Paso Robles 3rd Annual Sidecar Show

Sidecar people are enthusiastic people, and they love to gather and swap technical advice and stories, and probably a few fibs. Back in 2008 Karyl Lammers convinced the Paso Robles (California) Chamber of Commerce that it would be fun, and perhaps profitable, to have a gathering of sidecars in the city’s park in April, along with the traditional Arts & Crafts show. Karyl owns, along with her husband, a shop called American Motorcycle Stuff (805-459-6235) and she does all the considerable leg and telephone work. This year over 40 outfits showed up, and everybody patronized the local restaurants — there is the profit. And fun? You bet, especially for the people who wandered over from the arts show and thought these rigs were pretty darn cool. Maybe even got a few of them interested.

Judy Muetz knows her sidecar technicals, and was quite happy putting an Earles-type front end on her 1968 Honda 175, and then bolting a Cozy chair on the side.

Mr. Sidecar himself, Doug Bingham, who rode up from Los Angeles on his 1971 Honda 450 with a Globe sidecar attached; Doug puts on the big Griffith Park Sidecar Rally in LA every year.

The Indian Royal Enfield company will sell you a complete sidecar outfit; this one is owned by Otto Lindegaard. Only two other companies today offer sidecars for their motorcycles, the American Harley and the Russian Ural.

That's event organizer Karyl Lammers, sitting on friend Dave Hanson's 1947 Harley-Davidson outfit. This is the 3rd year of the pleasantly low-key sidecar affair where you just show up, park your rig next to the others and then go gossip.

No, you have to sit on the 1980 Yamaha XS1100 to drive this rig, but inventor Chito Pastor built this battery-powered sidecar that allows the gas-consuming motorcycle to be turned off when rolling down the road. This gives new meaning to the hybrid concept.

Steve Wilson tucked a 1982 BMW R100 engine into a 1966 BMW chassis, with a Steib sidcar sitting off on the right side. The 1000cc motor is a lot more powerful than the original 600cc unit.

That 1943 BMW 750 outfit survived World War II, and has been kept in excellent running condition by Paso Roblean Tom Weiss. It should be noted that the American 4WD jeep put the three-wheel sidecar out of business as a useful military concept.

I Get It

I get it.

I understand how a cruiser rider simply can’t understand why you would ride a sportbike. Why a dirt bike guy thinks that cruiser is just a boat anchor with wheels. Why the guy who owns a BMW 1200 Cruiser thinks the guy on the Moto Guzzi is weird. Why one track day guy will discount another based simply on his tread wear pattern. [Read more]

Elite Scootering in L.A.

Last week I found myself in front of the original American Honda headquarters which, by the way, is now an acupuncture facility. Honda did a different kind of intro for its NHX110 Elite scooter. We were given a map of L.A. and let loose to go out and photograph the Elite in original settings and visit four locations to pick up playing cards for a poker hand. Extra credit was given for finding the original Honda headquarters; good thing as my poker hand wasn’t so good. That scooter is a lot of fun! You can read about it here.

Sunday Morning Ride

I sold my Aprilia CapoNord a couple of weeks ago. Got an offer I couldn’t refuse. So now I’m spending more time on my stand-by bike, a 1982 BMW R100, and a recently acquired Vespa GT200. Yes, I’ve gone over to the other side. Who’d expect a guy with 45 years of motorcycling under his not-insubstantial belt to just hop on a scooter and enjoy it? It’s about 6-1\2 miles of nice rural road into town and the scooter works quite well for trips to the store. Rode it up to Templeton, the gathering spot for the Sunday morning ride, and was thinking the whole way, “Ditch the airbox, K&N on the carb, swing by the breakers for a used dirt bike muffler, some jetting work, need more front brake….”

[Read more]