Suspended Animation...???

[NOTRIGHTNIT]

Hi,

This is a question I have been thinking about for a while now. My sidecar chassis itself is nearing more or less 90% completion of renovation, I am judging it to be somewhere about a 1958 vintage, a Canterbury make (U.K.). I have two leaf springs jutting out from the centre backwards, these are to supply some form of, width wide, springiness to the chair itself, there is no wheel suspension as it is a fixed axle....!! On the front leading edge of the chassis there are two modest little lugs that originally held two plates with coil springs mounted on them to supply a little bounce to the chair body when loaded a tad.....!!!

Canterbury have long gone the way of all things, so, my questions are, has anybody any idea of what load springs I should aim for ? are there any already available ? is there an equation that I can use to work the load out, there are only two, so maybe a one off job making them may be in order, anybody have an idea..??????

[stacebg]

Hi,

This is a question I have been thinking about for a while now. My sidecar chassis itself is nearing more or less 90% completion of renovation, I am judging it to be somewhere about a 1958 vintage, a Canterbury make (U.K.). I have two leaf springs jutting out from the centre backwards, these are to supply some form of, width wide, springiness to the chair itself, there is no wheel suspension as it is a fixed axle....!! On the front leading edge of the chassis there are two modest little lugs that originally held two plates with coil springs mounted on them to supply a little bounce to the chair body when loaded a tad.....!!!

Canterbury have long gone the way of all things, so, my questions are, has anybody any idea of what load springs I should aim for ? are there any already available ? is there an equation that I can use to work the load out, there are only two, so maybe a one off job making them may be in order, anybody have an idea..??????

some photos might help

[NOTRIGHTNIT]

Ask and thou shalt receive........

The two either side just before the road wheel are the type

[stacebg]

Ask and thou shalt receive........

The two either side just before the road wheel are the type

i meant what you have lol

[NOTRIGHTNIT]

It is not a lot to be honest.

I have the Canterbury chassis from about 1959 with two brackets on the front end, assuming that these brackets had some form of sidecar body support, i.e. springs, torsion rubbers, or even a basic mechanical device to raise the chair from the chassis for comfort, is a guess on my part. I intend to offer something in the way of sprung suspension to minimise shock to the passenger, and to the wellbeing of the chassis/bike.

Back in the day, these ideas all stemmed from the brain of a designer without any experience, just intuition, the designer must have been in awe of different innovative ideas from various other companies, and included them, and indeed improved on them maybe..... I love that era of trial and era, hence my project, and asking for ideas like this one to better enhance my take on a 1930's chair. It is a terrific learning curve that I happily sink into, always thinking ahead, probably like the original guys did....!!!!

I lay in bed thinking "What if I did this, would such and such happen, if so, what if I did this instead, and how would it affect this...??? " I love all that, plus, things are slowly getting together as a result.....!!!