MOBEC DUO-DRIVE BMW 2WD SIDECAR CONVERSION................Part 1

The Stern Rox getting fitted for the WARN SDB-210  lights.

This will be the first in a series of articles I am writing on the conversion of my 2004 BMW 1150 GS Adventure to a 2WD Sidecar here at LBS Sidecars in the Netherlands. I'll be documenting all about the build, and also going into a little background on how I got to this point in the first place.


THE BACKSTORY.
I've been on the road now for nearly 2 1/2 years on my 
2004 BMW 1150 GS Adventure, mostly in the Continental U.S., Western Canada and Baja California. Before that I was a raging alcoholic and drank my way out of a successful business but a miserable and unhappy life.


And in the last 2 years on the bike, I've traveled over 60,000 miles in all types of weather conditions, from 110º in Arizona and the Bonneville Salt Flats, to 100º in Baja California when I photographed the NORRA Mexican 1000, and all the way down to -40º in Steamboat Colorado. And it was in Steamboat that my forward motion was brought to a screeching, or in this case a sliding, traction-less halt.

Christmas in Colorado, fun to play in, but not to ride in,

unless you have a sidecar.

THE REASON FOR A SIDECAR.
It was December 2010, a nice Winter snowfall was in progress, not a lot as snowfall in Steamboat goes, but after half an hour the nice fluffy white powder settling on the ground started to build up a little depth to it, and then began to get packed tight, and as the snow started to pack tighter, so my traction started to get looser and more dangerous.

As my journey progressed from 6 months into 1 year and then 1 1/2 years I found myself amassing more gear to try to make 'Long-Term' Life on the Road a little bit more comfortable, and I also upgraded my camera equipment, and all of these 'upgrades'  translated into more weight on the bike.

So as I was loosing grip and traction on the fluffy white stuff underneath me, I knew that I was going to have serious problems within the hour. Luckily I was near my destination, 20 minutes away from my hosts at the time, Pete and Heather Sloop, so problem solved, albeit temporarily for that evening. 
The next day, after a big 'ole snow dump on Steamboat, I was snowed in. Stopped by the weather and the fact that I had a motorcycle with 2 wheels. But I knew if I had a sidecar, 3 wheels, I wouldn't have a problem at all. So that moment for me was the tipping point, there began my quest in earnest, as soon as I could, to go from two wheels to three, motorcycle to sidecar.

Photo courtesy Dom Chang CO Motorcycle Travel Examiner    

THE BIKE.
I started with a 2004 BMW 1150 GS Adventure (which I bought used in November of 2009), not because it was the best choice for building a 2WD sidecar on, (in fact it's not the best choice due to it being so high), but simply because it's the only motorcycle I own. 
The BMW 1150 GS series of motorcycles gained a huge jump in popularity when Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman made the 'Long Way Round' movies, everyone wanted to be them, so lots of folks bought themselves a GS Adventure, the same as Ewan and Charlie had, some of them rode around the World on them, some of them just rode to work and back on them. 
Me, I just bought it because I happened to be in the right place at the right time, and stumbled across it for sale on Craigslist in CA and hammered out a deal not to be passed on. I only found out after I bought it that it was the "Long Way Round" bike.
Would I pick another motorcycle to build a RTW sidecar outfit on if given a selection to choose from?. Probably, but that's not a reflection of the capabilities of the BMW 1150 GS Adventure, rather more of a model choice, but that discussion is a whole other post in and of itself. 
For now, I just wanted to clarify what motorcycle I have, why I have it, and why I chose this particular motorcycle to convert to sidecar.

