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Bob's 1983 GL650 w/ sidecar

10K views 25 replies 16 participants last post by  bambam24 
#1 ·
Here's my "new" (bought abut 2 months ago) 1983 GL650 with Watsonian Squire sidecar. It has 60,000 miles, runs great and seems to only need a little TLC.



Bob








 
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#3 ·
Welcome to the forum BobM,

Nice bike, really like the paint job.

This forum is great especially for people that want to work on their own bike. There are members on this forum that know just about everything there is to know about these bikes along with a good shot at getting any parts you may need. When you can we ask that you please take a few minutes to edit your profile to show your location and to edit your signature to show your bike's model and year.

Great to have you aboard.




Ride Safe,

Ranger
 
#4 ·
Great rig you got there Bob. What made you choose the CX side car combo? I think side cars are sexy as hell but have no place to park one. I really want a URAL rig or just the side car to attach to my old CX.

Rusty
 
#5 ·
I have always had solo bikes. (Had a GL500 about 5 years ago. Loved it.) I have one son that rides and we go a lot of fun places together. But, I have another son who doesn't ride (and doesn't want to) but wants to go with us. So the sidecar seemed like a good solution. He loves riding in the sidecar, but not on the back of a bike. It's also great for grocery shopping (or any kind of shopping). I didn't have a good place to park it either, but I opened up the entrance to a covered patio (see in 3rd picture) and it fits perfectly (with about 2 inches clearance on each side.)



Bob
 
#7 ·
Beautiful bike. Congratulations and welcome to the forum! I need to find a sidecar also. My son will not ride with me much either if there may be anyone looking.
 
#9 ·
Agree the color is great! Welcome aboard. Was following your shaft trouble thread and realized this was you. Great combo you have there!



Joel in the Couve (wrapping up a vacation in NC headed to Virginia Beach Tuesday)
 
#10 ·
Here's my "new" (bought abut 2 months ago) 1983 GL650 with Watsonian Squire sidecar. It has 60,000 miles, runs great and seems to only need a little TLC.



Bob


From one sidecar jockey to another, "Nice bike!"

I enjoy riding my Ural around and it's allowed me to take my disabled son on some rides which he wouldn't have been able to make otherwise.

I've had a Harley Sportster 1200 with a Velorex, a '98 Ural Deco and currently have an '05 Ural Tourist...

Enjoy!

Weazel
 
#13 ·
Simonwrz, Thanks. It's different in that you don't use counter steering, just turn the bars in the direction you want to go. And, if you're going around a corner/curve pretty fast you have to lean your body into the curve, sometimes to the point of sliding off the seat and hanging onto the bars. Otherwise you might be bottoms up. But, this is my second sidecar rig and I've never had any trouble. (First was a Ural...a real classic look!)



Trooper, The paint scheme must be telling, as I actually bought the bike in a suburb of Panama City!



Bob
 
#14 ·
Weazel, Thanks. My first sidecar bike was a Ural. That bike really has a classic look! My two sons (one on a bike and one in the sidecar) and I went on a charity ride a week ago. Great fun, but on the cool side. When the ride went over Clinch mountain here in east Tennessee the temperature was in the 30's. My son in the sidecar had the top on the car and said he was as cozy as he could be as he sat in there watching movies on his DVD player.



Bob
 
#15 ·
your sidcar outfit looks very nice,it does remind me of the last cx i had 20 years ago

mine had a squire side car outfit at the time i rode like it for six months took the side car outfit off. rode solo for a bit then sold the bike.Then got rid of the sidecar about a year later. my intension was to put on another bike but never got round to it.Then reacently like a couple of years ago.I got a cx wich i still have, this i got off a mate. However at some stage i would like put a sidecar outfit on it.Somehow in someway i would liked to have kept the one i had before, it was like new. i think you are quite lucky to find such a thing. Here in the uk you just don't see many combo's at all.
 
