The XS Triple Sidecar - steering damper and finishing touches

August, 30th is registration day for the XS Triple Sidecar. And even though the old girl had come a long way there was still LOTS to do. Firstly as the preemptive inspective brought up, I had to build a steering damper. As much as a standard motorcycle steering damper would work they are rather costly and as I have a sidecar strut to affix it to, there's easier ways in getting the job done with a car-steering damper. The one used on here is for a Mercedes W124 and is a whopping 30 Euros.

Doesn't look like much, but was the better part of a day's work...

For some bizarre reason the brake pads were completely oily, greasy and mucky, even though the forks are nicely dry and leak free, so I rummaged in my parts bins and found this set of old sintered Dunlopad pads, which probably came out of my very first TR1. 

Another thing that had to be tackled: The stock speedo wasn't working (and when I took it out, it became obvious that the old XS triple must have landed on its at least once and proper hard), so it was replaced by one kindly donated by a friend. (I still have to get in there once more after registration to replace all the lightbulbs with LEDs, but I am not gonna chance it before the registration!)

Another thing that had to be tackled was to enumerate various relevant parts, e.g. the sidecar frame needed a VIN. (If you ever wondered, where the infamous Dnepr Sidecar number 001 went, here it is! 😉)

And here you have it, technically two days of work and you see: not much has changed.

Btw.: When this post comes out, the inspection will have taken place at 10am (CET) the very same day.(And the old girl has passed with flying colours...)