Cutting hub down to make it narrower

Smitty901

Smitty901

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We wanted to use a Street 750 15 inch rear wheel on the sidecar . It has a 16 inch. The reason is to run the same size car tire on the sidecar as the bike uses. No luck find anything off the shelf that would work. We knew the 750 rear wheel would but the hub was way to wide. Answer was to cut the part of the hub that houses the crush drive off. Saws-all, angle grinder with cutting wheel and grinding wheel and it worked.

Now just have to work out axle size and it will be done.
 

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Harley was the best deal on an Axle by a long shot. I decided to go with a 25mm axle. Using the same one the Street 750 has and cutting length down to fit. Axle is ordered. Yesterday drilled out the mount to 7/8 will drill it to 1 inch tomorrow and work on fitting a bushing.

Going with the 25 mm means every thing matches the bike , keeps it simple.
 
The HD 25mm axle came in yesterday . Will pick it up at 0900 figure out the spacer to hold wheel off swing arm and cut it to length. One last look at the fit then weld everything in place. We will be doing two Rigs this way. Once mine is done all the parts will come off and go on another rig. He rides his everyday. My 750 rig is a second rig and is not used as much. Getting his done would be more important. having mine apart did not effect anyone,s riding time. From the start putting a sidecar on a 750 Street mine was used to work out issues and try new ideas.
 
Fitted the axle and welded what needed welding today. Test road the heck out of . Took it off rad tried to break it. It works. Pictures to follow.

As of now the sidecar has a factory motorcycle tire on it. Will be ordering the car tire for it. next step will be check the fit to the bike . I am sure a little adjustment will be needed.

Mounting a sidecar on a 750 Street started off as A wonder if it would work . It did, then it was assumed it would really only be for short back road rides for Payton.

That proved wrong. The rig preformed well and with a few adjustment it was doing just fine at highway speeds. And at times it has operated well above legal speeds.

The Rig attracted the attention of another that wanted to do the same thing. The education process of helping him figure out what he was getting into formed a friendship.

His rig works well and he is enjoying it. The desire to make things better has driven us to a car tire on the motorcycle of both rigs , that has worked very well . The next logical step was to increase sidecar tire life. Why not use the same car tire as the rear of the bike ? The reason was simple no 16 wheels that would fit and except a car tire. Most were to narrow. To work right the wheel need to be a 15 inch. Seemed the stock 750 Street wheel would be prefect if the hub was not so wide. You see the results, cut it down. Of course we had no way of knowing if it would work. The factory Sidecar axle was a 20mm and way to short. The answers after some research prove to be using a 25MM that would fit the HD bearings. That led us to cutting a factory HD Street 750 axle to the length we need. While it took some cutting , making new bushing and welding.

The work was surprisingly easy.

The next step is making a hub to cover the axle bolt. We have some ideas that should look like it belongs that way.

Street 750 factory tire is a 140/75R15. The car tire we found to be a prefect replacement on the Wheel is a 155/60R15. The 155/60R15 is a Smart Car tire. Speed and weight ratings are just right for the rig.

Step outside the box. Even if you run into some road blocks. The challenge of doing something different is well worth the rewards.

Not this year but maybe next project for a 750 Street Trike it and stick a wide Glide front end on it. And the answer is no I don't do drugs, just a mind that is wired different.
 
Gorilla said:
Robert for a cover you might take one of the premium covers cut out the inside attaching stuff and then drilling a hole in the center and screwing it onto the end of the shaft after tapping some threads in it. The Stallion trike does that on their front wheel axle.
Click to expand...

I have a cover that matches the rotor holes it is cut out in the center. about 2 1/4 inch. Send me a link to the cover you are talking about if you can.
 
Just so you know in those video's there was no cross road access , no traffic and someone watching for any possible on coming traffic.

It has been beat hard, tested and test some more every part of the work has held. The test subjected it to far more than it would ever face in normal use. Next is put the body back on and do the same mod to a friends that has the same setup.
 
Payton has not ridden the black one for some time. I had removed the mounts we built and used them to get a friend going. Of course she has been riding the gold one. So today I put the black one all back together while she was at school and picked her up with it. She was happy to ride in it again.

 
Yesterday we converted another rig the same way. Friend that has the same sidecar on a 750 Street. Plan all along was to do his. We used mine as the test bike . Using what we learned from mine we did his. We left a about a 1/4 inch more on the hub when cutting it down on his. That 1/4 made no difference on fit and will make it a bit stronger.

The goal has always been to improve the rig. Face it Sidecar on a 750 Street is not common. The setup works well but can always get better. Next project is to replace the factory shock with a better one. Make a better swing arm frame bumper and a different front mount system that looks cleaner.

We did figure out a hub cover. Pictures will come latter just forgot to take one. Using a Dyna front rotor eliminator cover we drilled it out to fit the rotor bolts for a Street simple stuff.

Then used a rear axle bolt cover. Works great , just need to paint the bolts black now.

3 years into my second retirement it looks like I will end my riding days the way it started. Parts all over the place trying to make sometime a little different
 
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