Work outfit

[guest7]

In answer to a request posted on the SidecarsUK mailing list, I have been offered a Squire Trademans box for my work sidecar outfit.

It needs work, but I haven't seen it yet. I will report back tomorrow night for a debrief.

I gave up on the idea of building up a new glassfibre chair body on time grounds. This should be a quicker and easier way to get the outfit looking presentable.

Stage two will involve dragging a spare chassis down to my friendly fabricator to get it cut and welded to suit. Then I will have a frame added to each end to act as a sort of roof rack for timber, ladders, etc.

Here's a bike with a box added:


Some of you may also have seen Richard and Mopsa English's round-the-world triumph with Squire box (with bullet hole) in the National Motorcyle museum.

As an aside, I recently read their book 'Full Circle' and I thought I'd goggle them to see what they were up to. Guess what site listed them? Bloody Burkes Peerage! It turns out she is the daughter of a Lord (and granddaughter of Captain Scott's widow Kathleen) and he is the son of a Major. Her sister, Louisa Young, used to write for Bike magazine and she certainly didn't let on that her full title was Hon. Lousia Young!

Funny old world eh?

Cheers
GC

[guest7]

The box is fine, it needs some remedial fibreglass work, but nothing major.

I have started cutting down my spare chassis to accept the box and it goes in ticketyboo. The nice thing is that the whole thing will be some 30cm shorter than the current chair and this will suit the bike better.

The chassis is from a standard Squire chair:


As you can see the loop over the chair needs to be removed for my box to fit. Two minutes with an angle grinder sorted that problem out.

Also, the box mounts in a different way to the sidecar so I will be grinding off the lugs and adding new plates to the base of the chassis.

I spoke to my friendly welder and he's happy to do the work when I'm ready so I've offered everything up and I will be making notes and measurements over the next few days.

I will upload a piccy of the tatty box later.
GC

[guest7]

here it is 'as found'

[guest27]

Looks like a bath tub...  Does it have a towel rail and a soap dish?

R

[002]

here it is 'as found'

As used by Newport Council,Parks and Gardens Dept..
Was originally fitted to a Vespa !

Jethro

[guest7]

Looks like a bath tub...  Does it have a towel rail and a soap dish?

R

I suspect it would hold very little water, given the number of holes in it 

The funny thing is, no matter how silly it looks, it will almost certainly look better than the Panzar body currently in place.

And yes, Jethro is right, it is an ex-Newport council item and I remember seeing the little vespa outfits pottering around the parks. It's the same body as the bike box, but the vespa chassis is very different (in fact it's the same chassis as Squire sell for their little Bambi scooter chair).

I have also picked up a nice Cobra 10" mini wheel (Alloy slotted, a la Wolfrace).

GC

[guest27]

Looks like a bath tub...  Does it have a towel rail and a soap dish?

R

I suspect it would hold very little water, given the number of holes in it 


I have also picked up a nice Cobra 10" mini wheel (Alloy slotted, a la Wolfrace).

GC

I have a friend who - on the whim of his then girlfriend, bought a load of old stock golden syrup and filled their bath with it.  It took a couple of days to flow down the plughole when they had finished and pulled the plug - So I guess you could carry syrup in it...

Oh to get clean they had to walk round to next door and ask to borryw the shower - in the process explaining why they were covered in golden syrup and why they could not use the bath.

I have to say non of us laughed, much!

R

[themoudie]

Waste of Golden Syrup

[guest27]

There was gallons of the stuff - and a very pretty girlfriend to add too.......

Mind the bill for the bread to put it all on was wowowowowowowowow big.

R

[guest7]

And so the project gets bigger 

The 500 engine is starting to sound very poorly indeed and I'd say that a top end strip down is needed (piston slap, clattering valves, etc)

I removed the previous engine (a 650) for the same reasons, but it's sat in my garage ever since. This week I will take the 650 over to Jethro's place and he will strip down the top end and repair/replace whatever is required. Once this is done I will fit the bigger lump in the bike.

This is partly driven by the fact that I have two complete chain and sprocket sets for 650 lump (520 chain) and none for the 500 (525 chain). Also, the 500 has proved barely able to haul the fully-laden outfit along at any sort of pace.

To add to my woes, the bloody Predator exhaust has killed another set of footrest hanger lugs. Because the system is unsupported in its middle section, it can rock. This eventually kills the lugs which start cracking. Plan A is a bloody big steel plate welded to the back of the lugs and the tothe frame tube.

Cheers
GC

[guest7]

Jethro rang me tonight. He has stripped the top end of the 650 motor and although the bore and rings, etc. seem fine, the cam and exhaust followers are showing signs of starting to wear.

I have told him to rebuild the motor (once the valve seats have been recut) and I will look into replacing the cam and followers in a couple of months.

There are three reasons for this
1. I'd rather spend that money later
2. from experience I know I will get another 2,000 miles out of it 'as is'.
3. The top end can be rebuilt with the engine in the frame and so it's not a real hassle

Cheers
GC

[guest7]

The latest instalment from Stalwart motors ran like this:

"The good news is I've cleaned the cylinder head in the parts-wash in work and it's ready to go to the engineers to have the broken stud repaired. The bad news is I snapped the spark plug off in the head so he will have to do that as well"

Ho hum 

Meanwhile I checked the oil in the 500 today and, erm, it didn't appear to have any 
I really must get that leak fixed.

GC

[Richard 003]

I removed the previous engine (a 650) for the same reasons, but it's sat in my garage ever since. This week I will take the 650 over to Jethro's place and he will strip down the top end and repair/replace whatever is required. Once this is done I will fit the bigger lump in the bike.

Oo, is that my old 650 motor? Things keep going around, don't they?

Regards
Richard

[guest7]

Yes indeed, it is your old motor, rebuilt following a blow up. As part of the rebuild the con rod small end had to be bushed and Jethro tells me that this repair seems to have stood up well to the hard use of lugging a chair.

The head is at the engineers as we speak and should be back by Friday.

Cheers
GC

[002]

Just noticed,the piccy you have used of the Squire ST1.
Is the one I collected from Peterborough,with the  view of fitting onto my Enfield.
Mind never got around to doing that,sold it on.
Didnt feel that the Enfield or myself would survive very long tugging a chair.
Due to the way I ride I  think the Enfield would have self destructed,trying to keep up with the traffic.
And the front brake does leave a little to be desired as a solo,let alone with the extra weight of a chair.

Jethro