A really cool budget sidehack from a regular overseas contributor.

Simon Tay from Singapore writes in with his second custom build. This time it’s a really trick sidecar rig that wouldn’t break your bank.

Hi there,

https://motorcyclephotooftheday.com/2011/01/20/honda-vlx-400-chopperbobber-a-totally-awesome-budget-build/

It’s me again! The above link was the first bike I built, so this is my second. It’s a 1995 Honda CM125 I did at the car park area outside my office. I did it with a very limited budget, a lot of the parts were either reshaped from the original parts on the bike or scarp materials I found.

The handlebars are the stock bars, cut reshaped and welded. I run the wires internally to make it look cleaner. I couldn’t afford those expensive “bobber” tail light, so I used the stock turn signal light and turned it into a tail light. The rear fender was shaped from the original fender. The tank was from a Suzuki GN125 I picked up from the scrapyard, I cut off the seam and welded it to have a smoother look. I used the rubber grommets that protects the wires left from my Honda Steed to mount the tank. The seat was made from aluminium pan. I had a friend’s mom to help me sew the lines on the cover. I made the passenger seat with wood and foam from and old sofa, however the upholstery was done by a professional sofa restorer(that’s the only part done by a professional on this bike). I did the paint job as well as the (poorly done) pinstripe. I added a steering damper to reduce the wobble. I couldn’t find a nice headlight within my budget, so I flipped the headlight mounts and the lowered headlight blended with the bike pretty well.

I wanted to get a matching wheel on the sidecar, but I had to give up that idea to stay within budget. So it might look a little odd with spoke wheel on that side. And was about to get a photographer to do a photo shoot of it, but I figured if I had done 95% of this bike on my own I might as well take pictures of it using my iPhone!
Regards,
Simon
Singapore

Thanks Simon! I really like your ingenuity on this build. Sometimes when your first impulse is too expensive or not available, the solution turns out to be better than you intended.

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