Single sided swingarm and wheel

[nick5446]

I'm rebuilding the suspension on my sidecar this winter and I think I'm gonna graft a SSSA to it. With that, looking for a swingarm, shock, linkage and wheel. Would gladly take a brake, tire and any hardware...shouldn't need a sprocket, but you never know.

Don't particularly care what it's off of. VFR, Ducati, Triumph...no shaft drives...whatever. Cheap is best!

[OreoGaborio]

Sounds like an interesting project. Pics?

[nick5446]

Here she is. Came from a backwoods "engineer" up in northern Maine. The guy was probably 350 pounds and he said he built it so that he and his "fat fuck" best friend could go for long rides. It was covered in super odd-ball shit and mostly booger welds. The sidecar is built out with shag carpet and the top opens up by hinging at the front. It locks partially open for knee/belly room depending on stature.

I bought it about 6 years ago, enjoyed it for about a year and got annoyed with how much space it took up, so I sold it. I pretty quickly regretted selling it, but it fortunately popped up for sale about a year ago, so I bought it back. The guy barely used it, but he was in Gloucester and the chrome and aluminum got destroyed from the salty air. Over the winter I replaced or restored most of the shit that was rusty, which meant replacing and rebuilding the forks and shocks, so I stiffened them both up while I was in there. Fixing up the suspension on the bike kind of exacerbated the bad shock on the sidecar, plus, when I was looking more closely at it, the trailing arm has a ton of slop in it and seems pretty sketchy.

[OreoGaborio]

lol. Awesome.

Soooooo how are you gonna convert this thing to SSSA? Will the wheel end up about in the same spot as the existing one and you're just gonna weld up a pivot and shock mount roughly mid-"ship"?

[nick5446]

Should be interesting...goal would be axles more-or-less in the same locations. I'm hoping it starts to make sense when I have all the parts in front of me.

[02redhawk]

Never looked closely at a side car. Would a SSSA affect how the vehicle turns depending on the weight in the side car?

[nick5446]

Never looked closely at a side car. Would a SSSA affect how the vehicle turns depending on the weight in the side car?

Not sure I follow your question. It's got a trailing arm currently that acts the same as a swingarm. If I get my sidecar wheel positioned pretty close to where it is currently, I wouldn't expect major handling differences. I'm sure a SSSA will be heavier than what's on there currently, but that will actually be a nice benefit. I'm a little worried about a massively wide tire, but I'll spoon on the skinniest tire that'll fit and cross my fingers.

[nick5446]

Bumping this! I finally pulled this thing out of storage for the season and remembered how sketchy my current setup is, so I am still looking for a cheap single sided swingarm

[boosten lebaron]

Have you looked at the Honda gt650 sssa? They have narrow tires so that's one less thing to worry about

[nick5446]

Have you looked at the Honda gt650 sssa? They have narrow tires so that's one less thing to worry about

That's a great idea, thanks! Not sure I'll be able to find one, but that's a good target for sure.

My dumb ass was just gonna drag around a 190 off of a ducati or something

[OneCheekRider]

Not sure if this would work for your setup, but I picked up a used Triumph Trophy rear wheel for cheap to run on my Tiger. It is a 6" wide rim which allows me to run a more mileage-oriented tire when I'm doing exclusively hwy. Anywho, looks like they're still pretty dang cheap on ebay. I know you're looking for a swingarm but since this bolts up using traditional lug nuts, might be able to fab up something a little easier. Here's the ebay link to one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/26393500985...Bk9SR-yP88rbYg

edit: my suggestion was for the sidecar itself but maybe I should've read the original post a little more closely

[nick5446]

Not sure if this would work for your setup, but I picked up a used Triumph Trophy rear wheel for cheap to run on my Tiger. It is a 6" wide rim which allows me to run a more mileage-oriented tire when I'm doing exclusively hwy. Anywho, looks like they're still pretty dang cheap on ebay. I know you're looking for a swingarm but since this bolts up using traditional lug nuts, might be able to fab up something a little easier. Here's the ebay link to one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/26393500985...Bk9SR-yP88rbYg

edit: my suggestion was for the sidecar itself but maybe I should've read the original post a little more closely

Yeah I was thinking if I just end up with a swingarm that I'd buy some small crappy rim off of a Geo or something and run a tiny car tire. I dunno...this thing is a hodge podge as-is

[boosten lebaron]

That's a great idea, thanks! Not sure I'll be able to find one, but that's a good target for sure.

My dumb ass was just gonna drag around a 190 off of a ducati or something

They go cheap and come up quite a bit. I have a 150 on mine and it looks like it could go narrower.