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.

The XS Triple Sidecar - an extensive Spring cleanup

One might be under the impression that in the last 4 months nothing happened to the XS Triple sidecar, but in reality quite the contrary was the case.

First on the list was some electrical problems, which originally started with a burned out alternator and shortly after the reg/rect unit gave in and only worked on first two and then a single phase, which made it weirdly difficult to troubleshoot as the voltage was going up, but it didn't really push out a lot of current.

As I wanted to fix this as quickly as possible, I picked up a very cheap r/r unit, which had a burnt plug. (I also ordered a new one from China, to have a good spare for the future.) After a quick test on the bike it proved to be working, so next was to replace the molten 6-pin connector. Unfortunately this isn't anything unusual, normally coming from a combination of dirty connectors, which are loose on their counterparts.

The thing that I somewhat worried the most about, was the fact that the r/r unit sits on the bottom of the battery tray, which not only is a lot of work to get to, I was absolutely sure nobody had touch those bolts in QUITE a few years.

To my great surprise they came out fairly easily and after a few rust-touch ups everything went together.

And then finally, the bike is charging as it should, pumping out a healthy 14V at idle into a rather empty battery. From here onwards the charging side of things hasn't given me any more headache since Spring (yet). 

Next step was to clean off the protective grease and get her ready for the annual road-worthyness inspection. And a dirty girl she was.

(This level of shinyness is most likely unhealthy, at the very least it feels rather odd to me... Still nice to see that the protective grease did its job.)

Still the bike wasn't exactly performing to the fullest. Hanging idle, not starting up very well at times, sometimes backfiring like it was going out of style.

There were two reasons, another coil had rather quietly left the scene and decided to die and the other was the fact that after an unknown mileage the bob-weights of the ignition advancer had worn itself out so far that the ignition advance was wandering around at least 3-4 degrees at idle.

If that ain't a weak spark, I don't know what is.

The solution to the second problem came on the very last models of the XS Triple and was only available in the states in 1983 or 84. A fully electronic ignition with no moving parts that can wear out. 

Unfornately the slot on the rotor was seriously mangled, so it had to be welded up and then filed back to the stock size. 

Just for comparision that's the first version of the electronic ignition with the mechanical advancer.

Nothing improves reliability like a fresh coat of paint. (And a front mudguard that doesn't rub on the front tyre...)

 

When swapping tyres for the roadworthyness-inspection, I discovered a slightly odd looking rear shock...

So a "new" set of Konis was procured, but they needed some modifications to prevent this from happening. (Who knew that the correct Konis had a bushing in the right lower shock mount as there's a smaller diameter bolt going through...)

Aside from a new set of needles and subsequent multiple attempts at re-jetting this is pretty much what happened to the old girl.  A new set of SE-clocks and upper triples, a new exhaust and some more patching up on the sidecar is still due, but other than that it seems like we're in good shape by now. (Also I may try to officially get the sidecar brake removed from the paper-work as it just an incredibly heavy anchor that is insanely overpowered considering that I mostly ride around alone.)

The other XS Triple Sidecar - final cosmetic touches and Hitachi carb install [FOR SALE]

Well, I'll start with a bit of disappointment for you straight away: There are no pics on how to install the Hitachi carbs, because it is pretty straight forward. Only thing to remember: All the rubbers on the airbox are at least 35 years old and are pretty stiff. A bit of the classic heatgun/hairdryer and lube treatment will help you there. Except from that, the job might be easier if you undo the battery box and slide it back, but it's doable with it in place as well.

That being said, huge thanks to my dad for doing all the polishing on the exhaust and mudguards, because as you might have noticed with my own bikes: I ain't one much for polishing unless engine internals are involved.

And yes, this bike is for sale, as hinted by the youtube-clip AND the label underneath. If you fancy it, it has got full German paper work, no TÜV, but as you can confirm with the various blog posts, all consumables are new, so new TÜV should be absolutely no problem. Pretty much the same goes for registering it in Austria as it is also completely set up for that as well. Drop me an email (see address on the right) or a comment, if you want to buy it and I'll get back to you.

SR500 Hack - cleaning and dialing in

I think the vehicle that has seen the least coverage on this blog is my SR 500 sidecar. And there's a simple reason for that: it's mighty reliable, which is one of the reasons why I am holding on to it.

The base bike used to be a 1985 or 1986 SR500, type 48T. The frame has been altered in Walcher style, i.e. the backbone has been doubled up and the headstock beefed up. Additionally the rear lower mount has been beefed up with a solid rear footpeg mount off a 2J4-model and some gently applied 5mm steelplate.
The engine is pretty much stock, but with a stainless header pipe and a homegrown muffler, which lets it breathe "a bit" better.

I mostly use this bike during the Winter months and for hauling all sorts of sh*t around and it's extremely capable at that. I haven't encountered a situation (yet), where I had to get out the snowchains... In order to prevent some from eating the old girl up like a hot 'n' greasy hamburger (she's grown a bit leaky over the years), I marinated her with some S100 salt protection spray and I have to say, washing that off left me more than chuffed, but see for yourself.

My dad making sure the Dre-XT-Stück doesn't live up to her name.

The part you can't see in this pictures...

... in order to get the S100 stuff off ...

... we had to use spray-on kitchen cleaner and a hot water jet-wash.

The second part was to adjust to the toe in and pin the lower front mount in place as it had a tendency to twist away, once it was put under enough strain.

About two years ago, I replaced the lower sidecar mounts, which were just normal "clevis" mounts with proper sidecar balls and that was one of the best mods ever done. The little girl is super rigid and can be flung around corners like you wouldn't believe.

The next mods will include a longer sidecar swingarm to fit a proper shock there as the current Velorex-shock's damping is non-existent by now and additionally find some better shocks for the rear as the current Bilstein's are a bit leaky and even before that were softer than I want them to be.