I like your style. I think we could make good partners in train wrecking stuff. Don't get me wrong here, but wish I would have kept my '02 Dakar and worked with Jay to hack it. I really like my R100 when I'm not working on it, and it works very well with my wife as monkey in the chair. But it is strictly a street rig and I miss the gravel and dirt. BTW, two years, 14,000 miles, and three slow/no speed drops onto my right shoulder off the Dakar, and I totally ripped the ligaments out of my rotator cuff. Microsurgery and six months of PT were not the most pleasant days of my life. So I can only imagine what your are going through. Hang tough, ride as often as possible, and know you are making tons of new friends every day here on ADV. When my time comes I can only hope to have a doctor/friend as good as yours.
I'd like to echo Boxertwin. Thank you for telling this story. After seeing those pics of your DL1000 laying around in various poses like so many beached whales, I now understand why you call yourself StromSurfer. I can picture your Strom sliding down a dirt road on its side with you perched up top in classic surfer pose riding it to the end. As a former DL1000 guy, yours looked like a really nicely outfitted Strom. My Strom also had a tendency to spit me out onto various dirt roads. I think I dumped it 15 times before the final break up. (Literally--it broke me up then I broke it up. ) I'll PM you a pic or two. I think you will find yourself on three wheels fairly soon. You have all that help plus, as you will soon discover, installing the subframe then setting up the car is not really as complicated as one might think.
I would give some serious thought to adding a leading link front end to your bike. The main reason being: http://www.f650gs.crossroadz.com.au/FFIntro.html
Hey, don't feel bad about dropping your '06 'strom a couple times. Geez, Ive already dropped her twice in the driveway, which in theory should be way less challenging than the roads you went horizontal on. Given our obviously exceptional riding skills, it must be the bike. So far she's been down to Sanibel Island, up to Birmingham to the Barber Vintage Festival, and round tripped up to Greensboro again. Looking forward to seeing the finished rig....stay healthy, man.
I had not heard of the fork issue, We of course do offer a leading link for the F650GS Jay G DMC sidecars www.dmcsidecars.com 866-638-1793 jay@dmcsidecars.com
Hey, me too! http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=20065320#post20065320 Sorry, don't wanna hijack the thread, but seeing other KLR/Sputnik owners is cool! To the OP, go for it! I love my KLR/Sputnik combo, so your BMW 650 oughta be a similarly just-fine-runnin' rig!
53 pages worth: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=700385 And this makes it look like the OP's bike is right in there with the ones that failed. Again, I'd highly recommend that the added stresses of a hack NOT be put on those forks. Any failure and they'd say it was your fault and sadly, they'd be somewhat right. http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/p...r=PE09026&SearchType=QuickSearch&summary=true
I knew about the forks before I bought the bike. I had read about 5,000 pages on the subject. What I found was about 4,995 pages of people hyperventilating about a handful of breaks. I just read through the first twenty pages of the link above and It seems to be all about the SAME few bikes. I would be curious to know the actual count for confirmed failures compared to the number of bike manufactured but......I don't really care enough to spend the time trying to find out. Kind of like the Doo on my old KLR. Lots more conversation about it than actual occurrences. Not saying it doesn't happen, just saying I'm probably not going to do anything about it. I will keep an eye on the forks for stress fractures. I really do appreciate folks making sure that I know that there have been some issues and I duly acknowledge having been warned. If it starts to keep me awake at night.....no wait I"m already awake at night just trying to make sure I will still be here in the morning........if I need to make an upgrade I known where to get the links. Thanks for all the input. MC
I'm sure you'll have a blast with the rig. I fell into sidecars about 19 months ago and love it. I hope I didn't come off as too much of a Chicken Little. I guess I should have just said that I'd go for a leading link instead of spending any possible extra money on things like a set of easy steer triple clamps. After about 10,000 miles on a rig I can say that it certainly does put a lot more side stress on a front end compared to the few forces of leaning a bike into a curve. Best of luck with the rig and everything else, Tom
Thanks for posting the info on the fork situation. I was not aware of it. We have not actually done a 650 gs sidecar outfit although we did begin one awhile back and in mid build the person decided to go with a 1150 GS instead. Would still like to do one at some point and now after seeing those pics we would go with one of our leading links for the front end.
Giving a person the heads up on safety related stuff is not the same as predicting the sky is falling. I appreciate your input and thank you for taking the time to post the info. MC
Hello Guy. Ya I agree I think it was the Stroms fault, and I blame this summers falls on bad steering head bearings in the GS.. Glad to hear you are covering some ground on the V. Makes me happy to know its still being used as it was intended. Thanks for checking in and say hi to your brother. I will be in NC towards the end of the month. Maybe I"ll look him up, gush over his Ducati.........and make him buy me lunch. Take Care MC
Do that...he'd love to see you. He just picked up a BMW R1100S to keep the Duc company in the garage. Shoot, let me know when you're planning to be in town and Ill take the Strom for a ride..good excuse to get out of FL for a while.
Update So as we all know, timing is everything. For me, putting together the hack has been a balance between enjoying the process of putting it together, and getting it done in time to ride it before.....I can't. Working on it has given me a winter diversion. When I am working on motorcycles it's all about problem solving, seeng how things work, and learning something new.......you know, the zen of motorcycle maintenance. The project has gone well. Talking with Jay a few times helped clear up a few questions, but generally, the rig has gone together smoothly and as designed. I received invaluable assistance off and on from good friends, combined with lots of solo hours out in my shop looking, thinking, and moving slowly. I make slow progress Three test rides so far. First two the thing was almost unrideble due to major tank slappers. I had installed new steering head bearings so checked and sure enough, they were loose. I guess I didn't quite tighten it after installing the new ones as much as I shoulda have. Went for a ride today and it is way better. Bit of a head shake around twenty five mph, but now it is at least manageable. Pulls to the right hard so checked it all over and found instead of toe-in at 5/8 I am actually out 2". How the frig did that happen. At least I know where to start to address the pull to the right. The great things is my riding season started last week. i am having fun, learning something new, and enjoying my time. Changed out chain and sprockets and went down one tooth on the front. Subframe in Upper frame mount. Won't need this anymore. Wife made me a happy meal. Time for a test drive. zps39307e19.jpg[/IMG] So after about 10 adjustments (dam thing fell over once when I was oh so close to final adjustment) I think I may have it as good as its going to be. Getting more comfortable with it but in truth, my first thought after riding it was.....what a f#*ed up thing to do to a perfectly good moto. I will add more at some point about how it steers and handles but for now.....I just have to figure out how to keep it going straight and between the lines....and yes I have read the Yellow Book but reading and doing are two really different things. MC
Hey, Surfer -- good to hear ya got it rolling! May I make a suggestion? Take that pic of the happy face meal, this one-- upload it to Skinit or a similar site, turn it into a big laptop skin, then when it comes in, mount it right there on the front face of the sidecar.
"Getting more comfortable with it but in truth, my first thought after riding it was.....what a f#*ed up thing to do to a perfectly good moto." I'm new also but a little further along, 2 years ago while leaning I met a Slovak gentlemen now from MA who was on a cross country MC ride,Seeing my then naked 83 wing /Ural and hearing my exasperation he replied with the eastern Euro accent "Sidecars, you have to hate them till you love them" and that's kinda the was its been going.DB
