A chair in the library!
While waiting for the world to open up again, Mick Payne has turned to his book shelves with some useful reading recommendations.
Idon’t know about you guys but I’m missing riding and because of the current ‘stay at home’ rules, can’t even get some much-needed powder coating done on my outfit.
So, like many, I’ve been revisiting books and DVDs, and quite a few – a surprising number, actually – have some sidecar interest.
Hopefully autojumbles aren’t too far in the future. Until then there’s always the interweb to try to find something that might pique your interest. Here are a few to get you going...
One of my favourite sidecar reads is Richard and Mopsa English’s Full Circle, describing a world trip on a Meriden Triumph and Squire box sidecar, but a little book published by the Coventry Transport Museum is very interesting, too. See The
Bike That Saw The World is a small booklet reporting Stanley Glanfield’s circumnavigation back in 1928.
Imagine 18000 miles on a 3½ hp Rudge fitted with a large commercial sidecar! It’s a true story of derring do, overcoming breakdown and injury. I’m not sure whether it’s still available and, as the museum is closed, I can’t check, but I am unable to find another one.
Something you can easily find, however, are copies of the Castrol yearbooks. These frequently feature racing sidecars and The First Fifty Years edition of 1959 has coverage of road racing and record-breaking outfits with a nice illustration of Eric Oliver and Stan Dibben in action, among many others. Great bits on cars and planes, too, and they can be found from around £5; quite a bargain!
While on the subject of Stan Dibben, the Sidecar Champions DVD has a long interview with the legend. Well worth watching and still available from Duke Video for around £15.
A couple of titles that might not be obvious when looking for sidecar content are The Complete Book of Motorcycle Touring by Ken Craven and Motorcycling in The 50s by
Jeff Clew.
The former dips into the use of sidecar outfits as winter touring vehicles, while the other features 1950s sidecars along with period ads. A bonus in the Clew book is a chapter on microcars. Either can be found around £10.
A title you will be lucky to find is John Procter’s Watsonian Sidecars, an approximately A4 softback from 1987. It covers the history of the company from day one.
It’s a rare book and I can see that my copy cost me £3, but that was a jumble find a long time ago!
Less apparent places to find sidecar reading are part-works and magazines. Marshall Cavendish published both Road Bike and On Your Bike around 1980.
In both, bike and sidecar road tests and the fitting and riding advice for chairs were covered. Copies are still relatively easy to locate at jumbles or online, and you may even find a complete set in binders.
The quality monthly Motorcycle
Sport ran a regular ‘Bit on the Side’ feature during the 1990s.
All sorts were featured, from Villierspowered lightweight outfits to a scary Buell and Hedingham Sprite.
This is just a taste of what might be found and, of course, the long gone
Blue and Green ‘Uns carried plenty of sidecar material, every week as well as several advertisements, many of which will be illustrated.
Be careful – searching and collecting sidecar related copy can become a bit of an obsession. It’s interesting and fun, though.