How come I never thought of that? (slaps head)SB,,,
I use 2 mirrors, the left is for traffic, and the right is aimed at the precious cargo
just my simple solution
SB
Firebird, Silverbear's Worksman Cruiser
- Thread starter silverbear
- Start date
SB
even before I was motored, I used a trailer and with my poor eyesight, was concerned with clipping curbs and the like with the trailer...
it seemed like a good solution
don't spend too much time obsessing over a rear dropstand. remember you have three wheels. it won't fall over.
Yes, that's true enough so long as the sidecar is attached, but I want to be able to remove it easily (one condition in having a sidecar is that it attach and detach quickly and without hassle). Also, I want to have an under the crank expansion tank which pretty well eliminates a kickstand anywhere nearby. And I expect to do other builds which will be able to have a sidecar or not at will. The sidecar front mount also interferes with a center stand, so I have been interested in this problem for some time. I liked Barely's welded on solution to the problem with his Rollfast, but I don't weld and that alters a bike, making it that much harder to return to stock if anyone ever wanted to. Still, I was ready to have something welded up on this Worksman until I saw this photo of an old Shaw motorcycle. This appears to be their first stab at a motored bicycle and the frame does not have a built in mount or stop for the drop stand, but look at what it does have...don't spend too much time obsessing over a rear dropstand. remember you have three wheels. it won't fall over.
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...so the great idea is not mine. I don't get many great ideas, but what I'm pretty good at is recognizing a good idea when I see someone elses. Our long ago Brothers In The Wind at Shaw answered the problem for me. I have yet to draw one up, but it looks simple enough. On each side of the axle is a plate held in place by the axle nut with one tab bent in to butt up against the fender stay and the other tab bent out to act as a stop for the drop stand in the down position. Theirs even looks good. Mine won't match for the Worksman since I will make the one on the right also have a receptacle for the rearmost mount for the sidecar (same as what comes with a kiddie trailer, but instead of bolting that onto the axle it will be offset and bolt onto the plate for the drop stand to the front of the axle where it won't interfere with the action of the drop stand. If you didn't have a sidecar or it mounted differently than mine then both drop stand plates would be the same. I think it's pretty slick. When I saw this I couldn't believe how simple and elegant a solution it was. Any older cruiser or potential board tracker frame could utilize this if a drop stand was desired. I'm planning to do one for the Panther build after this one. I like the way drop stands look because it is part of what old time bikes look like in my mind.
So that's part of what I wanted to pass along today and share with everyone. If Crazy Horse sees this or Sportscarpat or Jim of Creative Engineering.... Camlifter or any of you guys who can manufacture parts, I hope down the line that someone makes these available to everyone. Maybe a kit with the plates, a catch setup and drop stand could be sold as a kit. It would be a service to the motor bicycling community. We need to also come up with catch solutions. If there's a fender the original spring catch would work, but I understand they were noisy and if they got bent in the normal abuse boys gave their bikes then the stand might drop while riding along, dragging on the ground. Also if there's no fender then skip that solution anyway. Someone clever will dream up smart catch alternatives. I know that somebody reading this will want to suggest the spring loaded "kind of looks like a drop stand" available on Ebay and elsewhere. I had one of those and could not find any bicycle I wanted to use that it would fit. I ended up reselling it as a used one. For me that is no solution and I don't want to fool with one. I also discovered it took up a lot of axle thread real estate and I could not have both a trailer and a drop stand. I have to have either a trailer or sidecar (dog said) which use the same type of mount, so the Shaw solution looks real good to me. Shaw boys, if you guys are kind of in the wings here looking on as spirits... you guys rock!
