The XS Triple Sidecar - Spring cleanup and brake overhaul

With the sidecar bearing most of the weight of my Winter-time motorcycle commutes, Spring clean is as much about cleaning as it is about taking inventory of the damages that have amassed by the same and subsequently identify areas that need work.

Once again, the protective wax I used has done an admirable job of keeping rust at bay and mostly there have been no real shortcomings to report, aside from the brakes.

When I built the sidecar, I overhauled the brakes with all new seals and stainless steel brake pistons. I was a bit shocked to find out that the dust seals had completely disintegrated and were due for replacement after only two or three seasons.

Plenty of brake-lube (type of petroleum jelly), prevented the worst.

And that's why you want stainless steel brake pistons, even after sitting in the salt they come out immaculate again.

The old seals were thin like paper and about as solid as rotten wood.

In the course of the whole job, I also swapped out the brakepad retainer bolts for stainless items with a hex on the outside. I kept them well lubed with copper-slip, but this allows me to actually use a ratchet to install and remove them.

Note a certain German supplier for SR&XT parts has got them as the original Yamaha bolt is no longer available.

With the stopping side of things sorted out, it was time to focus a bit more on the going faster side of things. As the casual observer might have noticed before, I am a huge proponent of using O2-sensors for fine-tuning carburettors. Now when I built the exhaust for the XS Triple, I did install an O2-bung, but for some unknown reason, I must have slipped an a bit of exhaust tube got in the way plus the thread of these cheap O2-bungs isn't exactly true to the specification. After a bit of die-grinder and tapping action, I was for the very first time able to monitor live, what was actually going on under load.

Yes, that reads as 13.9:1, really more a wonder I haven't burned any holes into my pistons yet. The mix-screws on these carbs are incredibly sensitive, so a 1/4-turn bumped me straight into the high 12s, which instantly meant black skidmarks in the driveway. 

You have to give the sidecar credit though, put an old car-battery on the chair, hooked everything up and off you go. (Turns out, the stock reg/rect unit is so noisy, the electronics in the wideband controller were (not very politely) showing me the middle finger.

Why fix this now, when I obviously have the carbs already dialed in somewhat satisfactory? Well, here's a bit of a project outlook for you.

Mikuni VM29SS out of a 1986/1987 GSXR 750 slabbie. They'll need a sh*t-ton of tweaking to fit and I just know I will be cursing myself for using them. But they've got accelerator pumps, are a slightly smaller diameter (29mm vs. 33mm) and I have quite a bit of hands-on-experience with them from installing them on (my) Kawasaki Zeds.