Katana Owners Club U.K.

ive been into sidecars all my adult life, weve had loads over the years and been all over the uk and france on them. its one of the three motoring passions in my life, kats, old brits and sidecars. amongst the multitude of chairs theres always been one sidecar ive wanted primarily because it would allow me to mix two of my passions, sidecars and kats. the sidecar is called a saluki siderider, if you google it, you will realise why ive always wanted to put one on a kat.
so ive got the sidecar, ive got the kat frame, ive sort of got the engine, i need to make the suspension for the outfit and build it up with car wheels.....

exactly, very 1970/80's styling, like... well... a kat! im aiming for smart car wheels, 15 inch with car tyres, which will involve building a rear wheel assembly incorporating the smart hub and the kat chain drive. front end will be leading link forks using a bandit 1200 swingarm and a smart wheel and hub, sidecar will also be smart car maning i can carry a spare wheel which will fit on any corner. smarts are used cos at 15 inch theyre big enough with tyre to be close to the bike rolling radius, but narrow enough to fit in the spare i have.
this means that the 650 kat will be going as well as the dr650 and thee triumph to fund it all and give me the room. i may even have to sell one of the bsa's but lets hope it doesnt get that bad......

there is a pic out on the internet of a saluki body being used as a trailer for a bond bug!

Years ago, probably in the late 1980s, I was in Cambridge, and I saw a German registered (left hand drive) Egli Katana combination. It looked really smart, all done out in Katana silver. It was riding by some distance away so I could not see which model of Katana was used. The bike was even lower to the ground than a standard bike. Unfortunately I did not have my pre-digital camera with me.

David.

How about this one in Queensland?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbDl-DWz54k

The best bit is the pop up headlight in the chair!

David

ok, to flesh out this idea and give an insight on my plans, this is where we are so far. ive got the saluki, ive got a kat 750 frame which will be getting my spare 1100 motor when that motor comes back home from its travels. im going to be using bandit 1200 swingarms front and rearas i will be fitting leading link forks for the handling advantage on outfits. im also planning to use car wheels, specifically smart car wheels, these are relatively rarrow 15 inch rims which i can use on front rear and side leaving me the ability to carry a spare wheel in case of punctures. i will be using smart car hubs and disks because theyn use a 28mm stub axle which conicidentally is the same size as modern sportsbikes run as axles so i can fit a 28mm axle to both ends of the bike and then use the smart hubs on these axles, there are other things i need to do before i go ahead with the build itself because i want this to be the last sidecar outfit i build so its going to be right. im spec'ing tubing for a subframe to go between sidecar and bike that will potentially also carry a low slung fuel tank. and im going to be needing to get hold of a tube bender for making my forks and mounts.

just a slight update, this project is still ongoing, on 24th november our first grandchild was born, luna rose willow is her name and the sidecar is being built in readiness for granddad to take her out.

you can see why ive always wanted to hang one of these on a kat, theyre perfect for the styling.
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and this little lady is the reason for me fitting one. expect her at the mankee kat and euro kat rallys till im too old to ride there myself and she will bring me with her............

ive just got a kat 11 frame from chris jackson and also my spare 1100 engine has come back home from its holiday with giles and amanda down in the sunny south west, next job will be collecting a set of car wheels for it. sidecar setup is a hobby of mine, so im looking forwards to this.

and this is one of the frames i may use, the other alternative is a gs650 kat frame which being shaft drive has its attractions as well as being used with a gs850 engine, so its all somewhat fluid yet, it will probably only be decided when i actually start welding stuff together.