SB
So that's part of what I wanted to pass along today and share with everyone. If Crazy Horse sees this or Sportscarpat or Jim of Creative Engineering.... Camlifter or any of you guys who can manufacture parts, I hope down the line that someone makes these available to everyone. Maybe a kit with the plates, a catch setup and drop stand could be sold as a kit. It would be a service to the motor bicycling community. We need to also come up with catch solutions. If there's a fender the original spring catch would work, but I understand they were noisy and if they got bent in the normal abuse boys gave their bikes then the stand might drop while riding along, dragging on the ground. Also if there's no fender then skip that solution anyway. Someone clever will dream up smart catch alternatives. I know that somebody reading this will want to suggest the spring loaded "kind of looks like a drop stand" available on Ebay and elsewhere. I had one of those and could not find any bicycle I wanted to use that it would fit. I ended up reselling it as a used one. For me that is no solution and I don't want to fool with one. I also discovered it took up a lot of axle thread real estate and I could not have both a trailer and a drop stand. I have to have either a trailer or sidecar (dog said) which use the same type of mount, so the Shaw solution looks real good to me. Shaw boys, if you guys are kind of in the wings here looking on as spirits... you guys rock!
SB
Not a lot of progress today on the sidecar as we didn't feel much like it. Some more creative staring occurred and is every bit as much a part of a build as the wrench turning. I did not cut into the frame yet to section it in order to reduce its width, but that will certainly happen as I want to draw the canoe in as close as pedal and foot clearance will allow. I did do a little cleaning of the skin with super fine steel wool dipped in water with some Murphy's Oil soap in it. A half hours work produced some pretty dramatic results at the bow and left half of the stern. I'm surprised at how nicely it is cleaning up and has some shine to it, a far cry from the dented and oxidized canoe I paid $20.00 for. Who'd a thunk it? This started out as an experiment, but I think will satisfy my yearning for a sidecar even if I make another next summer. Steve thinks that now we know what we're doing we could turn out the basic canoe in less time than his one took. I'm sure that's true.
I have a question if anyone can answer it. I think I have a line on a 20 x 3" tire in white with a street tread similar to the Electras. Is it possible to mount a three inch tire on a 2.125" rim? This is for the sidecar and would not get a lot of weight on it if that is an issue. I was thinking if it is a problem would it be possible to use some sort of contact cement at the edges of the rim maybe and fill the tube up just enough to give it shape and let that set up before filling it up to a medium hardness? Yes, no? if yes, that would be very cool.
I'll get into the planned mounting setup tomorrow which I think would work OK for any bike with a light to medium weight sidecar and a planned passenger load of a hundred pounds or so. Until I have used this setup more and know it is sound I wouldn't want to try more of a load than that. I'm still a little anxious about how different it will be riding with a sidecar as opposed to a trailer... quite a lot different I imagine. We'll see...
SB
I have a question if anyone can answer it. I think I have a line on a 20 x 3" tire in white with a street tread similar to the Electras. Is it possible to mount a three inch tire on a 2.125" rim? This is for the sidecar and would not get a lot of weight on it if that is an issue. I was thinking if it is a problem would it be possible to use some sort of contact cement at the edges of the rim maybe and fill the tube up just enough to give it shape and let that set up before filling it up to a medium hardness? Yes, no? if yes, that would be very cool.
I'll get into the planned mounting setup tomorrow which I think would work OK for any bike with a light to medium weight sidecar and a planned passenger load of a hundred pounds or so. Until I have used this setup more and know it is sound I wouldn't want to try more of a load than that. I'm still a little anxious about how different it will be riding with a sidecar as opposed to a trailer... quite a lot different I imagine. We'll see...
SB
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yes, a 3" wide tire will mount to a standard rim
my old deviate chopper (RIP) came stock with a 24x3 on a normal width rim
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my old deviate chopper (RIP) came stock with a 24x3 on a normal width rim
gallery384
Well, that's good to hear. Awesome! That tire with a black balloon fender is going to look just right. Thanks, Bill.yes, a 3" wide tire will mount to a standard rim
my old deviate chopper (RIP) came stock with a 24x3 on a normal width rim
gallery384
SB
I will check Amazon out. And the Monark for sure Had one when I was 16 super tuff bike. Wish it was still here. The little Yorky I have one just like it 12 years old 3 1/2 lb femail Bossy nlittle bugger.
one other question what size tires would you run on your 3 wheeler?
