Sidecar Opinion Survey

B06Tang

B06Tang

Cafe Racer
Things are moving along nicely in the Tang household and now it is getting close to make good on what I told the little lady I would do. I am going with the "canoe" style sidecar which will go on this bike:




Naturally the sidecar is going to match up with the most glorious and most awesome Bonnie color known to man...TANGERINE! :banana::banana::banana::banana:

I have been doing a lot of combing and researching and here are the two that I've narrowed down to what I want. They are not the same color but they are the patterns I like and here comes the survey part....

Which pattern do you guys like? I know where I am leaning but I am curious to see what other Bonnie owners think.

Oh yeah...no anti sidecar comments are allowed on this thread! The creamsicle is getting hitched up to a partner when we get back stateside!

Choice A:







Choice B:





 
fender

fender

Street Tracker
I'm kind of partial to choice B where Tangerine replaces the White and the Green is Cream.
 
B06Tang

B06Tang

Cafe Racer
fender said:
I'm kind of partial to choice B where Tangerine replaces the White and the Green is Cream.
Click to expand...

YAHTZEE!!!!

That is where I am leaning and on the first freaking reply too!!! Maybe because it has to cover the length of the canoe but to me the horns do not transfer well to the sidecar although I really like the idea.

I'm thinking of pin stripe the gold on the fenders where the tang & cream meet up but just tang & cream on the body of the sidecar without the gold

Although I am digging the union jack emblem replacing the Cozy emblem that you see in choice A
 
Ripcode

Ripcode

Scooter
Definitely B.
icon14.gif
 
W

whyme

TT Racer
I like A...or B. Maybe if the side was painted a bit better on A to match the tank it would be better. The proportions are all fa-cocked up. Whoever tried to copy the tank, failed.
 
K

KingOfFleece

Street Tracker
Your call.
I hacked my Bonnie. All I all, it was a good experience. If I do another I will get a modded Triple Tree from Jay at DMC Sidecars. Having put several thousand miles on the hack it became obvious that front end geometry for a hack would have been superior to simply bolting it on as I did. Hope this helps.
 
B06Tang

B06Tang

Cafe Racer
KingOfFleece said:
Your call.
I hacked my Bonnie. All I all, it was a good experience. If I do another I will get a modded Triple Tree from Jay at DMC Sidecars. Having put several thousand miles on the hack it became obvious that front end geometry for a hack would have been superior to simply bolting it on as I did. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input and it definitely helps. DMC is one of my saved bookmarks for sidecars but it is always better to actually speak with someone that has used the product. I notice on their website that they are in Emumclaw, WA and you are on the east coast so here comes some questions at you:

Did you send your Bonnie to them or did they just send you the hack and you did the work yourself?

I'm thinking this is going to run me around $5,000 with the paint matching. Am I off the mark on that a lot?

Did they offer a paint service at DMC?

How was the quality of it?

Are there any little good-to-know tricks when marrying a sidecar up to these Bonnies?

Thanks for the help with this
 
K

KingOfFleece

Street Tracker
I've e-mailed with Jay but did not use his service. Like I said, I wish I would have used his Triple Clamp when it was all said and done.
I got my car thru our dealership as we are a dealer for COZY. I put on an INDR which is almost the same (same factory I believe) but a bit smaller and lighter (not much of either) as it was all that was avail. at the time.
Install is NOT a simple process at all. Be prepared to fab materials yourself and the build quality-well, be expecting stuff to NOT be up to anything resembling North American standards. After a few weekends of trial and error I ended up taking my half finished rig to Bob Wark in OH to complete the job. He's a sidecar specialist and was closest to me.
I learned a lot from Bob to say the least.
Also, the "universal" mounting kits offered-forget them. Junk. Jay offers a mounting kit already designed for the Bonnie-again, I would have gone this route had I know better! Bob W had to custom fab about half the mounting parts for my hack and this included removing and re-welding the front mount as it's 180 degrees out of whack for our Bonnies (but perfect for a Royal-Enfield).

All in all it was a fun project and when I do the next one I'd use parts from Jay at DMC.
Hope this helps.
 
B06Tang

B06Tang

Cafe Racer
Did you do anything special to beef up the front fork? I have a set of progressive springs in it right now but am I going to need something beefier for a canoe style sidecar?
 
DIRK

DIRK

750cc
KingOfFleece said:
I've e-mailed with Jay but did not use his service. Like I said, I wish I would have used his Triple Clamp when it was all said and done.
I got my car thru our dealership as we are a dealer for COZY. I put on an INDR which is almost the same (same factory I believe) but a bit smaller and lighter (not much of either) as it was all that was avail. at the time.
Install is NOT a simple process at all. Be prepared to fab materials yourself and the build quality-well, be expecting stuff to NOT be up to anything resembling North American standards. After a few weekends of trial and error I ended up taking my half finished rig to Bob Wark in OH to complete the job. He's a sidecar specialist and was closest to me.
I learned a lot from Bob to say the least.
Also, the "universal" mounting kits offered-forget them. Junk. Jay offers a mounting kit already designed for the Bonnie-again, I would have gone this route had I know better! Bob W had to custom fab about half the mounting parts for my hack and this included removing and re-welding the front mount as it's 180 degrees out of whack for our Bonnies (but perfect for a Royal-Enfield).

All in all it was a fun project and when I do the next one I'd use parts from Jay at DMC.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Add my voice the chaps at DMC are top drawer. do not try to reinvent the wheel
 
D

dogman

Scooter
A is my chioce, with fender solid color.B06 I have 70k on a watsonian and 06 bonnie,start riding your machine and do mods as you go along.I am in the process of mounting a steib lt200 box on an 08 black.My only mods will be avon sidecar tire on front ,avon tourist on rear (car)tire and a farley and ace friction dampner ,they work and more sanitary looking than some vw shock .
 
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