Today I went to the Scottish Bike Show at Ingliston (near Edinburgh) Thanks to Ron for giving me a lift in his car. It was variously wet, cold and very windy so biking there would have been no fun.
There were some interesting, rare and quirky bikes on show. I'll present them in a series of short posts.
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In
1983 the law in the UK changed to reduce the size of motorcycle a
learner could ride from 250cc to 125cc (a learner being someone who had
not passed their motorcycle test) If the bike had a sidecar attached no
capacity limit existed. This led to the Sidewinder that exploited this
loophole.
The
Sidewinder was a minimal sidecar - just a small platform with a wheel
attached that banked with the bike. It was marketed for learners with
250cc bike that they could not ride after the law changed. A learner
could also ride a bike of any capacity with the Sidewinder fitted.
I'd never heard of the Sidewinder. Great way to get around the restriction. I bet it was cool to see in person.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember every seeing one back in the day. The motorcycle test was fairly simple and inexpensive so most people would just do that.
DeleteOnly saw a couple of them - one was fitted to a Suzuki RG500! And yes, it had L plates! (Rider hadn't passed test).
ReplyDeleteIt would seem a lot easier & cheaper just to pass the test.
DeleteHad one, absolutely rubbish. The tea tray wasn't fixed very well and those luggage/grab handle things were held on with a couple of self-tappers. Putting anything on there and leaning left was impossible. The thing used to crack where it bolted onto the rear shock mount. I modified mine, junked the tea tray and it was lots of fun. Bought it cheap, and gave it away.
ReplyDelete