GRiSO Sidecar?

Don't Kick me out for this-

I've been looking at Urals for a while- and Damn are they expensive for a knock off WW2 German motorcycle-
The one thing I do like about them is the Sidecar.

Has anyone fitted a Sidecar to a GRiSO before- Is that even allowed?
I'm not sure it would look the best but feel it would be pretty cool to do.

Plenty about. The frame isn't really good for sidecars IMNSHO. You know it's sacrilege, don't you?




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I've been thinking the same b3177h! We have a Ural dealer here in our town. The reason I want a side car, is because my son is disabled, and it's about the only thing we can do together, besides a tandem bicycle that we have. But I wouldn't sacrifice my beautiful GRiSO. I was thinking about a Royal Enfield or a Triumph bonniville. Check out the you tube channel for Jay Leno's Garage. He has an episode on the Royal Enfield with side car. He has lots of cool motorcycle episodes actually.
It'll be interesting to see if anyone has good experiences they'll share with us. I'll be tuned in to see.

Norm.

I would very strongly advise against puting a sidecar on ANY CARC bike. I have suggested for a while that I think that the rear suspension and swingarm are not suited to it and a couple of weeks ago this was confirmed when I bought a Stelvio that had originally been bought to me for rollerisation. It at some time in its short life had had a sidecar put on it.

On examination we found that the shock linkage 'double con-rod' also known as the dog bone was completely flogged out on the sides to the degree that there was no way for the seals to remain in place and the wishbone was cracked. Not only this but the paint around the cross tube on the frame had flaked off, presumably from the flexing imparted.

So, yes, you can fit a chair to a CARC bike but I for one would advise very strongly against it. If you want a superb sidecar tug look no further than a Cali 1100, ideally a well sorted Hydro. They are brilliant!

Pete

A mate of mine had a Dnepr for a while and it was fantastic piece of kit with Russian adaption of pre-war 2 german technology adding on automatic clutch/gear change; sidecar driven wheel with cross shaft drive etc. Agricultural level but easily fixable at all levels and can really add or custom them easily.... He had old one that had sidecar on outside (next to on-coming traffic) the 'wrong side' for UK which made interesting being in the car. Also fascinating story about Russians getting 'modern technology' alongside Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in exchange for letting germans invade Poland/Lithuania & the germans just pulled out the oldest plans for motorcycles BMW had at the time (plus gave them fuel, logs etc).

I've had 5 Cossacks/ Urals. Not the most reliable things but brilliant fun. I snapped the crank on one-it still ran. Never paid more than £25 each, either-one was free, another was £5.

Pete Roper wrote:

...If you want a superb sidecar tug look no further than a Cali 1100, ideally a well sorted Hydro. They are brilliant!

Pete

That's definitely the way to go. If your son doesn't like it, I'm sure your dog will!

Pete (Street)

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oh i so want a side car!

but not on the GRiSO!!!

Any Cali 1100 will do ....................
If you feel the 8/33 diff is too tall for the weight, a 7/33 from an 850 will help speed things up a bit.

Thanks for all the advice GRiSO Ghetto friends, I'll keep my eyes open for a good deal. Here's a photo of son and I riding our tandem.
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I have been looking at this as an option for a while and decided instead of doing this with my GRiSO or Norge. I'm looking at a 99 Bassa this weekend. Hey, whats 1 more?? ;-)

you can never have too many

Yeah, really, a Tonti is a much better tug.

Hmm..... I thought the 99 Bassa was a To to frame because it was based on the California? But I'm a Guzzi dunce, only know the Carc bikes, and even that is minimal.

I did a search and found the following as a Tonti Frame - V7 Sport, 750 S, 750 S3, 850 T, 850 T3, 850 T3 California, V1000 I-Convert, V1000 G5, 1000 SP, Le Mans, Le Mans II, Le Mans CX 100, Le Mans 1000, 1000 SP III, 1000 S, California II, California III, California 1100, California Jackal, California EV, California EV Touring, California Aluminium, California Titanium, California Special, California Special Sport, California Stone-Metal, California Stone-Touring, California Classic, California Touring, and California Vintage models.

I'm not in a rush....

The Tonti frame is older than god. It was designed in the very early seventies and basically is the frame of every big block Guzzi from then until the advent of the 1100 Sport in ‘95. Even after that it continued to be used on all of the California models right the way through to about 2005/6!

While there were changes to the frame, most noticeably to the height of the steering head in about ‘85’ the *important* bits changed little over all that time. Basically it’s an old school twin loop cradle frame but with detachable lower frame rails and this makes it far more suitable for sidecar use than a CARC bike or, god forbid, a Spiney!

Probably the BEST model for a sidecar tug is a 2002/3 Hydro. The problem is that these originally came with a conga line of serious issues! The factory finally sorted those and a well set up Hydro is a thing of wonder but most of them haven’t been sorted and the bits to sort them are getting harder and harder to find.

My Mate Peter from Townsville has a wonderful Hydro outfit along with his Stelvio and 1200 Sport 8V. I covet it in a wholly unnatural manner. It has leading links, 15 inch wheels and car tyres and drives, (You drive an outfit, not ride it.) like a Lincoln Town Car! It’s bloody marvellous! He’s ridden it down to our place several times, that’s about 2,400 km each way, several times now. It has to be a good outfit to do that without killing your arms!

Pete

a Dnepr frame is better than a Tonti frame-it's built like a brick shit house. All it needs is a decent engine. An old R100 could be easily made to fit it. although it would end up costing...

Papa Lazarou wrote:

a Dnepr frame is better than a Tonti frame-it's built like a brick shit house. All it needs is a decent engine. An old R100 could be easily made to fit it.

Shame you can't pick them up anymore for £25, everytime i have looked they are all very pricy!

Papa Lazarou wrote:

a Dnepr frame is better than a Tonti frame-it's built like a brick shit house. All it needs is a decent engine. An old R100 could be easily made to fit it. although it would end up costing...

A Dnepr frame was designed to handle an engine that made 25hp and weighs close to twice what a Tonti frame does. The only way in which it is superior for a tug frame is that it has an uninterrupted twin cradle frame rather than one with removable frame rails. It was, is and forever will be, horrid.

Pete

Jellybean's sidecar is mounted on a 2002 California Stone. The tub was made by DMC Sidecars, a local outfit that has also developed all of the mounts for the California series of bikes as well as lots of other makes and models. You can get all kinds of upgrades including electric trim, trunk lid, luggage racks, running lights, custom paint and so on. Mine is the base model with a brake and rear luggage rack added.

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Mounts for California models:

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The most significant upgrade is to the steering head. This was made and installed for me by Barry Bates in Mission, BC. Barry used to work at DMC and did most of the engineering and development of mounts and steering mods. A couple of years ago he returned to BC and set up a small shop there. I took the rig up and left it with him for a week and he sorted out this steering modification that really works well. Much cheaper than a leading link setup and no moving parts. It consists of a pair of machined aluminum plates and a set of dummy fork tubes. By increasing the offset and decreasing the trail, the front end becomes much lighter. The difference is almost like having power steering. It's a joy to drive all day long. We'll be taking it on a 4500 mile road trip this summer.


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It even won Best Sidecar at the 2016 Moto Guzzi National Rally in John Day, Oregon...

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Although I think Jellybean deserves most of the credit for the win!

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The Tonti frame older than God??? I think not............. though I imagine Jesus does/would ride a Guzzi.............