The XS Triple Sidecar - fixing the sidecar up for roadworthyness inspection

Normally fixing up a winter-sidecar means frantic hacking away on various rusted bits and bobs, but as I had already done most of that, this time it was about swapping out some rusty bolts, chamfering the brake pads, swapping the front tyre for a slightly less bald one.

One of those things was the lower clutch adjuster. It had fallen out on one of the very first test rides and was replaced with a spare M8 bolt I had with me...

It's a good idea to oil a clutch cable BEFORE it goes stiff, and a bit of old engine oil is perfect for the job.

I always chamfer my brake pads as it prevents them from squealing. Especially these cheap ones are very prone to that. 

The speed cable may be rusty on the outside, but oiling it up in Autumn paid its dividends.

The bald front tyre was replaced with a super fine Pirelli Gordon specimen from the late 80ies. It's harder than a rock, has plenty of tread left and no hairline cracks. (Watch this space in two months, when it will look like I've dug it out of a swamp or the like, as they perish very quickly once re-exposed to UV-light.)

I was totally prepared to replace the rear tyre as well, but that super flat Block C has still got some life left in it. 

The last thing to tackle was to weld up the muffler inserts, as I had only tacked them in, when I took them out earlier in a vain effort to find some of the missing horsepower. (It was some well clogged pod-filters!)

As the old girl sometimes struggled a bit with starting I deduced, that (just as on my first XS-triple) a lack of grounding to the right handlebar switch resulted in bad starting at times.

Another thing that I had spent a lot of time contemplating on, was how to solve the lack of a lock to hold the seat in place. I've come up with beautifully elaborate solutions with milled, turned and welded parts of finest stainless or 6000-series aluminium alloys. But in the end a simple R-clip and a hole will do the job almost as fine and the amount of time invested was, as I have to admit somewhat more reasonable.

The sidecar passed the inspection with flying colors, which also means, as soon as the mule is sorted out, I can tackle the mods I have planned for the sidecar, which are: different exhaust setup (angled up a bit so I can swap the rear wheel, without removing the exhaust) and a slightly altered rear-subframe.