Motorbikes and sidecars

charry said:
Whose dad had a motorbike and sidecar ?

Dad made his own sidecar ( it looked like a coffin ) LOL to seat all us 5 kids with mum sitting behind him on bike LOL

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There's a whole lot of problems that come with bikes with sidecars. Most them deadly. Serious accident avoidance is damn near impossible on one of those things. I was on bikes for 65 years and I would never ride one of them. There were a couple of incidents which threatened my life, and once the life of my 10 year-old daughter, that I would never have survived on a 3 wheeler.
 
Indiana Joe said:
There's a whole lot of problems that come with bikes with sidecars. Most them deadly. Serious accident avoidance is damn near impossible on one of those things. I was on bikes for 65 years and I would never ride one of them. There were a couple of incidents which threatened my life, and once the life of my 10 year-old daughter, that I would never have survived on a 3 wheeler.
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In the UK it was a matter of money. A bike and sidecar was a lot less to buy than even a little Morris car, plus the insurance was also cheaper. Post WW2, in the UK the economy was in a terrible condition, so people got by as best they could. It was in no way comparable to the US economy at the same time. IN the early 1959's the UK still has food rationing on many items. Jimb>
 
Indiana Joe said:
There's a whole lot of problems that come with bikes with sidecars. Most them deadly. Serious accident avoidance is damn near impossible on one of those things. I was on bikes for 65 years and I would never ride one of them. There were a couple of incidents which threatened my life, and once the life of my 10 year-old daughter, that I would never have survived on a 3 wheeler.
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my husband doesn’t tolerate motorbikes ….he hates them
and always told the sons ,if they came home with one ,he would smash it up…

both the sons now in their 50s ,have motorbikes , and 3 Grandaughters ride them also

grandaughter …

B7E08290-7F76-4E65-A978-B13F94FE4EF1.jpeg
 
jimintoronto said:
In the UK it was a matter of money. A bike and sidecar was a lot less to buy than even a little Morris car, plus the insurance was also cheaper. Post WW2, in the UK the economy was in a terrible condition, so people got by as best they could. It was in no way comparable to the US economy at the same time. IN the early 1959's the UK still has food rationing on many items. Jimb>\
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Those people went through hell before the USA jumped in and helped. They had to rebuild pretty much their entire country. Those were tough people back then.
 
charry said:
my husband doesn’t tolerate motorbikes ….he hates them
and always told the sons ,if they came home with one ,he would smash it up…

both the sons now in their 50s ,have motorbikes , and 3 Grandaughters ride them also

grandaughter …

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Daddy would have seen the last of me as soon as I go enough money to get on a bike.

I never rode a ninja style bike. Never wore leather. Didn't wear a helmet till somewhere around age 40. Helmets never really existed when I started riding in '49. They simply weren't part of the world of riders who started back then. I changed my mind one day when I went head first onto a curb while riding a smaller bike with quicker steering that I wasn't used to.

Gals on bikes back when in the '40s and '50s didn't exist. It's still strange today seeing some young gal on a fat arsed hog - Harley, that is.
 
In India they don't bother with sidecars....they just pile everybody and everything on the bike. Here they come toodling along on the motorbike with the driver, his wife, three kids, the old granny, a week's worth of grocery shopping and a piece of furniture. Somehow, they all stay on, even dodging through Delhi traffic.
 
jujube said:
In India they don't bother with sidecars....they just pile everybody and everything on the bike. Here they come toodling along on the motorbike with the driver, his wife, three kids, the old granny, a week's worth of grocery shopping and a piece of furniture. Somehow, they all stay on, even dodging through Delhi traffic.
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I've seen that in videos. Look up the driving casualty rates for countries like that. The mindset of some parents in those countries is stupefying.
 
Indiana Joe said:
Daddy would have seen the last of me as soon as I go enough money to get on a bike.

I never rode a ninja style bike. Never wore leather. Didn't wear a helmet till somewhere around age 40. Helmets never really existed when I started riding in '49. They simply weren't part of the world of riders who started back then. I changed my mind one day when I went head first onto a curb while riding a smaller bike with quicker steering that I wasn't used to.

Gals on bikes back when in the '40s and '50s didn't exist. It's still strange today seeing some young gal on a fat arsed hog - Harley, that is.
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Nonsense. There were women's bike clubs in the 40's and 50's in the USA, such as the Motor Maids. Look that name up and learn something. JimB.
 
They aren't called donorcycles for no reason.

I was in the hack, DH on the bike. He went arse over teakettle over the handlebars and over the top of the car that hit us. I had a seatbelt on in the hack. He succumbed from injuries 78 days later. I've been a widow for almost 14 years.
 
I investigated a lot of motorcycle and motorbike accidents. A few ended very poorly. One of the worse accidents was a lady on a motorbike on a 5-lane highway. Two lanes going east, two lanes going west and one center lane for turning. She was in the center lane attempting to make a turn into her mobile home park. A U-haul truck also wanted to make the turn, the driver of the truck told me he never saw the bike and ran over the lady and the bike. It was a horrible sight. When they pulled her out from under the truck, she was a mess.
 
911 said:
I investigated a lot of motorcycle and motorbike accidents. A few ended very poorly. One of the worse accidents was a lady on a motorbike on a 5-lane highway. Two lanes going east, two lanes going west and one center lane for turning. She was in the center lane attempting to make a turn into her mobile home park. A U-haul truck also wanted to make the turn, the driver of the truck told me he never saw the bike and ran over the lady and the bike. It was a horrible sight. When they pulled her out from under the truck, she was a mess.
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A question for you. In your State are motorcycles required to have their full headlights and tail lights on all the time ? That is the case here in Ontario and it also applies to all commercial vehicles. JImB.
 
911 said:
I investigated a lot of motorcycle and motorbike accidents. A few ended very poorly. One of the worse accidents was a lady on a motorbike on a 5-lane highway. Two lanes going east, two lanes going west and one center lane for turning. She was in the center lane attempting to make a turn into her mobile home park. A U-haul truck also wanted to make the turn, the driver of the truck told me he never saw the bike and ran over the lady and the bike. It was a horrible sight. When they pulled her out from under the truck, she was a mess.
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Besides those accidents that were unavoidable, I'll bet many times you have seen the rubber skid marks from a bike laid down because the rider never new how to effectively use the front brake.
 
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Indiana Joe said:
Besides those accidents that were unavoidable, I'll bet many times you have seen the rubber skid marks from a bike laid down because the rider never new how to effectively use the front brake.
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I have seen a lot of skid marks while patrolling the Turnpike and the Interstates. Skid marks are one thing, but motorcycle accidents are another. Most motorcycle accidents end up badly. If the cyclist isn’t dead, he’s really messed up.
 
911 said:
I have seen a lot of skid marks while patrolling the Turnpike and the Interstates. Skid marks are one thing, but motorcycle accidents are another. Most motorcycle accidents end up badly. If the cyclist isn’t dead, he’s really messed up.
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I spent many hours sitting around in bike shops waiting for my bike to be repaired. To pass time you find yourself just yammering some with other guys who are spending time there. As the years went by, I found it mandatory not to speak about braking and a lot of other safety facets regarding riding. Let's put it this way, I was amazed that most of them were still alive. I had a hard time accepting how totally ignorant they were about the basic safety matters of riding. One guy even told me that I ride like an old lady. Whatever, maybe that's that's why I lasted sixty-five years on those magnificent creatures.
 
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