It`s not everyday ya pick up somethin on the side!

[The General]

  Hoping to catch some of you Victorians next Wednesday (Say 12.30) for a lunch break with FJ Mates at The Boathouse, Fairfield Park, East Ivanhoe. http://www.fairfieldboathouse.com/ (Hoping to catch Arnie, Chromax, Terry, Mr Blackstock, Jeffo, Eddohawk, etc Tony Mac later)

Ribbert has been nursing my new (To Me!) 1978 XS1100 with HRD sidecar attached and similar heritage to the FJ.
Ordered some parts from Randy on Wednesday last week and there already in Noel`s Melbourne shed! (Many Thanks!)...So I should be set for me first real sidecar lesson of around 30 or 40 hours in tha saddle! ....ummmm...Do ya countersteer these contraptions? Do ya power on through a right hander? Can ya back`m in to a corner? ...guess I`ll have a better idea when I get home 4 or 5 days later.

Given that I pick her up at the bottom of our Island and I live nearer tha top, this could be a pretty hairy Roadie. So I may as well check out Next Year`s Anniversary Rally venue through the Alps to Jindabyne, (Got heavy metal with me!)...ummm west to Carthage Warrior`s place or....I`ll swing East to soak up that Glorious Southern Aussie Coastline. I`ve heard of a beach down that way that has the whitest Sand in tha World, not far from Pete (OldKTM dude) and Joe`s hideout (Wog 57).

By the time I`ve caught up with Flips, FJ Springy, Roach, Grumpy Koala etc, in Sydney and found a way through Gosford (Sean) Newcastle & Musswellbrook to Megsy`s & Harold`s (Charley Farley`s) place I might need an elbow replacement.....Aren`t these Zeemaps great!  ...Now how do I get to Port Macquarie & Coffs Harbour from Tamworth? ...ummm..might need some more time...still have 400klms to consummate! 

[rktmanfj]

<snip> ....ummmm...Do ya countersteer these contraptions? Do ya power on through a right hander? Can ya back`m in to a corner? ...guess I`ll have a better idea when I get home 4 or 5 days later. <snip>

It'll be interesting to find out... that's why I always had a hard time riding a 3 wheeler ATV.  You have to lean those to the outside to make 'em corner, and it threw me off a lot (a few times for real).

[The General]

<snip> ....ummmm...Do ya countersteer these contraptions? Do ya power on through a right hander? Can ya back`m in to a corner? ...guess I`ll have a better idea when I get home 4 or 5 days later. <snip>

It'll be interesting to find out... that's why I always had a hard time riding a 3 wheeler ATV.  You have to lean those to the outside to make 'em corner, and it threw me off a lot (a few times for real).

Mate, I`ve even heard it helps ta give them a little front brake while powering on around corners. (not sure if it`s left or right..or both!)

[Bones]

I've never ridden one Doug, but I've been in a couple. The first one was in the 70s and was a single car hooked up to a z1300 Kawasaki and I remember it was a lot of fun, elbow hanging out perving on the Sheila's on the footpath while listening to the music coming out of the exhaust. Must've been set up properly too, because the rider was sitting there normally, wasn't fighting it at all to steer.

The second one was a double car hooked up to my brothers z1000 Kawasaki and obliviously wasn't set up right, because he'd fight that thing all the time. He'd have to pull up after a while to give his left arm a rest because it kept trying to steer off the road.

I've heard If their set up properly you can do all sorts of tricks on them and remain in total control. You'll have to take me for a ride next time I see you.

                                                               Tony.

[The General]

  Well I`ve finished my maiden side car voyage. (2300klms). Melbourne to The Sunshine Coast taking in three states, The Outback, The Snowy mountains, The Whitest Sand in the World on the cool NSW South Coast, The Blue Mountains, The infamous Putty road, catching up with mates, powering through Harleys and taming this wild fast beast.- I got our Chook raffle sponsor (2013 Rally) to renew his contract for supply of Yamaha service goodies thanks to Joe (Wog57) & Glenn Henry Motorcycles Nowra, for our 2014 Anniversary Rally in Jindabyne! and was even (productively  ) introduced to the Owner of The Banjo Patterson Resort and Brewery!

It started with a little wait at Tullamarine Airport, when I received a call from Noel (Ribbert) saying he was at the passenger pick up area. I was too, so he described his limo .... a "convertible"    Saab, (originally an aerospace research project) of metallic green persuasion... and went on to describe where he was positioned in the ants nest of activity in Trendy Melbourne.

