuilt shocks. Quite the collection of wildlife.

Those pesky forest rats...

And, of course, the occasional black cow on a black night:

 

[Beowulf]

A good friend, Chuck Loftin, has been posting his progress on an AT sidecar build for another friend in a build thread that culminates with the post below: I thought you guys might enjoy Chuck's pics of his beautiful work. He is the dude that built the "robust" front end on my rig, after another builder failed at that.

Here is his summary:

Time to send the Africa Twin home. It was a great build…..just different enough to keep the fun in it. Here’s the parting shots.

 

[Beowulf]

Chuck has been a died in the wool BMW/Ural enthusiast for as long as I've know him. I thought you guys might like his final comment:

Chuck:

Thank you my good man! After building and testing this rig, I'm sold on the Africa Twin.....This thing is a blast to drive! And that DCT tranny is the cats meow!! I'll be building one for myself in the near future!!

 

[Hercules]

Like the builds although would never want one
And I like your special fat front tire and wheel more than the pictured. Makes the bike interesting, old-style and (probably) more planted in terrain? Nice post mate

 

[ADrunkRussian]

This whole thread is pretty dope. Happy to hear you found something that works for you!

 

[Beowulf]

Got back from fooling around in Peru for a couple of weeks. More on that, later.

Got around to editing video from a particularly nice ride around the base of Mt. Lemmon, near Tucson, AZ, just prior to taking off for Peru.

Here is the short version:

Here is a longer version of the ride:

 

[Beowulf]

Well friends,

It cooled off to 115F (46 C) this afternoon, and the nice shady garage was only 104F (40C), so decided to do a little minor maintenance:

But at least it's a "dry heat!"

@TresPatas had reminded me a little earlier this week that things looked a little stiff on the suspension, from a video.

I think the majority of that was coming from the hack wheel, where I had the Beemershop calculate spring rates, assuming a passenger and some gear in the tub. Since the rig doesn't get run fully loaded, all that much, I felt that I could get away with reducing the mechanical preload about 15mm, from where it was set at. There is still a hydraulic preload adjuster on the shock, that would give me back 15mm of preload, if I load up the chair, so will see how that goes.

Just for fun, took a measurement of height of the fender, with the original mechanical preload setting. it came in at 32 5/8"or 82.7cm.

After removing most of the mechanical preload, leaving just a little tension on the spring to prevent rattles, the height of the fender dropped to 31 7/8"or 81cm. Basically lowered the height by 19mm without touching the hack electric tilt adjust.

I'm not excited about re-springing it lighter, but maybe pulling that much preload will add a little more "give" into the hack wheel, as it hits rocks and such.

We will see. Heading out for a night ride in a bit.