How to carry a passenger?
Today, we motorcyclists may carry passengers on pillion seats or in sidecars, but for the first pioneer motorcyclists, no such existed. Many early motorcycles were direct drive machines, powered by small, attached engines, which were often pedal started. They were devoid of a clutch or other free engine facility and the rider stopped the engine at each halt.If a passenger was to be carried,that passenger would have had to mount after the machine was underway (with the engine started) and dismount on stopping, or the rider would have to pedal/bump/paddle start the motorcycle with the passenger aboard. Either scenario was hardly ideal.
Even if carrying a passenger aboard the motorised cycle was viable, where to place their seat was the next question. Ideas included towing a passenger-carrying trailer behind a solo motorcycle (with some ambitious souls designing the trailer for two or more passengers), or to fit a forecar, comprising a seat mounted on a chassis between two wheels fitted to the motorcycle in place of the front fork. The next development was the manufactured forecar, with its united chassis serving both the motorcycle part and the forecar. Progressively, these became more sophisticated, but the desirability of carrying the passenger/s in front of drivers soon waned, in favour of sidecar outfits or cars.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 2021-Ausgabe von The Classic MotorCycle.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 2021-Ausgabe von The Classic MotorCycle.
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Runs should be fun
The club run is an integral part of the old motorcycle scene. During 2020, a variation on the usual theme emerged, enabling people to ride in the company of like-minded souls.
Green WITH ENVY
Life aboard a 1950s 350cc British single is perhaps as good and as uncomplicated as it can get.
The Motorcycle: DESIGN, ART AND DESIRE
The concluding part of a two-part feature, in which the history of motorcycle evolution is examined and a new book’s author interviewed.
The Giant of Provence
With so few events to report from, it’s time to look back over a spectacular French event and look forward to its hopeful resumption.
By 1929, CJP Dodson was a bona fide top level road racer, pretty much unbeatable on the sand, too.
The diminutive Charlie Dodson was the last man to win a TT, the 1928 Senior, on a ‘flat-tank’ machine, then the next year became the first (and only) winner of a TT on a saddle tank Sunbeam, as well as recording the last ever success in the Island for the Marston maker.
Cassandra the Canadian Commando
After landing a new job and with time on his hands, a young man in Vancouver decided to restore a British motorcycle considerably older than him.
Pitching a ride
The long-running sport of motoball arrived at Brooklands for the first time, in September 2020.
Where does the passenger go?
Dictionaries inform the sidecar is: ‘a jaunting-car; small car attached to the side of a motorcycle; kind of cocktail.’ We’ll forget jaunting-cars and cocktails, but how did the world arrive at the sidecar? And what came before?
Training run
Sidecar ace and passenger, plus a future winner, learning the TT’s Mountain Course.
Store Cupboard Special
On to part six, and momentum is still being maintained, I though the shopping list is growing ever-longer.