Cybernet campfires are funny things...you know how you get an impression of someone in your head and they end up looking totally different to what you imagined?...like when you eventually meet them at an FJ Rally for example!

Thanks to EBay I had purchased a foundation relative of the FJ, code named the XS1100. A 1978 model Yamaha with a tail shaft drive and an HRD sidecar attached. Noel had really helped out with a professional inspection and donated a lot of his time taking it to his mancave, ordering some necessities from Randy (received within 8 working days!  ) and checking every little nook that might interrupt the Journey to her new home in Queensland.

....ummmm....Victorian Melbournite,... with a Swedish convertible!.  I bet he wears a cravat, jewellery, a gold chain at least, Ralph Lauren polo with maybe Club Monaco pants and jacket!

...True to form, I am delighted to report the live impression was considerably different. We exchanged hearty greetings, filled his trunk with tools, camping gear & clobber, then we were underway in the green flash.

We had only driven 1 klm towards our lunch Venue when the whole car started flogging itself to death with the sound of a flat tyre. It was then Noel mentioned he had no spare and in fact was driving on one of those "emergency only" spare wheels!

...ummm...I was beginning to question the mechanical aptitude of this ninja spannerman, when he leaped out of our chariot and ripped off the offending section of tyre with his bare hands!...and we were again underway with Arnie hardly noticing our late arrival at the boathouse... (the staff had kept him busy searching for the cheapest item on tha menu.)


We eventually adjourned to Noel`s shed and I finally got ta touch the new member of my Family....It was Love at first sight!

We transferred my airport luggage to her boot and I couldn`t wait around for niceties...in no time I had her out the driveway and into suburbia.

First impressions weren't all that great as I got my first feel of this new to me, contraption.....It seemed to push me violently from left to right and back again at every centimetre!...without rhyme or reason, as though it had a mind of it`s own!. Then it got this weird rumbling noise that sounded like a totally stuffed wheel bearing - but at different speeds....All this in the first few kilometres in peak hour traffic in Melbourne. ....I had taken on board the reasoning of informed mates to traverse some figure eights and practise in a carpark prior to public exposure and like any intelligent rev head, completely ignored such good advise!
When I finally got her settled down to a steady gallop I was on the outbound motorway with a Vee double on me tail....so I thought this would be a good time to flick on the throttle lock and relax......bad move!

She Suddenly died and lurched to the right....to which, my perfectly tuned physical response (This is the one that bypasses any brain contribution) countersteered to the left with a 90 degree hard flick of the steering device!

....Now just imagine you`re driving your car and the steering wheel can only move 180 degrees to achieve lock to lock full steering range...and you violently execute this counter move at 80klm/hr while noting the Vee double behind you is a Vol model. (there may have been more letters, but that`s what filled the rear view mirrors at tha time!) ...Oops! I can feel those heart palpitations again.......I need ta take me post traumatic pills and have a lie down! (There was only another 2280 kilometres ta home!....and and annnd, I hadn`t taken on any major curves yet!).... to be continued...

[oz.fj]

Gday General
Glad to hear you made it home .Safe and sound, I think ?
Looking forward to hearing more about your adventure with your bit on the side.

Darran

[ken65]

gday general, glad you made it home in 1 piece, after your report on the first few K's it sounds like a miracle you werent crushed beyond recognition
by a truck....      how long did it take till you felt comfortable riding it?   cant wait to see  the  big old thing,,,,    have you got a proper name for it yet,     ken

[Arnie]

General,

Yeah, its good you made it back.  As for a name, might I suggest, 'the red rockette'

And, just to correct your assumption, I had not looked at the menu before we all went into the order area.
Although I expected prices to be on the high side in such a lovely location, (not the venue, it was pretty ordinary but was sited just above the Yarra River in parkland) I did not expect that a hot dog would be $14.50 or that the meal (?) of hamburger and a small cup of fries which you and Ribbert had would be $22.  
After all, this was not "high tea" at the Windsor.  While I don't mind getting screwed, it would have been nice to get a kiss when viewing your bit on the side.

Arnie

[oldktmdude]

   Good to hear you made it back safely Doug. Hope the rest of the ride went with a lot less trouble than the first couple of days. It was great to catch up with you, although a bit more time would have allowed me to show you some of the great roads and scenery around my part of the world. Maybe next March you'll have a bit of spare time to have a look around this area. Post up a few more pics and some comments when you can. Regards, Pete.   