WHY LBS?.
Why did I end up choosing LBS?. Mainly because they were one of the only ones that I knew of to have built a 2WD Sidecar Outfit with the Mobec Duo-Drive system, a full-time 2WD, Viscous Fluid Drive coupling that attaches between the rear driven wheel on the motorcycle and the sidecar wheel. I had researched sidecar builders in the U.S., but no one there was familiar with or had built an outfit with the Mobec Duo-Drive system. Mobec will build you one in Germany, but you get it built the way they do it, you can't customize it to suit your needs.
My friend Richard in Holland has been riding with a Mobec Duo-Drive on his BMW outfit for a few years now, so I contacted him about it, and through him, was put in contact with Ad Donkers of LBS Sidecars. The Euro sidecar scene is completely different than the U.S. in many regards,. 'Family Outfits', 2 seater sidecars, have been in use for years here,taking the whole family on a weekend camping trip is pretty normal in these parts. The 2 kids go in the sidecar, wife or girlfriend on the back of the bike and off you go. Sidecars in general are not as popular in the U.S. as they seem to be here in Europe, especially France and Germany. Holland, bogged down by red tape bureaucracy, makes it very difficult and very expensive to get a motorcycle license to begin with, and that, coupled with very strict road laws and completely flat terrain, contribute to sidecars not being as popular.
My outfit, when finished, will be the 3rd Mobec Duo-Drive 2WD outfit that LBS will have built. There are not too many Mobec Duo-Drives in total in Europe, there's a good chance mine will be the first in the U.S. when I get back in 4 or 5 years from my Round the World.

THE SIDECAR
I had a lot of criterions that the sidecar I chose would have to meet, it had to be Round the World capable, it had to be able to take a passenger comfortably over distances when necessary, it also had to have a lot of space, and it had to combine all of those in a sidecar package that was also visually appealing, at least to me, as this was going to be an outfit that would be my "Home on the Road" for the next 5-7 years, and because as an old hot rodder and gear head , aesthetics and design are important factors for me in most things I build.

I did a quite a bit of research on which sidecar models people used for RTW outfits, and by and large they all seemed to use the same type of chair, either a Ural Sidecar chair, or something very similar from another manufacturer, like the EML E2000. I was the passenger in a Ural sidecar and found it to be very cramped and uncomfortable as well as visually unappealing, and the same can be said of the EML E2000, so for me neither of those 2 styles were an option.

So what does a Round the World capable sidecar really mean?.
Well, it usually means an outfit that is as tough and basic as they come with plenty of ground clearance for inhospitable or rough terrain, and designed with very little frills, like the British Land Rover or Toyota Land Cruisers of the sixties, meant to go absolutely anywhere, but not in style or comfort.
The problem I saw with most of the RTW chairs was that they weren't really visually appealing, at least to me anyway.
Since this was going to be a sidecar outfit that I was going to be using full-time, all year round and in all weather conditions for the next 5+ years straight, and also needed it to be able to carry a passenger at times, I wanted to build in or include some features into it that would last and stand the test of time, so I had to find that balance between a rough terrain RTW capable outfit with some comfort and style built in as well.


One sidecar manufacturer, STERN, seemed to appeal to me the most, visually anyway, and one model in particular, the Stern Roxster.
It seemed to have a lot of the qualities I was looking for in a sidecar, it's what they call a 1 1/2 person chair, it seats 1 adult and 1 child,so plenty of room.
It also has a huge trunk, more than enough space to be able to carry plenty of gear and equipment for long term ( 2 years or more) expeditions like this one , and it also was a really good looking chair, it has great lines, BUT, it was more of a performance road going chair than a RTW chair, mainly due to it's profile and stance. It normally sits low to the ground, and the design has the front or nose of the Roxster swooping down to the ground rather than an uplifted front. The Rox nose, which looks better, is not the optimal shape for clearing obstacles like rocks, snowdrifts or rocky and uneven terrain that I will encounter over the next 5 years on the road, so compromises will need to be made to try and adapt the Rox to my Overlanding specs and needs.

The new output shaft on my BMW Final Drive, which will connect to the viscous clutch on the MOBEC DUO-DRIVE.

MOBEC DUO-DRIVE

Why the Mobec Duo-Drive 2 Wheel Drive system?. 
While 2WD is not a necessity on a sidecar (until you get snowed in and need it that is), my decision for deciding to install the Mobec Duo-Drive 2WD system on my outfit was in part based on my trip being a long, 5-7 year Solo Expedition, there will be no RoadSide Service for me to call in most of the places I am going to, and Winter Travel will more than likely be playing a large part of the journey, as Nordkapp in Norway tends to be inhospitable even at the best of times, and then there's Russia and Siberia and the M65 otherwise known as the Road of Bones. I still haven't been to much of Alaska yet, and have a desire to ride my outfit on the Ice Roads in Alaska, as well as the Ice Roads in Scandinavia and Russia.