#17 ·
Hi, Gohonda, Here are some pics of the way it is hooked on (along with one pic of our charity ride with the top up on the car). The mounting here is unusual, as they first bolted on a bar to the right side (for you it would be left) of the bike and then welded two of the attachment points to that. The front two attachment points are welded to the bike frame. Most folks bolt the car on so that it can be removed as you did in the past (and I would really prefer that), but the alignment here is spot on and so as long as I'm satisfied with it as a permanent sidecar rig, it works fine. And, since I have another solo bike, this works. Here are the pics: (Please ignore the surface rust. I need to get out my steel wool and polish.














Bob
 
#19 ·
BobM, nice bike. I first thought that the paint scheme reminded me of the characters from the movie "Tron" with the glow and the white outline. Now I know it's a Panama City thing, that makes more sense!




Nice to see the pics on connecting the chair to the bike. I would have thought with all the work that was done to add in bars and mounts, that there would have been another bar for the center mounts (rather than the direct welds made to attach to the bike frame). But if it works and you are happy with it, that's all that matters.
 
#21 ·
[quote name='BobM' date='16 August 2011 - 12:08 PM' timestamp='1313514532' post='103185']

Here's my "new" (bought abut 2 months ago) 1983 GL650 with Watsonian Squire sidecar. It has 60,000 miles, runs great and seems to only need a little TLC.



Bob




I love it. Welcome aboard and thanks for sharing.
 
#22 ·
Thanks, guys, for the compliments. I love the bike. Unfortunately, my ignition fouled up on me and it's been out of commission for a couple/three weeks. However, today my son and I finished installing a new ignition switch. Now we're ready to ride again.....but WHERE did I put the keys to the new ignition??? Man, do I ever feel stupid. A new ignition switch, but no keys. I have spent a couple of hours looking and will continue to do so for the rest of the weekend. If nothing by Monday morning, then I'll (1) contact the top locksmith in town and see if he can cut a new one and, if not, (2) contact the manufacturer of the switch and see what he can offer (not much, I'm afraid, as it was manufactured in China). Failing both of those tries, I may see if I can salvage the part of the old ignition that the key goes into and hope that it's still a functioning part. I'll let you know how it all works out.



Bob
 
#23 ·
Bob, if there is a key code stamped somewhere on the ignition, that may be all that's needed to get a new key cut.



By the way, some of that rust looks a bit deeper that surface. Also, I have to wonder about the integrity of the welds on that connection. Kind of looks brittle to me...but I don't know welding stuff. so take that for a grain of salt. (No pun intended if the rust is from salted roads.)




*I love that color scheme as well.*



Joel in the Couve
 
#24 ·
Thanks, Joel. First the good news: I found the keys. I had laid them on a stack of papers and then laid more papers on top of that. I was taking my house apart, page by page and there they were. The great find was about 2 a.m. this morning. Now the less than good news. There is NO power. I have another thread running on this original problem and so I'm digging out all the responses on that thread and starting over. It's under the title "Lost ALL Power--Help".



I've checked the welds. There's no rust there; I think that it's just a problem of welding overkill that makes it look that way. The surface rust I need to deal with is on the Helmet Holder. Until I bought the bike, it had always been a Florida bike, so no road salt there. But, I do appreciate your concern and I'll keep an eye on it regularly.



Bob
 
#25 ·
Well, after many hours of looking for the reason for the loss of power (which the ignition switch didn't correct
), I gave up and took it to a local bike shop which is really good (Cycle Stop) and admitted defeat. They found the problem and corrected it in a couple of hours. There was a wiring connector block in a box behind the headlight and fairing that had a lot of oxidation on it (too much Florida salt air??). They had to remove the fairing just to find it. Now we're back on the road and having a ball! (I've got it wired for my electric vest, so the cold weather is no problem.



Bob
 
#26 ·
Yeah I live right outside of Panama City I seen the bike on craigslist. It is a nice bike thought about getting it myself because I have always wanted a bike with a side car. Good looking bike and I am glad it went to someone who is going to enjoy the bike and take care of that classic.
 
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