[The General]

General,
Yeah, its good you made it back.  As for a name, might I suggest, 'the red rockette'

.... While I don't mind getting screwed, it would have been nice to get a kiss when viewing your bit on the side.
Arnie

Ha haaa!...Didn`t wanta make ya jealous, but I gave flips one at Hyams Beach Jervis Bay.

But he obviously preferred a tongueie!

ummm, how about "in xs" ?
(oops!...getting ahead of my cap`n ron attempt!)....

[ken65]

seen a blue 1 like that the other day out the front of Big W, where's the coin slot on yours,  , but seriously, a nice looking rig, when's the official unveiling,     ken

[roverfj1200]

You may need to share that bit on the side... 

[The General]

  ...now where was I....oh yeah....Managed to (violently) pull over as close as possible to the gutter to get away from screaming semi`s and put my thinking cap on.

Ummm...The cruise control/throttle lock thingy on my FJ is located further to the left , which is precisely where an easily hit, ON/Off switch is located on this chariot!...shit!

This outfit has synched brakes on the sidecar and rear wheel, so touching the back brakes slows her down dead straight. However backing off at high revs (thanks to the operation of tha kill switch) only applies a negative force to the rear wheel. The momentum of the laden sidecar continues forward, causing the rig to skew to the right! My response had saved me from changing lanes towards the centre of the road, though the ensuing over correction & counter correction wobbles was not exactly graceful...Luckily I had graceful angel assisted brakes on the following Volvo Vee Double Semi.

So, I`m still on the side of a busy, noisey Motorway, but feeling comparatively relaxed now...even though I appear ta be talking to myself.
The Red chariot and I are discussing physics and she explains that every time the Chair hits a bump it rises...the cantilvered forces attached to the upright motorcycle push the uppermost seat and handlebars to the right with the hopefully, planted tyres being the base of the fulcrum....So naturally when the chair returns downwards it feels like those same extremities move back! (left)...hence the constant sideways alternating movement - admittedly dampened by a nice Koni shocked swinging arm arrangement under the chair...Just somethin I gotta get use to - she wants me to relax, trust her and take the death grip off the handlebars while she does her dance...(and I may not need the throttle lock so often!)

This was a little more than a gangnum style dance, cause at the same time you must realise another geometry, perhaps best illustrated by driving your car over a normally transverse speed hump at a 45 degree angle and then imajine what happens if there are only three wheels that aren`t set on any equilateral dimension! Yep, Fred Astaire has gone gangnum Rock `n Roll!

Okay, so I fire her up and gingerly let the clutch out with my eyes glued on the mirrors looking for a break in tha traffic....but hang on...she doesn't want to move! Shit! I think the rear brakes may be locking up....They feel awful hot as I ring Noel to help scratch my head. ...another "aha" moment followed by a "you dickhead" retort as I walked around the Chariot!.

When ya in the drivers seat (as a beginner) ya don`t realise how wide this beast is. You view easliy the breadth of the boat/chair, but hidden way, way over the otherside is the additional sidecar wheel!...which happens to be where the curved gutter is now resisting it`s forward movement!....which also explained the occasional crook bearing noise as I nervously made my way down the motorway!...I had been touching the ripple warning lines designed to tell me I was wandering off the side of the road! (dickhead!)

There`s a small break in the 80klm/hr peak hour traffic so I`m forced ta give her a fistful. I`m prepared for slight countersteer to the right to offset the resistance of the chair to tha left,,(one two three, one, two three - this was certainly no "pride of erin!).....shit! This thing flies!...she really is tha Red Rockette!...Heehehe, I love modified blocks with wiseco pistons and stuff!

By the time I made Albury we had become a team. It was the perfect education track of long flowing curves and expressway speeds. (110Klms/hr speed limit – and I found myself flying past all sorts of traffic).  The Chrome headers were now a shiney black. The previous 86 year old owner had never really bought them up to temperature. His life long mate (Geoff Higgins) raced and rigged sidecars internationally and couldn`t handover this rig without a few mods and secret set up tips built in!

I hit the sack with sore shoulders, hoping there might be a break in the miserable weather forcast over the Snowys` Alps...otherwise I would have to continue north through the outback route...Can`t wait ta see what tha weather forcast brings. I went ta bed with me dance`n shoes still on!!

PSY - GANGNAM STYLE (강남스타일) M/V

[FJscott]

LMFAO

[Bones]

What's actually done to the motor Doug, you reckon it'd be a match or maybe better than an FJ, minus the sidecar of course, I remember the XS1100 the brother had didn't seem to go too bad, I was on the back once doing 200 kmh, but both of us were a lot lighter back then too.