Zermatt, Switzerland Dec 1977, age 15.

The decision to want to go places that most people would not go to is for me pretty simple really. Why not?. The mountaineer Doug Scott, one of my hero's and the first Briton to stand on the summit of Everest said that he "Just had this natural curiosity that took him from one place to another without really planning it". Perfect.
And let's face it, I just turned 50 in January. And even though 50 is the new 40, I still know people who had a stroke at 30, a heart attack at 40 and countless friends who died before ever reaching the age of 20 from Motorcycle accidents, both on and off the race track, so I consider myself extremely fortunate to be 50, on no medications for any health related problems, and very healthy considering the amount of damage that I could have done while I was drinking.
I also feel that I squandered away many opportunities, both financial and otherwise, but most importantly the opportunities afforded a human being on this planet, the opportunity of life. Not everyone has it, and not all in equal amounts. 
There are millions of oppressed, poor, hungry, handicapped, abused, sick, dying, suffering human beings the world over, I consider myself about as fortunate as I can not to be included in any of those categories. I obviously didn't consider myself that fortunate a few years back when I feel like I abused that privilege, the gift of freedom. Not all are free and unencumbered like I am, and this time, I don't intend to waste it.


 So, when questions arise on the how's and why's of my trip, "How can you do this", "Where do you get the time"  or "How can you afford it", I always come back to Hillel the Elders quote from 60BC, "If not now, when", 
and I add "If Not Me, Who", and all makes sense. 


I stopped making excuses 3 1/2 years ago when I quit drinking. 


I don't have time for excuses anymore.

Murph.

FH-DCE SUPERRALLY 2012 Ballenstedt, Germany.

I had not heard of the Super Rally ® before now, but I did know that the H-D clubs are just as big in the EU as they are back in the U.S., if not bigger.
I hadn't planned to go, as is usual with most of my journey so far, but at the last minute I thought well, what the hell, get out of the tent and all that, may as well go.
Ad, the owner of LBS Sidecars in Elsendorp where I'm staying until my sidecar is built, was going with his brother and some friends, so since Monday was a holiday in Europe I figured I may as well go also. All told, it was only a 500km/300 ml ride for us, so it wouldn't put a big hole in my wallet since I'm still in shock from my first European gas tank fill up on the bike. 
My first European gas tank fill up came in at .......wait for it .......***drum roll*** ......$110 !!. I know, $110 to fill a gas tank on a motorcycle, I mean really?. Granted, I do have the extra large tank on the bike, 11.5 gls, the stock tank was an 8 gl, but it too would still be in the region of $80 to fill up. But $110 just dam near gave me a stroke right there at the gas station, I mean my trip nearly ended before it had even begun. I knew the price of gas before I got to Europe, but it's one thing to know about it, and another thing altogether to actually shell out the cash for $10 a gallon gas.


Europeans have been living with high gas prices for a long time now, I honestly don't know how they manage to keep paying what are considered exorbitant prices for fuel, but it seems to be a problem that is worsening, no relief in sight, and with the summer holiday season coming up, it will probably go up to $12 a gallon.
But, mustn't grumble, eh?. Things could be worse and all that, stiff upper lip, jolly good, as you were.


So, the route from Elsendorp in Holland to Ballenstedt in Germany:

View Larger Map

Europe is really not very big, I think the fact that there are so many countries in the EU all within driving distance make's it seem like it's pretty big, but for example Paris France to Istanbul in Turkey is about 2,800 km or so, or 1700 miles, but you'll pass through Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria to get there. You can also make the route a bit more scenic and go down to Albania and Greece as well, so all told you could pass through 11, maybe 12 countries before you reach Istanbul, so that fact alone makes Europe seem a lot bigger than it actually is. 

Here's the route on the map, we'll get back to the Super Rally in a sec:

View Larger Map

So, A to B, Paris to Turkey, 1700mls, and to put in perspective vis a vie the U.S., Miami to Denver is 2,100 mls, and if you go on to San Francisco, you're looking at a total distance of 3,300 mls, or 5,370km.


