In short: yep we are, scroll down to the bottom, drool over the finished product and ignore the fact that those last twenty percent in such a project take a lot more than twenty percent of the time. Especially when there's multiple unplanned changes to the project take place quite literally in the last minute of it getting done.
Let's start at the beginning, shall we? First up was the airbox. Even though the frame is a 2J4, I wanted to use the 48T airbox, because it is heaps easier to get the carb out and reinstall it and the engine breather is properly concealed in a separate chamber meaning that even when the engine spits out oil (happens quite often as it's a drysump engine, when it is parked for a while as the oil gravity drains into the engine case), the excess oil is just sucked through the engine without soiling the air filter.
The next task came from the fact that the original Velorex mudguard was both well banged up and also turned out to be quite a bit too narrow to be used with a 4.00x18.
The solution came in the form of a cheap universal 5" Harley flatfender, which found itself tack welded to the inner section of the Velorex mudguard.
Another thing that quickly became apparent was the need for a 5th sidecar mounting point, which should counteract the tendency of the rear upper mount to twist itself out of position. In order to do this, the inside of both rear upper clamps where relieved on the inside and a bit of 5mm stainless flatsteel was put to good use. This will also help to distribute the load induced into said mount between both sides.
Then after some quite extensive discussions with my engineer on the legal aspect of the following modification to the frame- (Which by local legal definition is not the frame, as this is just an outrigger. Sometimes you just don't question the man and simply accept the fact that things are working in your favour.) The idea behind this mod is to reinforce the lower footpeg mount to allow it to cope better with the forces introduced through the lower sidecar mount.
One of the neater, yet absolutely unexpected surprises during the build was a set of Konis in just about the right length for a SR500 come up. Now as the pictures above suggest, I was already well supplied with rear shocks, but the fact that the sidecar now runs on a nice Koni as well was a treat one could not easily pass. (Also with the other shock leaking they were VERY cheap.)
Initially I had hoped that I could get away without using the incredibly ugly on the sidecar mudguard, but as I had to fit an extra reflector anyway. Also with the Harley mudguard being a different radius, the length was off by quite a bit, so they had to be modified as well and then someone had laminated over all the old holes in the tub...
Usually the integral cable duct inside a Velorex mudguard is well and truly rusted out. The one in question was just "a tad" on the crunchy side, making feeding the cables through an interesting experience. Soldering the cables to a bit of copperized mig wire worked wonders though. Second attempt saw all three cables from the front go to the back and join them all under the sidecar tail-light.
Which brought me to one of the most annoying episodes of the whole sidecar build. I had always been well aware that the loom was a bit past its prime, but tracing multiple faults as in broken cables and shorts actually took the better part of an afternoon. Doesn't sound too bad? Well as a matter of fact the whole loom is only like 20 wires or so, which should give you an indication on just how bad things actually were.
But then again, after all of this, the old girl now looks as classy as can be, especially after finally touching up the bottom half of the tub.
Talking about classy, as the old girl has been lacking a name and I think I actually sort of brought both back from the dead, I think Orpheus and Eurydice is about right... And as a matter of fact, the next step is presenting the whole lot to my trusted engineer and then get the paperwork in order.
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