OUT OF AFRICA
The photo below is of my late grandmother, Lucy Thomas, sitting aboard a sidecar outfit in what we believe to be 1920s or ’30s South Africa. She and her husband ran a school near Bloemfontein for a number of years, but motorcycles were never part of their story until we discovered this photo when clearing my parents’ house. Sadly, my mother can no longer recall anything about the photo or the outfit itself. Judging from the puttees she’s wearing, my grandmother is dressed for a ride, although I’m not sure what part the small dog would have played. The bike looks like it was manufactured a good few years before we think the photo was taken. Can you identify it and tell me anything about it, please?
Chris Bazire
This had me scratching my head for a while, but then it came to me – something about the forks rang a bell. It’s a Model 180 Royal Enfield 8hp (1000cc). The registration is from Hampshire in 1924, which is about right – that was the last year of the bike in this form with Enfield’s own two-speed gear system. For 1925 it was redesigned and fitted with a conventional Sturmey-archer three-speed gearbox. With her bobbed hair, practical outfit and gaiters (or ‘puttees’ as you call them), I’d like to think the young lady is ‘emancipated’ enough to be the rider rather than just the sidecar passenger! Cheers, Rick