Hey Curtis,
I think I wasn't using their search deal right at Amazon and wasted a lot of time. There is a search bar and I think if you type in there what you're looking for it will find it. They have a lot of tires listed...
On a three wheeler the front one would be 26" for me since I'd be using a vintage cruiser type frame. As I understand it, what is appropriate to go with that size up front is slightly smaller in back or in this case, 24". Something about the way the bike sits I think. I'm just learning about this stuff myself. It would probably be good to ask that over on the thread on the Spooky Tooth Conversion Kit as some of those guys seem to know a lot about this. My trike is a long ways off, with this one up front and the Panther with a four stroke waiting next. Probably I won't get to it until winter or spring, so by then I'll be asking you how to do things.
SB
SB
I think I wasn't using their search deal right at Amazon and wasted a lot of time. There is a search bar and I think if you type in there what you're looking for it will find it. They have a lot of tires listed...
On a three wheeler the front one would be 26" for me since I'd be using a vintage cruiser type frame. As I understand it, what is appropriate to go with that size up front is slightly smaller in back or in this case, 24". Something about the way the bike sits I think. I'm just learning about this stuff myself. It would probably be good to ask that over on the thread on the Spooky Tooth Conversion Kit as some of those guys seem to know a lot about this. My trike is a long ways off, with this one up front and the Panther with a four stroke waiting next. Probably I won't get to it until winter or spring, so by then I'll be asking you how to do things.
SB
SB
Things are looking real good up were you are..Silverbear and Fasteddy..a good team for sure..reading all these posts and looking at the pics brought a smile to my face..another classic sidecar is born
Hey Ted,
Yeah, for starting out as a hair-brained idea of mine and an experiment to see if it could be done, this old Grumman has turned out really well. Thanks to Steve the next one will be better yet now that I know how to go about it, but as it is this one's very satisfying. We used some mag and aluminum polish for about 45 minutes this evening with a cut up old T-shirt as polishing cloths and the results are amazing. I have an orbital buffer I got at a yard sale for seven bucks a couple years ago, but have never used it for anything. I think tomorrow I'm going to cut up an old sweatshirt to make polishing pads for it... a trick I read about in polishing old Airstream and Spartan trailers to bring up a high shine. They use a polishing compound called Nuvite in different grits and turn the sweatshirt material inside out so that the 'rough' side is against the aluminum skin. When it gets all loaded up with black deposits (dead aluminum and dirt) it gets changed for a clean one and later they all get washed in the washing machine for reuse. With something this small it wouldn't take long at all to bring up a shine. The bow area has been gone over three times, but the mid section just once and each time it brings out more luster. I'm amazed at how good it looks just doing it by hand. The little deck looks so good that I have decided against using the "Indian" speedometer, much as I like it. If I use a speedometer at at it will be one of two old Schwinn ones I have which are about a third the size of the one I was going to use. And I would tuck it under the dash so that the sweeping lines of the deck are left alone. If I go that route I can run the speedometer cable through the floor to the sidecar wheel so that it actually works, not accurately, but so what, are any of the mechanic speedometers accurate?
Steve continues on his journey tomorrow and in a few days will be in New Hampshire visiting his son. Then on to Maine where he hopes to say hello to BarelyAWake and on to Prince Edward Island off the coast of New Brunswick, about two thousand miles from here. I'm tired just thinking about it, but his pristine old 84 Dodge camper allows for rests whenever needed and he's looking forward to the journey. Godspeed and stay safe my friend.
I was going to do a post this evening about the intended sidecar mounting setup, but am tired and will do it tomorrow. I did start sectioning the sidecar frame today and hope to have that narrowed up tomorrow. I need to leave this sidecar alone and get to work on the bike, but it keeps drawing me back and now I want to finish polishing it. Sure looks good. My brother was looking at it this evening, then looking over at the dull and battered section it was cut from, then back to the sidecar. He couldn't get over it and asked if I would like to polish his canoe for him. I wouldn't unless he lets me cut it up into two more sidecars. Ha!
SB
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SB I am doing on on my curent build I had to weld a couple of tabs on the frame. I will see if I can scan you some pictures. I did this last year and havn't been able to get back at it. I also seen it in old pictures and designed my own.