Ok, Geography class over, next period, the Super Rally.
So, having decided to go Friday morning to the H-D Super Rally, I'm packing my bike as Ad is packing his Harley Davidson V-Rod Sidecar, and he looks at me and points to my back wheel...........I have a flat.
Ok, we can change out the tire. But then he asks if I want to be the monkey in the sidecar ( passenger ), easier on my wallet as we can split the gas, AND more importantly, I can take pictures while he rides, or in a sidecar you drive, not ride.
Great idea, so that's what we did, we both went in the V-Rod. That doesn't sound right, does it?.
 Two grown men, one V-Rod.........The V-Rod Tales, coming soon to the Adult section of your local video store.

I'll translate this for you, it's 'Thumb's Up', but in Dutch. 

Your welcome.

The ride, or drive since it's a sidecar outfit, from Elsendorp in the Netherlands to Ballenstedt in Germany was flat for the first 300kms, until we got out of Holland.

You don't start to see any appreciable terrain until you start to get east of Essen in Germany.

Getting to the campground where the Super Rally was was much easier than I expected, it's an event that can have up to 10,000 or more at, so long lines at the gate are the norm, but not this time. After picking up my press pass ( thank you Gunther ) we breezed in and found Ad's brother Jack who kept up a camp spot.

Ad and his brother Jack, showing their table manners.

These potato balls were even better than they look, and the meat skewers behind were just as good, no idea what type of meat it was, but I was so hungry the first night there, and since Ad was off drinking and I don't drink, I decided to treat myself to some of the Rally food. I normally find food at events like this to be mediocre at best, this event on the other hand was really really top notch, from the food to the camping area, everything. It was all running like a properly greased wheel.

Hat's off to the organizers on this one.

Next years Super Rally is in Poland, so after my experience at this on, I intend to make the 2013 Super Rally for sure.

Part II of this article will be mostly the bikes I shot at the event, meanwhile I hope you enjoyed the ride from Elsendorp in the netherlands to the Super Rally® in Ballenstedt in Germany.


Please leave any comments or questions here on go to my FaceBook page and say hi.

Murph.

EINDHOVEN................Out and About Pt I.

'The Blob' in Eindhoven on 18 Septemberplein.

On a whim I decided to ride down to Eindhoven last Sunday, and coming in from the west on the A270, 'The Blob' is the first landmark that assaults the senses, it stopped me dead in my tracks. My shutter finger was already twitching even before I got off the bike and got my Nikon D3s out.

Argueably one of the more controversial structures built in Eindhoven, 'The Blob'  is a one of those 'Love It or Hate It' types of buildings, and it's not that difficult to see why either. 
Built right in the middle of Eindhoven's shopping district, it was built as the centre-piece of a complete re-development of the 18 Septemberplein area.
It's location and the other buildings that surround it just add to it's intrigue. Upon first sight, it appears to be completely out of place amongst it's older neighbors, like it just dropped out of the sky like a 'Blob', but I must say, I think it's quite an impressive piece.

So given that it's such a controversial piece, I thought I would throw in a controversial image to keep in the same spirit.
I photographed it an angle, usually a no-no in photography, threw it into a Photomatix Pro HDR preset to give it a 'painting' look with a Lightroom vignette to finish (sounds like a recipe for dinner), and i'm sure that i'll hear about it from a few people.

The city of Eindhoven counts 217,200 + inhabitants, 261,000 + if the adjacent Veldhoven is included, making it the fifth-largest city of the Netherlands.

I was only in Eindhoven for one day, and intend to return this coming weekend, due in no small part to meeting this man, Bob Casemier.

I'm riding down the Kleine Berg, a small little cobblestone street in Eindhoven, and as I turn a corner I see a man on a small little stool with a brush cleaning what appears to be a gorgeous Triumph Cafe Race bike.

So off I get and wander over, having no idea what's in store for me.

Bob

Bob Casemier.


Bob built most of this 750 Triumph Cafe himself, you can tell just by looking at the way some of it's pieces are constructed it's not a parts catalogue bike, it has all the hallmarks of being an owner built piece.
But the best was yet to come.
After chatting with Bob he asks me 'How much time do you have?', I have no schedule I reply, why?.
Well, I have a museum upstairs, would you like to come see?.


