The Third Dimension
THE THIRD DIMENSION
UP FRONT
EDITOR'S LETTER
ENTERING THE ODD WORLD OF SIDECARRING
There was a time in my motorcycling life that I was fond of repeating how a sidecar wrecks the dynamic pleasure of motorcycling, taking away the twowheeler’s advantages over automobiles but without the safety, stability, or protection of a car.
I take it all back.
When last we had a Ural at CW HQ,
I spent a lot of time on the thing on road and off and had a really good time after finally coming to terms with the strange dynamics of that heavy steel box hanging off of one side of a perfectly good motorcycle.
But the one thing that really flipped the weird switch for me was taking my young son, Ian, for a spin with his mom last spring. He was about a year old, so we just idled around the neighborhood. But he was instantly enthralled with the motion, grasping the stainless-steel grab handle in front of him and staring intently forward through the Ural’s sidecar windscreen.
I recognized the nature of his vision toward the horizon, the set in his shoulders, and the pleasure he was enjoying in movement. We motored up the road a way and looped back at the dead end in the canyon where we live. When I pulled back through the gate in the yard, I spun the Ural around and came to a stop in front of the porch. I let the bike idle for a second, absorbing the moment and enjoying his obvious pleasure with the experience. It was dusk, so I shut off the bike. And Ian wailed like he rarely ever does, turning bright red and tipping his head back as if crying to the gods of speed in the heavens.
So I restarted the bike, and he stopped crying at once then reached back out for that shiny stainless grab handle and cast his bright, teary eyes forward once more. I clicked into gear and we were
off for a repeat performance. The other parents in the neighborhood walking the kids in strollers and other inferior forms of transport were visibly envious, as were their poor children who never had known, and may never know, such joy as this.
It was clear there was a sidecar in the future for us.
As much as motorcycling has been an individual pursuit in my life, this moment in the three-wheeler set me, in an instant, on a mission to make at least some parts of motorcycling more of a family affair. My wife, Jen, and I have traveled extensively by motorcycle, and she’s also a fine rider in her own right. Adding our son to the mix was magic.
Ian is two years old now and has a good-fitting helmet and an ever-growing love for vehicles, from motorcycles to cars to aircraft.
Running full time in the circles I do with every kind of motorcycle enthusiast, collector, and athlete, I was bound to find just the right chair to bolt to the side of my ’54 Velocette MSS, a natural candidate since the factory frame is set up with sidecar lugs. I recalled a Swallow Jet 80 sidecar lying fallow in collector and Vincent specialist Herb Harris’ Austin shop, the Harris Vincent Gallery. I called him up, he admired the idea of extending family fun in fine style, and we struck a deal.
The Swallow sidecar is a thing of beauty, but the extra attraction for me is that the company was originally founded by Sir William Lyons and morphed into Jaguar Cars, Ltd. So the Swallow will join the E-type and Mark 2 in the garage, a historically relevant relic that was, as period adverts said, “for the sportsman.” Parking is an issue, but my hope is that we rarely stop moving.
MARK HOYER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
THIS MONTH'S STATS
1954 LIKELY YEAR OF MY “NEW” SWALLOW JET 80 SIDECAR
60 PROJECTED TOP SPEED IN MPH OF VELOCETTE 500 WITH CHAIR
2015 YEAR OF THE ELECTRONIC MOTORCYCLE, FROM YAMAHA, DUC ATI, AND KTM
