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Corruption by design
Most sane people regard a sidecar as a poorly conceived corruption of two good perfectly good vehicles. They may be right, but GUIDO says they also have no idea of what they’re missing out on…
A former prominent member of the trade once welcomed me to his warehouse with open arms – despite the fact he knew I wanted something from him – with the staggering declaration, “Good on you. Any fool can ride a motorcycle, but it takes skill to ride a chair.” I think he was overstating the case somewhat, but he clearly approved of my mount, then a Kawasaki GT750 with Dusting replica. Of course the fact he used to race chairs may have had something to do with it.
To most, the idea of a sidecar is the ultimate corruption, half car and half motorcycle, but neither, with some of the worst attributes of both. Yup, no argument so far and, historically, they were in fact the poor working man’s motorcycle with a car tacked on to carry junior, because the dream of owning a real car was simply out of financial reach.
Human nature inevitably led to them being developed into an art form, raced and turned into something closer to an F1 car than a bike, and, nowadays, struggling to survive.
We’ve probably seen the golden years of the sidecar come and go, which in some ways is a shame. As an owner, I of course would like to see them flourish and some recent (probably isolated) events give me hope.
One was receiving the first reader letter in years enquiring about buying an outfit. People seem to have forgotten they exist. Another was a report by the local Royal Enfield importer, some months ago, that he was having no trouble flogging Cozy sidecars imported from India. And I’m in the throes of getting my Suzuki outfit, Dr Gange, back on the road after a lengthy rest.
In this day and age, there is no real justification for having them, or so I thought. The reader who enquired by email in fact came up with the very excuse I first used 20 years ago, which was it was a way to go to motorcycle events and take the kids with you. I suspect most people don’t care much if you turn up with kids in a car these days, but you can nevertheless make The Kids Clause sound compelling and reasonable – it just takes practice.
Trikes really have taken over a lot of the duties and market for chairs. Though easier to ride, they are hideously expensive and their relationship to motorcycles, particularly in the case of the bespoke car-powered units, is tenuous. Great fun, but not a motorcycle.
And nor is a sidecar to most solo riders, whose disdain for the things mirrors that harboured by airplane pilots for helicopters. They look all wrong and behave nothing like the original. Which really is their appeal. No two sidecars are the same and by nature and necessity generally boast a high percentage of custom-made bits, often of very dubious origin.
Their really compelling feature is no two ride the same, and the same outfit will handle very differently on left and right corners, with degrees of difficulty added for different cambers, loadings, surfaces and lunatic factor. Most sensible people ride one once, crash it and give it up as a bad joke. Dedicated nutters insist on continuing, despite the truth in the stories that if you lose one in a really big way, it will probably (literally) jump on you and/or your passenger.
This is true more for the big heavy things many of us have developed over the years rather than the more traditional lightweight gadgets, like the Enfield-Cozy you see here. Now that has a lot of appeal as a Sunday cruiser. Corruption it may be, but I reckon there should be more of it…
You’re always welcome to get in touch (and send counsellors) via the palatial MT offices at locked bag 12, Oakleigh 3166; Or on the wire at guy.allen@traderclassifieds.com.au.
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