Ummm, yes please.

To be continued...........






Murph

And Speaking Of Sidecars............

......i've been thinking of hacking out(putting a sidecar on) my GS for quite some time now,over a year in fact.

Getting snowed in last November en route to and when finally reaching Steamboat,CO was the episode that pushed me over the edge and made making the decision to going sidecar easy.
While I was stuck there and attempting to ride out,the snow that was falling wasn't really hard heavy snowfall,just consistent,so after half an hour of snowfall it began to get packed tighter,and slicker.Balancing on two wheels now became treacherous,stopping just wasn't going to happen safely.I knew that if I had a sidecar,NONE of these issues would be an issue at all,especially if it were a 2 Wheel Drive outfit.

And so the search began in ernest to transform this.....

...into something like this:

...or this:

...or even this:

....in order to be able to do things like this:

...and this:

...and this:

The funding for the sidecar conversion will come from the sale of what's left in my house in Florida that is or will be foreclosed upon in the next 3-6 months.Losing,or at least thinking that I lost everything I had due to my alcoholism and continued drinking actually turned out not to be the case,just the opposite in fact.I didn't really lose anything at all,I just got rid of a lot of "stuff" that I didn't really need,and that demanded a lot of physical and emotional maintenance from me.
I still have my FJ 40 up for sale(the pic link is in the sidebar) which I will let go for a ridiculously low price to the first person that comes along with a reasonable offer in order to fund the sidecar.I will also be trying to raise money from the sale of prints available on my SmugMug account.


As the New year of 2012 approaches I will be officially homeless,but I will also be as free and unencumbered as I have been since my teenage years,where I had not a care in the world,when the world was mine to explore at my leisure,and I thought I had forever to explore it too.

This will be my last year in the U.S. for quite a number of years,as i'll be shipping my bike to Rotterdam in the Netherlands in March,immediately following my photoshoot of the TeamRWB  Event in Austin TX,Feb 18th to the 20th.
From Austin I ride back to Miami and put the bike in the Schumacher Transport warehouse,where it will wait to be loaded onto a container for Holland.
Once in the EU and after the sidecar conversion is complete,there are a number of winter sidecar rallies I plan to attend,including the famous and longest running UK bike event,The Dragon Rally,held annually in North Wales in February since 1962.
The roots of The Dragon Rally go back to the early sixties when the British motorcycle press carried reports of another famous rally held each winter in Germany,the Elefantreffen or Elephant Rally,famed for the hardships involved in attending.The November 1961 issue of the British magazine "The Motor Cycle" carried an article by George Wilson who asked,"Can such a dream be realized in this country-a rally for super enthusiasts only,and so organized that by it's very nature,only super enthusiasts would want to join in?...but above all it must be held in the dead of winter when only the men who are men would be interested and the softies would stay away".
Well,the article brought a flood of replies and soon another journalist,John Ebrell,was sent to North Wales to seek a camping site,with a view to publishing an article that would draw out potential organizers.As luck would have it,as he was scouting around North Wales,a letter arrived at the magazine from Lawrence Irving of the Conwy Club,offering to organize the rally.The Conwy and District Motorcycle Club has run the rally ever since.
It is usually grouped with the German Elefantreffen and the Norwegian Krystall Rally,both of which I plan to attend.

From Wales in Feb of 2012 i'll head over to Ireland,The Ould Sod where I lived until I was 18,and I still have cousins there and have not been back since 1990,when I returned to bury my father.
From Ireland it's back east to Europe and by which route as yet I do not know,but a Round the World motorcycle sidecar journey has been calling to me for quite some time now,and while I can do it I will.How I am going to fund it,as yet I also don't know,but as has been the theme and spirit of my journey and adventure so far,i'll figure it out as I go along.An odd job here or there to put gas in the tank,some photography print sales and even a published article or two,more than enough to keep me going for a few months.


Thats it for now.I hope that those of you who follow along will continue to do so,and also recommend this place to friends,as it's your support that helps propel me to keep doing what i'm doing.I always appreciate your thoughts either in the comments section of this blog,or jump over to my FaceBook page and leave me a note over there.

Murph