Description
This modern classic sidecar outfit is a low mileage (9, 600 miles) jet black, silver and chrome Triumph Thunderbird 900 (1997) with matching Hedingham Single Seat sidecar (1999). They were put together for me by Hedingham’s in 2014, with new Unit leading-link forks and sidecar wheel bearing.
Equipment includes: front Heidenau K28 sidecar tyre (4, 000 miles but showing very little wear), rear Avon AM7 Safety Mileage tyre (also 4, 000 miles but still with good tread), Dunlop D402 Touring white-wall tyre on the unbraked sidecar wheel; Akront alloy rims on bike, chromed steel on sidecar; Triumph OEM windscreen, backrest and king-and-queen seat (as well as the stock seat); sidecar tonneau cover; Triumph OEM immobilizer; Pingle petcock (replacing the often leaky Triumph offering); Tutoro chain oiler; Stahlbus brake and clutch bleeders for easy maintenance; clock; new friction and steel clutch plates and uprated springs; tow ball; jack; spotlight; boot rack; cover; and spare keys.
The bike’s service history up to 2014 (for its first 4, 000 miles) has been lost unfortunately but MoT certificates show that on average the bike did very few miles per year. In its first 4 years the bike only did 168 miles (strangely with 4 owners) and when I bought it in 2014 as the 6th owner it had done only 4, 000 miles - it was SORNed for some of those years. The bike has been maintained partly professionally and partly by me since then. The oil and filter have been freshly changed for the winter.
The outfit has been kept garaged and rarely used in the rain in my ownership. There is slight surface corrosion on the fork yolks, some exhaust pipe blueing and a few scuffs but otherwise it is in good cosmetic and mechanical condition as far as I am aware. It starts and runs well and has an MoT to May 2019.
The Thunderbird 900 triple with its low-end torque is ideally suited to pulling a sports sidecar. Designed as a cruiser, the Thunderbird’s standard gearing is a bit on the low side to make those blasts away from the lights more impressive, so the gearing of the 5-speed box is about right for an outfit. Thanks to the leading-link forks the steering is light and responsive - all outfits have a bit of headshake at certain speeds but on this one it is barely noticeable. The single discs front and back are well up to stopping the outfit in the sort of use this classic outfit will have.
Its retro good looks mean that it’s a rare outing when someone doesn’t come up to me and say how beautiful it is!
I’m reluctantly selling because I need the money for something else. Payment by faster payment bank transfer preferred. Collection from Brighton.
