The road rocket racing sidecar project

[RichardL]

Just being stupidly curious. There is a number on your front engine mount plate which looks like it begins with "NNZ". I that part of vehicle registration for New Zealand?

Richard L.

[Rocket Racer]

Thats a "Motorcycling New Zealand" (MNZ) id plate. All sidecars raced in NZ must have an id plate and a logbook recording the bikes details and race history.
The bikes not registered for road use, although if it was it may have a small "VIN" vehicle identification number plate on the frame, if recently re-registered from scratch.

Just being stupidly curious. There is a number on your front engine mount plate which looks like it begins with "NNZ". I that part of vehicle registration for New Zealand?

Richard L.

[muskrat]

Don't know how it works in NZ, but if you were over here I'd put it on club plates. . The cafe is basically my old racer with head & tail lights and guards.
Cheers

[Rocket Racer]

...

[JohnH]

That's one very pretty outfit .... Well done Rocket Racer. Look forward to seeing you at the front of the queue!!

John

[Rocket Racer]

The weather finally cleared enough yesterday to test run at a mates with a long sealed driveway.
Clutch slip made starting difficult, so we resorted to a tow. Took quite a wile to get one cylinder to chime in, accompanied with the enchanting smell of methanol and castor oil. A bit of throttle cable and carb fettling and both cylinders were up and the engine was mechanically quiet and felt lovely and sharp.
The exhaust joints weren't good enough and blew oily residue everywhere, but I was still grinning like a lunatic. No unwanted clunks, knocks or rattles...
a minor oil leak from an oil line off the oil tank and had a few nice runs.
So need to sort the clutch, clean and seal the exhausts, and should be ready for a longer run up.

[andy2565]

you could always try a burt monroe up the beech ! thats if you are a kiwi at home.

[muskrat]

Good to hear she's a goer. Fine tuning time. I luv that smell so I add a little castor to my petrol so others can too, funny how they sit behind for a while before overtaking (if they can). Can't help with the clutch, maybe Orabanda can.
Why not install the kicker, till your racing. I thought chairs were allowed kickers, solos aren't.
Cheers

[Rocket Racer]

Why not install the kicker, till your racing. I thought chairs were allowed kickers, solos aren't.
Cheers

The issue with kickers is that its another somewhere oil can leak. Unlike solo's we get a lot of oil surge from side to side within the motor. Its not unknown for bikes on say an anticlockwise circuit to quietly fill the timing cases as the oils being pushed sideways and that can be problematic. My Norton retained a kicker and it always left an oil weap on the zorst by race end.
I've removed the kick start mechanism and plugged it.

I'm also running an upper cyl lube in the methanol. But I do love that smell 

I suspect I'm short a clutch plate in the basket...ooh er that doesnt sound good

[Rocket Racer]

Just had a mate ring me to tell me I've apparently made copy in the May/June Classic Racer copy #149 on my bored and stroked 750 A10rr while racing at Pukekohe!
Would be great if it was actually bored and stroked and not just a stock motor with +20 pistons going as quickly as we could on methanol and castor oil.
Still we managed to embarrass an 850 commando kneeler and some 70's triumph kneelers with 5 speed boxes.
Must find a newsagent and source a copy!

[muskrat]

Good one RR, will check the newsagent when the sun comes up.
Crop the chair off, tilt the bike 45 degrees, yep you'll make a good solo racer too 
Cheers

[Rocket Racer]

Good one RR, will check the newsagent when the sun comes up.
Crop the chair off, tilt the bike 45 degrees, yep you'll make a good solo racer too 
Cheers

As the rigs a bolt on, technically I'd need to change the wheels back from 16", fit some normal fork springs, stock sliders to bring the trail back and put on a side stand. The thought has crossed my mind more than once.
My other thought was to build a second one as a solo! the rigid frame saves so much weight it helps offset the spare tyre round my waist. Sadly finances preclude this without a lotto win.
My hack solo parts are slowly being collected, but still money to be spent getting the outfits cyl head right and also want to fit a joe hunt mag so the slow burning methanol all gets burnt. I think my modern lectronic bt-h has too short a spark duration (will put that on the road hack on petrol).
But do love my training wheel on the a10, no worries with losing traction, its always drifting...the skinny tyres just cant get enough grip, its a real hoot. We need to get you onto a race chair! might need to get you cross the ditch sometime 

[Rocket Racer]

One big mistake I did make was painting the bike with acrylic lacquer, hadn't realised that methanol makes this paint type bleach white if spilt.
The engine plates got nasty very quickly so have just had them electroless nickeled. provides a really neat finish while not as flashy as chrome.

I'm very tempted to see if the solo frame will fit in their plating bath too (time and finances permitting)!
The nice thing about it is you get an even coating unlike electroplating, so this could be done on anything...The Indian fours had electroless nickeled barrels and heads, but I am considering doing more cycle parts on the bike.

Must admit I like it as a finish.

[muskrat]

Looking at the pic I would need to put rollers on my toosh !
Till they build a bridge or tunnel I'm stuck here, don't like planes or boats  .
Cheers

[Rocket Racer]

Looking at the pic I would need to put rollers on my toosh !
Till they build a bridge or tunnel I'm stuck here, don't like planes or boats  .
Cheers

My crewman Mark sticks a knee slider on his! He had velcro sewn onto his leathers specially. He takes it off when racing his solo race bike, it seems to work quite well.
sidecars are hard on crew leathers as they do tend to spend time skimming the track surface with various body parts.

If they built a bridge we'd all be over there for that weather of yours. Mind you we might pipe some of our surplus water supply across it if you needed it.