Well... there are six of us that do/did the Dragon Rally in February in North Wales and I'm the only one on a solo. Great for carrying all the extra crap for a comfortable weekend's camping in the mud 

I used to be a sidecarist, and liked it a lot. I learned some things about them.
They were statistically the safest vehicle on British roads, according to a survey done in the 1950s. But that could have been because of the type of person that chose that mode of transport.
Up to 1959, it was cheaper to buy a new motorcycle and sidecar than to buy a 4 wheeled car in the UK. Then the front wheel drive Mini-Minor came out that was cheaper, and superior in every conceivable way, so sidecars then became an eccentric choice.
The Flxible sidecar company in the USA had that name because there was already a company with the registered name Flexible with the extra "e".
It was the advent of the Ford Model T car that induced Flxible to change tack, and they went into making hearses for funerals, but then changed to making luxury coaches, such as the Flxible Clipper which was a stylish thing.

I'm a sidecarist since...almost 30 years.
I started with a bitza made of a R60/2 frame, a mix of R60/5 short engine with R80 cylinder & heads, and a Jewell side car.


It was my only daily vehicle when I was a student. Easy to park for free in town, good carrying capacity, excellent on snowy roads, and wonderful to seduce girls...

I still own it today and it's a real pleasure each time I start it. The sidecar, I mean.


Then I restored a Kawaski  Z 1100 with a Watsonian Oxford

Huge. Very! But without a front leading link, it was not very easy to drive and the road handling was special. Too bad as the engine was excellent for a sidecar use.

As I had started my sidecar experience off road, with a Fantic trial and with friends racing in side car cross, I then purchased my Graal at the time: a 650XS Wasp...road legal.


Wonderful off road, but was abolutely needing skilled and resistant passengers. Impossible to use alone.

Then, I tried the weirdest thing I ever rode: a 750 XTZ Super Tenere with a Side-Bike Toro, a swinging sidecar:


Well, it took me a long time before I understand how to drive it. But once I figured out how to, it was to realise that this thing is completely stupid. You never know where the sidecar wheel is touching the road, and the behavior of the motorcycles sometimes is a motorcycle behavior, sometimes a sidecar behavior, depending of the speed. Awful, but I admit that it has real good off road abilities, because I always could get by myself out of the ditches where this terrible roadholding had thrown me.

I then changed this combination for another with a 600 XTZ Ténéré,

. I was expecting to convert it to a rigid sidecar but sold it before I could use it to buy this ugly thing:


A K1 with a Panda sidecar, with a BCS front end.
Dirty, rusty (the previous owner used it only for winter meetings), 230 000 kms, but the best road holding I ever experimented on a side car. It would deserve a big block engine.
I tried to wash it once a it made plenty of colorful and shiny stains.

I still have it and my dog loves to jump in the sidecar for a ride! (and I don't care about the dirt it leaves on the seat, it gives me an excuse to delay the restoration).

Then, I bought this side car, a K100 with a Side Bike Comanche



Unique combination made by a enthusiast, qualified welder in nuclear industry. 2 wheel steering, very iow and light, you can actually drive it with 2 fingers. But the engine is not in a good condition and I'm facing heating issues impossible to solve. I suspect a blown head gasket. And the passenger seat is not very confortable...

Last year, I bought this R1100RT and attached it to an EZS sidecar, with an unknown chassis.

Good family sidecar, stable, comfortable, and the engine has a lot of low rpm torque once tuned to the GS specs.

So 4 sidecars today...and the 5th is on the way, with a R100GS Paris Dakar.

I'm prefering to ride sidecars rather than solo motorcycles now.
I like the more complex process of driving, the sensations, the ability to drift, to approach the limit (Ahhh, the feeling of tight cornering at right with the sidecar wheel lifted a few centimeters above the ditch...).
And it's the only vehicle I know that has the ability to systematically switch on smiles on all the passer-by faces!

Hey JBT,

I think you are a sidecar enthusiast!
That is a wonderful collection you had and have.
Thanks for the photos and descriptions.