I checked out Steves wood boat AWESOME. If you ever want any of that thin wood you can find a sash and door co. and you should be able to buy a door skin. I have some mow you got the head working. I could even do a wood canoe ceader framed. Did steve put a motor on the Monark? I have a pasthrough Monark but lacking front fender. Would like to find one.......Curt
Hey Curtis,
Steve's Chris Craft sidecar is an electric pusher. The sidecar wheel has a high end pancake motor built in and the battery (also high end lithium, lightweight and able to recharge like a thousand times) is toward the back inside a hatch which on a real inboard would house the engine. In Canada they have made gas motored bikes illegal, so he went this route instead. This also allows him to leave the restored Monarch unmolested. Your step through Monarch would make a neat three wheeler. I believe Steve has an extra Monarch front fender so you might want to PM him about that. Regarding a cedar strip canoe... I always wanted to build one and think it would be an excellent way to make a beautiful sidecar from scratch. As it is I have little work space indoors, have a lot of irons in the fire and at this point am very happy with the old Grumman. It was a 17 foot Grumman made around 1947 that I first used as a six year old boy on Ojibwa Lake north of Ely, so making this newer 17 foot Grumman into a sidecar is coming full circle now that I am in my second childhood.
Something else I was thinking about this evening as I admired the shining sidecar is that a long time ago when I was perhaps seven years old, my older brother said that someday he was going to have an Indian motorcycle with a sidecar and I could ride in the sidecar while he rode the Indian. Sounded good to me then and still does, but he has forgotten that dream while I have not. So I get to ride the Indian and my pal Moosh will ride in the sidecar. Works for me.
If you have scanned photos you can email me, I would be happy to upload them here for you. G'night Curt.
SB
SECTIONING THE SIDECAR FRAME
Steve left for the east coast this morning and I did some finish up work on the sidecar frame, sectioning it about seven inches in order to make it narrower. I used a tubing cutter plumbers find handy for cutting copper pipe. It makes a very clean cut, but if you don't have one a hack saw will do the job. I went to the local Mall of America branch (the dump) to shop for a chunk of pipe to either fit inside the cutoff sections or to fit over them. I found a piece or galvanized water pipe, cut it in half with the hacksaw and fit it inside the cutoff pieces. Then I drilled holes for bolts and joined the sections together again. Now the sidecar doesn't look lost on the frame and will fit closer to the bike. It will look better and also take up less of the road.
SB
Steve left for the east coast this morning and I did some finish up work on the sidecar frame, sectioning it about seven inches in order to make it narrower. I used a tubing cutter plumbers find handy for cutting copper pipe. It makes a very clean cut, but if you don't have one a hack saw will do the job. I went to the local Mall of America branch (the dump) to shop for a chunk of pipe to either fit inside the cutoff sections or to fit over them. I found a piece or galvanized water pipe, cut it in half with the hacksaw and fit it inside the cutoff pieces. Then I drilled holes for bolts and joined the sections together again. Now the sidecar doesn't look lost on the frame and will fit closer to the bike. It will look better and also take up less of the road.
