Low-Down On A Sidecar
LOW-DOWN ON A SIDECAR
No Place for Knobby Knees
A ROAD RACING MOTORCYCLE SIDECAR OUTFIT is a brutish thing. It is brutish when you look at its assemblage of pipes, struts, cables, and tubes going in every which way with all the improvised eccentricity of a Dixieland band. When the fairing comes off, the mess beneath takes on the aura of Old-Time Mechanics reincarnated — shades of Flying Flivvers, Tin Lizzies, Stanley Steamers all rolled up into one.
The racing hack is even more brutish when it is running. For the driver, it is being spread-eagled over a behemoth which snakes wildly every time it changes speed. For the passenger, it means rushing along madly, bare inches above a wriggling asphalt sanding machine, skull forward, face downward, side by side with the engine, the sound of which has the same force as does that of the Santa Fe Limited heard from underneath a trestle.
So what are we getting at?
Well, we're trying to explain why somebody would spend $4,000 to build one — particularly in a country where sidecar racing has far to go before it catches up with the solos. The bug caught Californian John Taliaferro while he was doing his military service in Germany. All he had to see was one race with the likes of Deubel, Scheidegger, Camathias and Vincent and he was hooked.
When he returned home, he saved all the articles he found having to do with sidecars for the day when he could build his own. Three years and a bundle of expense later, John and his passenger-partner Ian McKelvie have finished a kneeler and are now in the process of working the bugs out.
"Kneeler," of course, refers to the driver's riding position, which is not sitting at all. The kneeler frame is the latest stage in the evolution of the grand prix sidecar; its lowness is conducive to both higher speed and quick cornering because it has less frontal area and a lower center of gravity than does a solo frame and sidecar.
The machine is powered by a standard 750cc Matchless (or Norton Atlas, by any other name) scrambler engine. John plans to extend the capability of the engine as soon as he gets handling, and his own skill, sorted out.
The low-slung frame, heavy-duty leading link fork assembly, and the sidecar chassis, were built by an English firm, Arch Motor and Mfg. Co., and are made from a light, thin-wall chrome-moly tubing. The frame is "Feather-Bed" in appearance with twin top tubes going back from the steering head to meet very short rear down tubes. The sidecar is on the left side, according to Swiss and British practice, which is supposed to make for faster going on the usually clockwise FIM circuits where right turns are in the majority.
The wheels are ribbed Italian Borrani sidecar specials, measuring 16 x 2.50 front, 16 x 2.75 rear, and 12 x 2.25 on the chair. Special Dunlop sidecar racing tires, which have a flatter profile than solo tires, were mounted, and they measure 3.50 front, 4.00 rear, and 3.50 sidecar. The front and rear wheels were laced to standard Norton Atlas brakes. The sidecar wheel has no brake.
Taliaferro fashioned the kneeling pads, rear brake and gear change levers himself. As kneelers carry their gasoline supply in the sidecar, Taliaferro procured a three-gallon American tank made by Moon, the well-known firm catering to hot rod people. Fuel feed could no longer be by. gravity, so an American-made Autopulse electric fuel pump was hooked up to do the job; a bypass back to the tank eliminated original problems of too much pressure to the float bowls.
The dustbin fairings, alloy cover plates and nose cone are non-standard items, having been fashioned for Taliaferro by a Belgian friend.
Initial outings have shown that a few refinements are needed. Among these is relocation of the handlebars. Taliaferro and McKelvie are also giving serious thought to the placement of new handholds for the passenger. Handholds are almost more important than another five horsepower, for an outfit can really be slowed down if the passenger is unable to move about or hang on in as secure a fashion as possible.
The major refinement yet to come is in passenger's and driver's riding style, for they have been soundly trounced on several occasions by the Reg PridmoreErnie Caesar 650cc Triumph rig (which is a non-kneeler). Taliaferro readily admits this: "When we showed up with such a beautiful outfit, people expected us to win the first time out. Well, I'll tell you, it just doesn't happen that way. I've raced solo, but now I have to learn all over again."
Taliaferro would like to see sidecar racing proliferate in the United States and has started a fledgling group to get the ball rolling. Those who share his passion can get in touch with him by writing the Southern California Sidecar Racing Association, P.O. Box 427, Buena Park, California.