Thunderbolt? Can't see the carbs from here.

Dai wrote:Thunderbolt? Can't see the carbs from here.

Looks like an A10, single carb Golden Flash maybe?

I've had a sidecar since May 1994 (30 years now!).  First bought for a trip out to Mt Dare (in the middle of a desert in South Oz) cause I didnt want to fall off.  

The first was a K100RT with leading link and a HRD sidecar (HRD was a local sidecar maker, nothing to do with Vincent-HRD). That bike got retired somewhere north of 400,000kms after lots of use (on its third frame and how many final drives I cant remember, still had its original clutch though). Mk1

I pulled out the tired RT and replaced it with a 16v K100RS (140,000kms when sidecra fitted) then rode it for a few more years including an around Oz trip in '02.  Mk1.5

I sold that one and went for a few years without a sidecar.

A friend was looking for a K sidecar and found a few, he bought one and sent me a link about another for sale ('87 K100RS/HRD sidecar/leading link and 15" rear wheel, fairly low kms travelled).  The price was very good so I ended up buying it.  It did me for a long time, first major mod was to fit an 1100 engine.  Mk2/2.5

Later I got the opportunity to buy another (shabby)outfit with much better sidecar parts/engineering.  So I bought it too, intending to pull both apart using the best of each to build the best outfit I could.  So I got my good bike with a much stiffer EML type subframe/leading link and custom billet 15" front and rear wheels.  Had to widen the chassis to fit my HRD body. The end result was a much better handling, more durable outfit overall.  In this guise it did many more Kms including a trip up the Birdsville Track. Mk2.5.1

I think in total that K100RS did 16 years of solid service with me.

But now I have an 1800 Goldwing sidecar (the price was too good to miss, esp with only 72,000kms).  I broke the K100RS and HRD up.  One of the K100 forum alumni "Woz" bought the RS subframe, leading link, wheels (everything except the sidecar itself, I have plans for that) and its alive and running under his care now.  The Goldwing will never see the rough roads that the RS did, its nothing like as strong a build but it is nice to ride just the same. You do feel the 500kg machine swinging from bend to bend, there is a lot of mass there.

I still have solos (5 in the shed that I can ride R1250RS, R1250R, K1100RS, F650GS(twin), R1150R, though not all mine).  I can't see not having a sidecar, they are just so practical and so much fun to ride.  You get used to the comments "You dont see many sidecars anymore"

Al

It's fantastic to see how an article link will bring out the dedicated, and you're all just that. 

It's crossing a line for me, I've not had the exposure, having only ever been sat in one two for short rides. Once I worked long-term for a place that sold Ural, etc., and the boss asked any employee interested if they'd take the WA state three wheel licence endorsement course for free on the company. Of course, I was back in OZ at the time and missed out. By the time I'd returned to work for them, the brand was gone from there as a franchise, and I had the task of selling off the accumulated spares. Rough hewn, they were, perhaps better now with modern bits added on to make them more reliable.

Besides, Three Wheels Better doesn't have an historical connotation. 

Saxon7 wrote:

Dai wrote:Thunderbolt? Can't see the carbs from here.

Looks like an A10, single carb Golden Flash maybe?

I think you might be right. I posted and then - as is the way - open this month's Classic Bike and almost the first picture I looked at was a Thunderbolt.

A10 , thought you may have seen it at the dragon

I probably have which means I've probably also spoken to you at some point.

Great post. Thanks for sharing the photos and story. I'm jealous. Maybe one day I'll trip over one and it will follow me home.

Two Wheels Better wrote:THIS one gets my attention because of its unique combination of Oilhead exterior with mainly K bike underpinnings, plus it's Mazda rotary powered. Meet, the mad as Rotohak.

Rotohack was originally built to look like a K100, the R1150 exterior is after the original owner/builder bought it back and gave it a refresh. I was always impressed by him machining the insides of a K100 engine out to turn it into a fuel tank.

Wow. Just took a look at that. Some people amazing stuff. Would love to have some of that skill.