SB
Attachments
MOUNTING THE SIDECAR
The first photo shows the sectioned frame with the canoe/sidecar on it. On the side opposite the wheel you can see two extensions sticking out from the frame. These are the arms which attach to the bicycle. The one to the rear was the original arm which came off the front of the trailer and attached to the rear axle. I reversed it since now the frame is to the side of the bike instead of behind it. That arm will still attach to original hardware at the axle. It is designed to be able to flex a bit and is very secure. The front mounting point borrows an idea used by a very lightweight narrow sidecar by Chariot, for a dog or small child and is only supposed to handle about half the weight of a typical bicycle trailer. It has just one mount coming off the front of a piece of hardware which clamps to the bike frame under the pedal crank housing. The piece of hardware I have fabricated is a little different, but the same in principle. I used it originally on the Elgin you see pictured. It is made of double wall copper pipe. I chose copper because I don't weld. But I do solder. You can see under the pedal crank an L shaped copper run. The vertical part comes up just forward of the point where the rear fender bolts to the frame and a longer bolt is used so that it can hold both the fender and the copper fitting. Another bolt uses a kickstand plate to bolt through the horizontal run just behind the pedal crank. The copper pipe continues under the pedal and forward of it is a U bolt securing it to the frame above. This may look Mickey Mouse, but it is actually a quite solid mount. When the sidecar is attached the forward arm is secured first and slips over the end of the above described mount running under the pedal crankshaft. Then the rear mount is attached at the axle. The front mount can not come loose once the rear one is secured in place. The forward arm running to the sidecar frame is soldered at each union but one. That union uses a small brass bolt to secure one section to the next. I did this at the coupling so that the coupling (with the bolt temporarily removed) could be turned in or out a few turns for fine tuning the alignment of the sidecar and bicycle. It is easier to understand how it works looking at pictures than it is to describe it with words. For this build the arm in back will be shortened a bit to draw the sidecar and bicycle closer together than when the frame supported what was once a bicycle trailer, shown earlier in this thread with the 39 Elgin and the dog in the trailer. The fabricated arm will also be shortened in like manner to the rear one and may need to be re soldered to adjust the height of the arm, either raising or lowering the front of the sidecar, another advantage in using copper fittings. The fabricated arm is bolted to the sidecar frame alongside the reversed trailer arm and is then further secured with stainless steel hose clamps. The round object you see in one photo is the piece of hardware which attaches to the rear axle. The small hole fits onto the axle shaft and the large hole is a receptacle for the trailer arm which is now our rear arm for the sidecar. Once fitted into the socket it is pinned and can not come out. Detaching the sidecar takes less than a minute, removing first the pin at the rear mount, pulling the arm out of the socket and then pushing the sidecar forward a few inches to disengage the front mount. This is the setup I used on the Elgin and what I will also use for the Worksman. I believe this mounting system is strong enough for a light to medium weight sidecar. I weighed the sidecar today and it is around thirty five pounds for the body and another ten pounds for the frame and wheel, bringing it to less than fifty pounds. My dog weighs around thirty pounds. The original trailer was rated at a cargo of one hundred pounds, but keep in mind that the floor and sides were made of fabric. The canoe has a lot of structural integrity by itself. Still, I will use the original cargo recommendation as a guide and use this for light to medium loads... a child, dogs, groceries, but no adults unless she is really good looking.
If the front arm were welded steel then I'm sure it could handle a greater load. I'll be watching this arm closely to see if there is any sign of weakening and if so will have a steel arm made by a local welder. I'm curious to see how the copper holds up. Double walled copper is pretty strong and silver solder makes a strong joint.
There are other ways to attach a sidecar. Steve's is modeled after the British Watsonian sidecar mounts and is much stronger which it needs to be. His sidecar is a good deal heavier and the sidecar is a pusher and is powering the bicycle down the road, a very different situation than mine. I have also seen sidecars welded to the bicycle frame, but i wanted mine to attach and detach and to do it easily and quickly. The sidecar thread located elsewhere on this forum has a wealth of information and links you might want to study if you're contemplating making your own. I make no claim my way is the best way. It is just the way I did it using tools available to me, a pretty simple design, existing hardware and limited funds. As I have set this up the bike is able to flex a bit in relation to the sidecar, theoretically making it possible to lean into turns. I understand this is not desirable with a motorcycle which is much heavier. The original Watsonian mounts made for a bicycle had two mounts which could pivot, allowing for leaning into turns. The ones they made later for motorcycles did not pivot and had a third supporting arm to keep things rigid. I don't pretend to know what is best, but at this point will go with the idea that the sidecar is light, the Worksman is a bicycle and I will try it with flexing unions. I can always add a third support to make it rigid if I need to. I'm curious to try it this way first. Sorry for the very long post. This one is for the folks who are planning to make a sidecar. I hope you do...
