AJS & Matchless Owners Club

[quote="JimFitz"]Hi Bri

I have mounted a Watsonian Monza to my 1960 G12 and I am currently restoring a Sunbeam S7DL to which I will attach a Swallow Jet 80.
You do need to get the gearing right which I did by changing the primary and gearbox sprockets on the G12 - one of my previous threads goes into more details and explains the maths. It is also important to make sure the forks are in good shape because they experience a lot of sideways force with a sidecar and hardly any riding solo apart from heavy braking. The springs also need to be the stronger sidecar type. I have kept the rear shock springs standard on the heaviest setting (Girling type). I only ride solo with an empty chair (apart from a bag of sand to keep the wheel down on lefties) - the springs would need to be uprated for passenger work.
The most difficult task is finding the fittings. Most of the ones on ebay look like they have been dug up from gardens or trawled up from the sea bed and if you can find new ones, are horrendously expensive.
Setting up the sidecar is not too difficult and I did mine with the aid of two aluminium ladder sections, a spirit level and plumb line. There is a guide on the Velorex site which gives typical setup settings to get you on the road - then you may have to tweak them slightly.
Do not forget that you will need to change the registration details with DVLA - section 12 of the V5 IIRC.
Good luck with it.



Many thanks Jim, for the info ive not had a chair on a bike since 1970 ish mind you did do my test on one in 1964 opps showing my age the dvla bit is under the chassis or bodyshell (replaced or modified) i suppose ? ta for that ...but is it not A bolt accessory for a sidecar. did read this below..

A Sidecar such a device, home made or purchased, is considered a motorcycle accessory and is therefore not subject to any approval. It is the equivalent of building a trailer and attaching it to your car. It is the responsibility of the owner to ensure that the sidecar is safely constructed, properly adjusted, matched to the bike and suitable for use on the road.
In the same way a trailer can be too big or badly matched to a towing car making it dangerous to drive; a sidecar can cause the same issues for the motorcycle. Additionally a sidecar affects motorcycle handling and riding style dramatically; it is therefore all the more important that it be constructed properly and with road safety in mind.

thanks im looking to see what section its under ta for the info very helpful.

Many thanks all for the info,
yes trying to find parts has been hard and most of what you do get off e-bay seems junk, you have to bring back to good, i recently restored my g2csr started with just the engine and frame got most parts from e-bay as the club does not seem to have to many bits for the lightweight (sad as lots seem to have one} Anyway most was rubbish i had to restore was fun but got there and now im doing this. Had my model 20 sitting in the workshop for years and got to say love the bike did think should i buy a new classic style bike to take away some probs we get with the older bike WHEN ADDING LOTS OF WEIGHT TO THEM but hell are give it a go.

So thanks for any advise on doing the job dont want to go nuts, just keep it simple and enjoy its also to keep my riding longer as i have trouble on a solo now days so all help will be accepted with thanks...

have you ridden a machine with a sidecar before

Rockerbri wrote:
Many thanks Jim, for the info ive not had a chair on a bike since 1970 ish mind you did do my test on one in 1964 ......

clive wrote:have you ridden a machine with a sidecar before

C'mon Rob, do try to keep up

( )

hahahaha rode one a few times hahaha

Sorry Sprids fell asleep trying to get through some of the previous entries.

Hi Bri

Despite the risk of sending Clive back to sleep, I have looked at my V5 for the G12 and section D.5 (Body type) shows "M/C Combination" and before I fitted the chair and notified DVLA it just showed "Motorcycle".

I had to enter "M/C combination" in item 20 in section 5 (changes to current vehicle) and then sign and date the declaration and send the V5 to DVLA with a covering letter with two photographs. They then wrote back asking me whether it was bolted on or welded - it is "attached" if it is bolted on and makes it a "M/C combination" but if it is welded on I beleive they call it a "tricycle".

The whole process took about two months........................

Remember to notify your insurers once it is fitted.

I also had to fit a steering damper to my G12 as it did not have one - I think they were factory options at the time. The bars will probably wobble at certain speeds without one

Jim

My first outfit a 1953 Enfield Meteor 700 was in solo trail and didn't have a steering damper and wobbled viciously under 20 mph, I eventually became used to it and took no notice in the end. Very frightening at first though!

[quote="JimFitz"]Hi Bri

Despite the risk of sending Clive back to sleep, I have looked at my V5 for the G12 and section D.5 (Body type) shows "M/C Combination" and before I fitted the chair and notified DVLA it just showed "Motorcycle".

I had to enter "M/C combination" in item 20 in section 5 (changes to current vehicle) and then sign and date the declaration and send the V5 to DVLA with a covering letter with two photographs. They then wrote back asking me whether it was bolted on or welded - it is "attached" if it is bolted on and makes it a "M/C combination" but if it is welded on I beleive they call it a "tricycle".

The whole process took about two months........................

Remember to notify your insurers once it is fitted.

I also had to fit a steering damper to my G12 as it did not have one - I think they were factory options at the time. The bars will probably wobble at certain speeds without one.....


HAY Jim, many thanks for your time and the info, very good of you..im not required to tell DVLA unless its a permanent fixing. As the sidecar is a bolt on, its clasifaction is a motorcycle accessory and is therefore not subject to any approval as they told me today..so theres a boneus...thanks for your help very good of you was hoping someone may have fitted one to the model 20 just wanted to see the ups and downs of doing this ..and yes on telling the insurance thats a must..ta mate.

Hi Bri

Good old DVLA - conflicting advice again. They told me that even if it is bolt - on I still needed to contact them and make the change to section D5 and that I had to have it MOTd as a sidecar outfit before they could issue the V5.
Any other forum users had any experience with this?

Jim