The XS Triple Sidecar - Sidecar brake (part 2)

And I should just have stopped there, called it a day and bathed in my own awesomeness. As I might have mentioned a few times before, this is a really old Soviet sidecar. One of the reasons to date it back very far (1960ies or 1970ies at the most recent) amongst welds that actually deserve the name and a hefty gauge steel sidecar (later models use a lot thinner steel), was the short sidecar axle and the lack of mounts for a sidecar brake. As it is black it's rather unlikely that it came off an official sidecar as used by the police, which means this sidecar is probably off a K750 or the like. (Which incidentially also goes along with what Pjotr the seller told me.)

Now on later models, swingarm axles are actually just a simple press-fit. A hefty one nevertheless and it is not unheard off, that the axles are crooked in brand new swingarms, because the combination of Vodka and a 20T-press is a healthy recipe for disaster. Well as I had to find out, older axles are welded in.

But sometimes when brains don't work one has to restort to more apt solution. Out came the angle grinder and then we'll "just" quickly drill out the old axle. (I guess you can see where this is going now...)

As the bore the axle was welded into wasn't perfectly parallel to the swingarm pivot, the boring head came out and I decided to bore the hole slightly undersize and then bore it through in one final go. Unfortunately my last (long enough) boring head shattered its carbide insert and that was the end of it.

So another solution had to be found: It came in the shape of a 25mm and a 28mm drill. Both of horrid Chinese import quality, but after some "tuning" to both ends - no idea what kind of taper that was, but definitely not the advertised MT3.

That's quite a stunning hole I hear you say ... having spent 2 1/2 days with it, I was pretty close to baptising and naming it. But as usual the proof's in the pudding and it was well about time to fill that hole with a bit of awesomeness.