SB
The first photo shows the sectioned frame with the canoe/sidecar on it. On the side opposite the wheel you can see two extensions sticking out from the frame. These are the arms which attach to the bicycle. The one to the rear was the original arm which came off the front of the trailer and attached to the rear axle. I reversed it since now the frame is to the side of the bike instead of behind it. That arm will still attach to original hardware at the axle. It is designed to be able to flex a bit and is very secure. The front mounting point borrows an idea used by a very lightweight narrow sidecar by Chariot, for a dog or small child and is only supposed to handle about half the weight of a typical bicycle trailer. It has just one mount coming off the front of a piece of hardware which clamps to the bike frame under the pedal crank housing. The piece of hardware I have fabricated is a little different, but the same in principle. I used it originally on the Elgin you see pictured. It is made of double wall copper pipe. I chose copper because I don't weld. But I do solder. You can see under the pedal crank an L shaped copper run. The vertical part comes up just forward of the point where the rear fender bolts to the frame and a longer bolt is used so that it can hold both the fender and the copper fitting. Another bolt uses a kickstand plate to bolt through the horizontal run just behind the pedal crank. The copper pipe continues under the pedal and forward of it is a U bolt securing it to the frame above. This may look Mickey Mouse, but it is actually a quite solid mount. When the sidecar is attached the forward arm is secured first and slips over the end of the above described mount running under the pedal crankshaft. Then the rear mount is attached at the axle. The front mount can not come loose once the rear one is secured in place. The forward arm running to the sidecar frame is soldered at each union but one. That union uses a small brass bolt to secure one section to the next. I did this at the coupling so that the coupling (with the bolt temporarily removed) could be turned in or out a few turns for fine tuning the alignment of the sidecar and bicycle. It is easier to understand how it works looking at pictures than it is to describe it with words. For this build the arm in back will be shortened a bit to draw the sidecar and bicycle closer together than when the frame supported what was once a bicycle trailer, shown earlier in this thread with the 39 Elgin and the dog in the trailer. The fabricated arm will also be shortened in like manner to the rear one and may need to be re soldered to adjust the height of the arm, either raising or lowering the front of the sidecar, another advantage in using copper fittings. The fabricated arm is bolted to the sidecar frame alongside the reversed trailer arm and is then further secured with stainless steel hose clamps. The round object you see in one photo is the piece of hardware which attaches to the rear axle. The small hole fits onto the axle shaft and the large hole is a receptacle for the trailer arm which is now our rear arm for the sidecar. Once fitted into the socket it is pinned and can not come out. Detaching the sidecar takes less than a minute, removing first the pin at the rear mount, pulling the arm out of the socket and then pushing the sidecar forward a few inches to disengage the front mount. This is the setup I used on the Elgin and what I will also use for the Worksman. I believe this mounting system is strong enough for a light to medium weight sidecar. I weighed the sidecar today and it is around thirty five pounds for the body and another ten pounds for the frame and wheel, bringing it to less than fifty pounds. My dog weighs around thirty pounds. The original trailer was rated at a cargo of one hundred pounds, but keep in mind that the floor and sides were made of fabric. The canoe has a lot of structural integrity by itself. Still, I will use the original cargo recommendation as a guide and use this for light to medium loads... a child, dogs, groceries, but no adults unless she is really good looking.
If the front arm were welded steel then I'm sure it could handle a greater load. I'll be watching this arm closely to see if there is any sign of weakening and if so will have a steel arm made by a local welder. I'm curious to see how the copper holds up. Double walled copper is pretty strong and silver solder makes a strong joint.
There are other ways to attach a sidecar. Steve's is modeled after the British Watsonian sidecar mounts and is much stronger which it needs to be. His sidecar is a good deal heavier and the sidecar is a pusher and is powering the bicycle down the road, a very different situation than mine. I have also seen sidecars welded to the bicycle frame, but i wanted mine to attach and detach and to do it easily and quickly. The sidecar thread located elsewhere on this forum has a wealth of information and links you might want to study if you're contemplating making your own. I make no claim my way is the best way. It is just the way I did it using tools available to me, a pretty simple design, existing hardware and limited funds. As I have set this up the bike is able to flex a bit in relation to the sidecar, theoretically making it possible to lean into turns. I understand this is not desirable with a motorcycle which is much heavier. The original Watsonian mounts made for a bicycle had two mounts which could pivot, allowing for leaning into turns. The ones they made later for motorcycles did not pivot and had a third supporting arm to keep things rigid. I don't pretend to know what is best, but at this point will go with the idea that the sidecar is light, the Worksman is a bicycle and I will try it with flexing unions. I can always add a third support to make it rigid if I need to. I'm curious to try it this way first. Sorry for the very long post. This one is for the folks who are planning to make a sidecar. I hope you do...
