1969 Doug Bingham Richard Clell Motorcycle Sidecar - 4-Page Vintage Article

Description

1969 Doug Bingham Richard Clell Motorcycle Sidecar - 4-Page Vintage Article
Original, Vintage Magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
Doug Bingham and Clell Richards manufacture —
A DIFFERENT TYPE OF SIDECAR
The form fitting fiberglass seat
and rear fender arrangement
was laid up over the frame.
This is the passenger
compartment. There isn't an
overabundance of padding.
Doesn't it look comfy?
Between the pages of CYCLE GUIDE,
over the past couple of years, there have
been a number of different types of
sidecars featured These, however, have
all been of the “show, but-no-go“ variety
In an effort to diversify a bit, we
thought it might be kind of interesting to
show our readers some of the modern
trends in motorcycle sidecar racing, and
chassis design.
Just to prove that looks are deceiving,
the machine featured here only weighs
370 lbs. This is lighter than quite a
number of solo, road-going motorcycles,
of 650 and 750 cc displacement. This
particular machine is the latest in a long
line of very-successful sidecar designs
that both Clell and Doug have evolved
over the past few years. Since Clell owns
a machine shop, and Doug has a sidecar
frame business, the two abilities and
facilities go hand in hand to produce a
winner, such as we see here. There are
quite a number of trick items not readily
apparent.
First of all, you will notice the frame is
constructed of rather large diameter
tube The reason for this is to provide a
place for the four quarts of oil used to
lubricate the power plant. The overall
height of the machine is less than 2 ft.,
and because of the low frontal area, plus
the aid of a fairing, 130 mph is average
going down the chutes.
Inasmuch as both men have full-time
businesses to run, the building time
stretched out over a period of months,
although only 200 hours of actual build-
ing time were involved.
The 1 967 650 cc Triumph was
pressed into use as a power plant, along
with the unit construction transmission,
and to date this unit has proved to be an
exceptional performer It pumps out a
steady 50 hp to hustle driver Bob John-
son and passenger Mike Vanlaar around
the various road racing courses with the
best of them. A large Tillotson carburetor
was adopted from a Harley Sportster
and pressed into service in its new
location. The exceptional braking system
was completely built by Clell Richards in
his machine shop. A few standard com-
ponents were used, althought the major-
ity of pieces were hand made, and so far
all have worked out extremely well. The
sidecar even has its own spot brake
setup.
Dunlop makes special road-racing
sidecar tires, and the boys felt they
wanted to go first cabin, so the new
Dunlop racing rubber replaced the old
Goodyear Grasshoppers. Since the one
area that usually makes or breaks any
racing power plant is the cylinder head,
many, many hours were spent exten-
sively porting the Triumph. Oversize
valves, careful fitting of the valves,
guides, and rocker shaft became of para-
mount importance. Equally important
was the degreeing of the cam shafts
themselves. The entire engine has re-
ceived a sizable number of hours, and
much hand work in fitting.
A lot of experimenting was done be-
fore the present reverse cone mega-
phone setup was finally adopted for use.
Exhaust systems on any racing power
plant are considered critical items. This
rig is no different. Although rather light in
construction, the frame and swinging
arm are very, very strong. You will notice
in some of the photos that the swinging
arm is built up of several smaller tubes...
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