Look what's arrived in my shed!

[themoudie]

Aye Ian,

That'll get the rivet counters guessing and wind sucking through their dentures! I hope it performs as well as it looks.

Good health, Bill

[iansoady]

Me too! The chrome strips should be alloy and I have them but (a) they wouldn't be as shiny and (b) they're fitted with tiny bolts from the inside. There's no way I can get to them. What I've used is stick on stuff from ebay which seems to work very well. And the Steib emblem on the front has a fixing stud at the rear which gives the same problem so have stuck it on with double sided tape. Both invisible in use.

No rivets were intentionally harmed during this build.

[Moto63]

No rivets were intentionally harmed during this build.

😁😁😜

[iansoady]

Finally I took the B'Zuki outfit out intending a short run round local roads. Fortunately I started by going to the end of our road then down a local cul de sac with a turning circle at the end. It was awful! As soon as I set off there was a terrible flutter from the bars, getting much worse if either the sidecar or one of the bike wheels hit a bump. I never got out of second gear and was thankful I didn't venture onto the main road. Scared me quite a bit I can tell you. Of course my outfit piloting skills are very rusty!

I've checked tyre pressures at 34 bike front, 38 bike rear and 26 sidecar but not looked at anything else yet. My initial thought is that maybe it's due to the Roadrider front tyre which has quite a round profile. This can easily be changed. Second thought is that aligment is not right although I have checked it carefully. Toe in at 3/4", sidecar wheel lead 10", lean out when I'm on the bike about 1/4" at the tyre. I'll check again. Worst case is just that the bike geometry - trail especially - is just not suitable.

[themoudie]

Aye Ian,

Those tyre pressures on the bike seem very high to my uneducated/no chair experience mind.

The Bros and Revere run 33psi front and rear solo and only increase the rear to 42psi when carrying a passenger.

The SRX monoshock with radials runs 30psi front and 34psi rear and can get twitchy (tank slappers when crossing longitudinal ridges, formed by "super single" lorry tyres, in soft tarmac. so, I am now running cross-ply pressures and it sticks like ..... to the proverbial horse blanket. Whilst with cross-plys runs 28psi front and 32psi rear, only increasing the rear to 34psi when two up.

I post a link from the "Bribike Forum" to a thread where the B44 owner asks about tyre pressures and whilst correspondents acknowledge that modern tyres are more flexible than the old varieties, 28-30psi and 32-34psi rear seems to be a concensus.

Link: BritBike_Forum_B44_tyre_pressures_query?

Also, on the Farcebook, Watsonian Squire Sidecar Owners Group, a query regarding tyre pressures for a Harley FLXH with a chair similar to yours attached, runs these pressures, in what appear to be modern round profile, white wall tyres.

"Try 35~38 on the rear as a starter.
30~33 front and 25~28 psi chair."

Bearing in mind the weight of a Harley FXLH, compared with the B'Zuki, I'd drop your front pressure by 4 psi and rear pressure by 2 psi to start off with. And see how it feels!

Also, a phone call or email to Watsonian Sidecars, might not go amiss and see what they recommend for something like an Enfield 500 outfit. Here's a link to their website, including contact details:

Watsonian-Squire_sidecars_website

I hope this helps. Good health, Bill

[iansoady]

Many thanks Bill, much food for thought. Interestingly, David Angel of F2 motorcycles (the Ural bloke) recommends I drop the front to 26. However another experienced charioteer suggests raising it! Confused? Yes I am...

However, another chap has suggested the rear suspension units are too soft and I think that may be the root of my problem as I did change them and the ones I've fitted are definitely bouncier than the ones I took off. So plan A is to replace them; Plan B (if that fails) will be to drop the front to say 30 psi and the back to 32; Plan c: who knows?

I did check the wights on the wheels (with the sidecar body fitted but unloaded) but can't now find them!

Oh, here they are: sidecar wheel 64kg; bike front wheel 86kg; bike back wheel 89kg. All unladen. So in runn9ing order would estimate sidecar wheel 84kg; back wheel 180kg; bike front wheel 110kg.