[reclinedrelic]

Tonight I collected a Squire Sidecars to fit to my GL500. I'll document my adventures here.

I have no information on this particular sidecar so if you have any information I'll be glad to receive any.
I acquired the sidecar from the original owners grandson. I was told that it may have been mounted to a 1970's Kawasaki 750. I think this may have been produced before the Watsonian-Squire merger.

A few images.

 

[DouginEasternWashington]

Congratulations on your purchase! I look forward to seeing your progress with it. I know pretty much zero about sidecars. Is this sidecar a storage box and not for passengers?

 

[reclinedrelic]

That is correct Doug, it is a luggage sidecar. It is my first venture into the sidecar world.

 

[DouginEasternWashington]

I have never heard of such a thing. Very interesting. I look forward to learning more about these from your posts.

 

[Sidecar Bob]

Cargo sidecars (AKA box sidecars) were pretty common at one time, often used as light cargo delivery vehicles by businesses and for tradesmen to carry their tools &c to jobs before the advent of small vans. I've read that in the UK motorcycles with float sidecars were commonly used for picking up and delivering customer motorcycles (apparently Panther bikes were preferred because they had so much torque) and if your car broke down you would look for one of the bright yellow Automobile Association sidecar patrol outfits to come to your rescue well into the '60s. AFAIK, Ural still makes a cargo box to fit their sidecar frames too.

 

[reclinedrelic]

Watsonian-Squire still produce a platform sidecar. It appears quite different from my unit.

Platform Sidecar Chassis - Watsonian Sidecars

The Watsonian Platform Sidecar Chassis offers you the flexibility to carry a variety of loads, such as bicycles, surf boards and luggage lockers. It is even possible to bolt on sidecar bodies.

www.watsonian-squire.com

 

[Sidecar Bob]

I think that is based on the old Watsonian design. I found pics of them when looking for info about the Squire but the hardware is completely different from yours. I suspect that producing 2 completely different designs is what ultimately lead to then dropping the Squire line.

 

[Roboforcer X2000]

Following!
Not that I need one, nor it would suit my bike, but seeing your post nostalgia flooded me... 35ish years ago back in USSR my grandad had Ural and IZH with sidecar, and he used to speed up on non paved roads just so me and my brother can have that extra "rollercoaster" ride on non existent suspension. 7 and 5 year olds cramped together inside the sidecar lol

 

[reclinedrelic]

I spent some time yesterday sorting through the bracketry. Two of the links have rubber bushes and spacers. I put those together. First image shows the bush and spacers, second installed on the link.

 

[Sidecar Bob]

I knew there had to be a reason for the rings on the ends of those struts.

 

[reclinedrelic]

Today I began installing the sub-frame on my GL500. (Sub-frame acquired from Nippongreen, thanks Keith!)

This image shows where the lower front mount will attach.

This shows the front part of the sub-frame which is attached to the engine mount studs.

This shows the rear of the side brace which is attached by the two rear engine mount bolts.

 

[nippongreen]

Hiya Mike,
Hope everything works out for you,
I'm sure you will need to do some modifications to mate the sidecar to the bike ,but looking good so far
I also found this:
https://www.rescogs.com/2017/03/watsonian-mule-tradesman-box/

All The Best......Keith.............

 

[reclinedrelic]

I've been doing some more trial assembly. I am short one mount, the frame mount for under the gas tank. I may source one from OVC in Acton, depending on the effect of today's stay at home order.

 

[Sidecar Bob]

Ken will probably ship it to you if you ask nicely.

 

[reclinedrelic]

I picked up the last frame mount I needed and did a mock up of the installation today. Now the real fun begins.

 

[Sidecar Bob]

I think I'd want the mounts farther apart on the sidecar frame. The upper rear mount could move back quite a bit and I think the strut that meets the bike ahead of the carb is going to be uncomfortably close to your shin. I had the one from the front of the sidecar frame there on my 500 and on Eccles until I decided that I didn't need to remove the rad cap often enough for it to matter if the frame clamp was right above it.

 

[reclinedrelic]

After rearranging the struts this is the result.

 

[Sidecar Bob]

Better but I think I would move the rear one as far back as I could. There will be a fair bit of force trying to twist the tube on that side of the frame when you steer so it is a good idea to spread that out as much as possible. I think I would attach the upper rear bracket to the upper frame rail if possible (it might interfere with the seat) and if you can't try to turn the bracket around so the forces through it travel in as straight a line as possible through the strut and bracket.

For reference, here's a pic of how I had the Velorex frame attached to Eccles. I can't remember why I didn't attach the clamp to the bike frame's top rail but I must have had a good reason.
BTW: You may need to add a spacer under the rear of the tank so that the bottom of the tank doesn't rub on the frame clamp with the clamp between the carb and the head. I don't remember that being a problem on the GL500 but it was on the 650.

And here's what I did when I changed to the Ural frame. You can't really tell in this pic but the front end was quite a bit higher than I like so later on I modified the subframe to lower the mounting point a couple of inches (Probably not an issue for you but the Ural frame's lower front mount is non-adjustable).

 

[Sidecar Bob]

I went and looked at the actual bike to see shy I didn't attach the rear strut to the upper frame rail. I should have known from the pic above without the seat: Between the piece clamped on to support the front of the seat and the brackets that the E's seat rail bolted to (I use them for tabs attached to the side covers and use the rearward mounting points for the rails for the seat) there just wasn't room anywhere on the upper rail. Your GL doesn't have or need either of those but I suspect you would have to modify the seat to clamp the bracket to that rail.
BTW: on a Ural there would be a swan tube from the rear cross tube that mated with a ball on the bike's frame and the upper rear strut would attach to the sidecar where I attached the short lower strut. I attached the upper rear strut to the sidecar by removing the swan tube (it wouldn't come close to meeting anywhere on the frame that I could mount a ball), made a solid piece to clamp into the frame where it went and drilled & tapped that piece to accept an eyebolt for the strut. I would have preferred to have that strut less vertical but to move the bottom end of it farther from the bike I would have had to cut the clamping part of the sidecar frame off and weld the piece in, which I wasn't prepared to do at the time. Besides, where it is (barely) had room to mount the battery. As you can see. there isn't a lot of room in there

 

[reclinedrelic]

Some more rearranging of the mounts today. The mounts are now farther apart on the sidecar.

I have discovered that the block style frame clamps may not be the correct size. The ones for the rear upper and lower frame have a 27mm opening but it appears that the frame tube is 1" OD. I may need to get a couple more of the clamps of the style of the front upper.