The R80/2 outfit has been on the road now for a goodly number of years now and the rear sub-frame is badly in need of repainting.

While in theory this can be done “as is”, access will be atrocious so to get round this the sidecar will have to come off.

Fortunately the standard fittings on a Steib are so designed that taking the outfit apart will not result in losing the alignment and I will be able to just bolt everything back together at the end so that’s one worry I don’t have.

Anyway, as I have the battery mounted on the sidecar chassis the first step is to remove that, it’s a car battery held in by base clamps so it’s remove the terminals, undo the clamps and lift it away, before going on to disconnect the electrics.

While I’m doing the bike I’ll take the chance to touch up the sidecar body as well and this means taking the body out of the chassis.

On an “S” model Steib the body hangs from four mounts in a loop chassis, the front two being pivots and the rear two sprung. Because the body is separately sprung in the chassis means that the chassis itself can be stiffly sprung, which improves the handling of the whole outfit and is why a Steib makes such a good sports outfit.

Since the body hangs in an open loop, before undoing the body mounts I’ve put a web strap under the body but over the chassis loop at front and rear to support it while I remove the mounts and once these are undone it’s just a case of lift the body clear. Sounds easy, BUT, because I’m working on my own here what is an easy lift for two is not for one!.

What I’m doing is to support both front and rear on jacks so I can wheel the bike and chassis forward from under it, but I’ve to be careful as there is a chassis cross member between the jacks so it means wheel forward for about 18 inches, reposition the front jack and than wheel forward again, all the time praying that the body does not topple off the jacks!.

What on paper is a half hour job winds up taking up most of the afternoon, Typical!