Stella Sidecar #1
I am so excited! After five months of waiting, the sidecar I ordered has finally arrived! I can now get started building my SUV (Scooter Utility Vehicle).
This is the first scooter or scooter component I’ve received that came in an honest-to-god wooden crate. The truck driver was as impressed as I was – nobody ships stuff in wooden crates anymore! I’ve been told that that’s largely because of insect infestation issues. Bugs get into the wood, and get out into environments that aren’t able to deal with them.
Here’s what it looked like once I opened up the crate.
The crate is lined with a rather nice tarp that has been sewn to fit the inside of the crate with a flap opening for the top. Most of the pieces (wheel, rear rack, etc.) are bolted to the sides of the crate through the tarp. The main body of the sidecar, already attached to the frame, is secured in place with a couple of two-by-fours that are nailed through the tarp to the sides of the crate. Only the smallest pieces are packed inside a box that’s then wedged between the two-by-fours. Nothing is free to rattle against anything else.
Even though John (my mechanic) was off for the day I was able to get some assistance getting the pieces lifted out of the crate and arranged on the floor. As you can see, the sidecar comes with the body (the skinny bathtub in the middle) already attached to the frame. On the left is the wheel and fender, along with a chrome “crash bar” that goes around the wheel and fender. Below that in the picture is the cover that you can snap over the top to keep rain and stuff out.
On the right you can see the rear rack and the two pads that form the seat. Below that is what I consider the “heart” of the sidecar, the fitting that bolts to the bottom of the Stella that the sidecar frame bolts to. I lined them up to give you an idea of how they fit together.
Below that is a bag of hardware, and at the bottom is the sidecar’s windshield.
There’s only one piece missing – the instructions! There’s a lot of non-obvious parts in that hardware bag, some of which I have no clue what they are or where they go!
After some fishing around on the Web I discovered some good instructions at ScooterSidecars.com which I think will help us get this thing mounted. If nothing else, I now know what some of those unknown pieces of hardware are!