SB
Attachments
Over the past couple of days in between thunderstorms I've been working on the axle plates. These little plates are key for me to figure out and fabricate. The basic idea for a drop stand plate came from seeing a photograph of an old Shaw motored bicycle/ motorcycle (kind of the same thing in the early days). A picture of it is a couple of posts back on this thread. The Shaw plate had one function; to mount the dropstand. My axle plate has three functions: to mount the drop stand, to mount the rear arm of the sidecar and to mount the rear rack. Mine is bigger and not as elegant looking as the Shaw, but it looks to me like this is going to work OK, which is a relief.
I cut out two pieces of flat steel stock 3" X 3" and then drew on the plate where I thought each thing would mount, drilled the appropriate holes and then made cuts with a metal blade in a jigsaw for where two tabs would get bent, following the idea of the Shaw. One bend goes under the fender stay and the other is angled below the mounting point for the drop stand and is bent in the opmosite direction, outwards. Once cut I clamped down each piece in the vise and hammered the tabs to make the bends. I made each plate (one for each side) the same and each has a mount for the sidecar/trailer so that I can switch back and forth between sidecar and trailer or I suppose could use both, although I don't foresee a need for that. The sidecar mounts on the right side of the bike by law and it happens that the bicycle trailer arm mounts on the left side. Once fixed to the axle I can see that I may have a bit of trouble with the drop stand and will either need to make the tab under it cut in further or make another set of plates. I'd as soon not, but now at least I know what will work best and that it will work. The drop stand pictured is from the Rustoration build and made it through the fire, more or less. I'm just using it for a mock up and will make another pretty much like it out of double wall copper pipe, but with the upper end beefed up a bit. I won't make the final version until the bike is pretty much done and the fenders are mounted... that way I can get the length of the stand just right. Still don't know for sure yet how I'm going to affix the stand to the fender in the up (riding) position. I'll follow this post later with pictures emailed to me of an idea Curtis Fox has for a drop stand setup for his build.
I cut out two pieces of flat steel stock 3" X 3" and then drew on the plate where I thought each thing would mount, drilled the appropriate holes and then made cuts with a metal blade in a jigsaw for where two tabs would get bent, following the idea of the Shaw. One bend goes under the fender stay and the other is angled below the mounting point for the drop stand and is bent in the opmosite direction, outwards. Once cut I clamped down each piece in the vise and hammered the tabs to make the bends. I made each plate (one for each side) the same and each has a mount for the sidecar/trailer so that I can switch back and forth between sidecar and trailer or I suppose could use both, although I don't foresee a need for that. The sidecar mounts on the right side of the bike by law and it happens that the bicycle trailer arm mounts on the left side. Once fixed to the axle I can see that I may have a bit of trouble with the drop stand and will either need to make the tab under it cut in further or make another set of plates. I'd as soon not, but now at least I know what will work best and that it will work. The drop stand pictured is from the Rustoration build and made it through the fire, more or less. I'm just using it for a mock up and will make another pretty much like it out of double wall copper pipe, but with the upper end beefed up a bit. I won't make the final version until the bike is pretty much done and the fenders are mounted... that way I can get the length of the stand just right. Still don't know for sure yet how I'm going to affix the stand to the fender in the up (riding) position. I'll follow this post later with pictures emailed to me of an idea Curtis Fox has for a drop stand setup for his build.
Attachments
I meant to include the picture below which better shows what the plat looks like with the tabs cut and bent in...
SB
SB
