In the modern world, motorcycles with sidecars are vanishingly rare. They are, of course, popular with a small group of enthusiasts, but that's about it. In Russia, you can find mostly Soviet boxers with a cradle, but there are practically no imported models. However, they don’t exist anyway - they are practically not produced anywhere, and this is the main reason why Russian Urals are supplied to the USA. I haven’t yet thought of launching production of serial bikes with a cradle, although you can buy a side trailer separately, as a tuning option.
The appearance of the stroller
One day motorcyclists had a question: how to transport more cargo and more passengers? The first solutions were not very successful: a cart was attached to the front of the motorcycle, which meant that in the event of an accident, the passenger took the brunt of the impact; a cart was then attached to the back of the motorcycle - the passenger had to breathe in the motorcycle's exhaust fumes. Then, finally, a long-term solution was found: a stroller.
In the early days of motorsports, motorcycles with sidecars experienced a boom, but sidecars soon fell out of favor for both business and personal use.
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Sometimes the climbs had to be overcome “manually”...
Sometimes the climbs had to be overcome “manually”...
In Irbit, winter is long - snow lies from November to April. So winter racing is in order for Irbitsk residents. Often the tracks were laid along a “crossroads” with partial use of horse roads, on which, due to the limited width, only a motorcycle could fit, and the side trailer moved across the virgin soil. Therefore, instead of a wheel, a special metal ski was installed on the stroller.
The first strollers
In the United States, the first manufacturer of sidecar motorcycles was Thor in 1903. Unfortunately, the company closed after four years, like many other companies in those days. Harley-Davidson motorcycles were offered with sidecar mounts as early as 1905, but the sidecar did not appear in the company's catalogs until 1914, when a sidecar manufactured by the Rogers Company appeared. Perhaps most famously, Harley-Davidson completed an order in 1916 for a dozen sidecar motorcycles with machine guns mounted for General Pershing, who then used them at Pancho Villa, on the United States' southern border with Mexico.
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After this, wheelchairs were widely used by the military, often by medics or couriers, who could now move cargo faster between positions in the trenches of the First World War.
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The team of the Irbit Motor Plant with special lightweight sports strollers, 1947.
The team of the Irbit Motor Plant with special lightweight sports strollers, 1947.
For the 1945 USSR Championship, Irbitsk residents entered five crews in the wheelchair class. The competition took place in the vicinity of Moscow at the 23rd kilometer of the Minsk Highway. The IMZ team from the first “batch” became the winner in the 300-kilometer linear race, where the Igor Okunev/Alexei Antropov crew achieved particular success. The Irbit duo set an All-Union record for covering 300 km on a specially prepared M-75. Okunev and Antropov covered this path in 2 hours 56 meters 9.9 seconds, improving the previous record by more than 30 minutes. In the cross-country, 2nd place was taken by the already well-known pair - Veniamin Gubin / Alexey Dubskikh on the M-72. Looking ahead, let's say that they will also become champions and prize-winners of the USSR and the RSFSR.
The heyday of stroller use
After the war, the popularity of sidecar motorcycles declined slightly in the United States, but after some time they became popular again due to widespread commercial use. They were often used to help stranded motorists carrying gasoline and oil on the platform. In addition, companies often sent motorcyclists to clean up accident scenes. Surviving museum exhibits demonstrate the carriage's continued use for delivering candy, lumber, mail, milk, eggs and anything else that could fit in the carriage.
Small individual entrepreneurs were fascinated by the stroller. The Great Depression made most automobiles an unaffordable luxury, and the low cost of the sidecar greatly reduced the initial overhead costs of starting a business; its light weight and wide maneuverability made it easy to move around the city along delivery routes.
After the Great Depression, the sidecar saw widespread use in the military again during World War II. Due to the popularity of such transport during the war, returning soldiers loved the carriages and used them mainly for recreational purposes. However, around the same time, the stroller began to lose popularity among merchants.
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Steering Features
The first thing that catches your eye is the presence of a damper. (“Steering column damper, what's the point?”) Usually, that's all, but some go further. The essence of such innovations is that the steering wheel does not react to the behavior of the stroller and does not turn on its own, and is more predictable.
The presence or absence of a damper can be combined with tightening the steering bearings and adjusting the yoke. In other words, you make the steering wheel tighter. Yes, this will give you a powerful arm workout in the process and possibly rippled biceps, but either that or you'll have to catch the steering wheel more often.
Decline of the stroller
The real reason for the decline in popularity of sidecar motorcycles is quite obvious: falling car prices. As cars became equal in price or even cheaper than sidecar motorcycles, it became unprofitable for businesses to invest in a sidecar when a car, which was much safer and could be significantly modified, became more affordable. Without the sidecar being used commercially, as was the case during the interwar period, sales fell sharply. A family car trip meant greater travel safety for children and parents. Sidecars have lost their purpose as a means of transporting goods and have become too expensive for recreational use compared to motorcycles without sidecars.
Gradually they began to disappear. After Harley-Davidson adopted the swingarm suspension, sidecars became an absolute rarity on the motorcycle manufacturer's models, although some models were still found. The company stopped producing sidecars for civilian use entirely in 2011, although it still produces them for the Secret Service, which is why it's common to see several of these motorcycles in the motorcade of the President of the United States of America.
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For winter cross-country racing, a ski was sometimes used instead of a stroller wheel.
For winter cross-country racing, a ski was sometimes used instead of a stroller wheel.
All kinds of new products were developed for sports in the department of the chief designer of the plant. Since 1952, they began to produce cross-country M-72Ks in small batches for the country's leading clubs. Considering that fording was an invariable component of motocrosses of that time, the air intake was placed in the upper part of the gas tank. Production of the M-72K lasted six years, and just over 300 motorcycles were produced. Having received such a device, the racers themselves “brought it to mind” - they installed a friction shock absorber on the spark plug suspension of the rear wheel, installed a hydraulic damper, etc.
Modern strollers
Self-contained sidecars are still available for purchase from several companies in the United States, but you'll have to make significant modifications to your motorcycle to accommodate such an addition.
There are, of course, many usable options, although the vast majority of them are now collector's items and well outside the average entry-level consumer price range.
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The stroller helps the driver control the motorcycle, loading the rear of the stroller as much as possible.
The stroller helps the driver control the motorcycle, loading the rear of the stroller as much as possible.
Since 1977, they decided to hold the USSR Championship in two classes: “free up to 1000 cm³” and “national up to 650 cm³”. If the “1000” had no design restrictions, except for the ban on the use of components and parts produced in capitalist countries, then with the new “650” they did the incredible. Everyone was required to perform on mass-produced “cars” without any modifications, i.e. on M-63K. It was a step back. After all, by this time the leading racers of the country were already racing on motorcycles with a pendulum fork, a “Swedish” sidecar, reinforced reverse gear, with a close gearbox, with Czech carburetors... Why did they do this? This was determined by DOSAAF: let everyone compete in production cars under equal conditions. The results of the 1977 national championship in this class looked depressing. All the strongest racers retired for technical reasons, and the classification was given to crews with a soft, “walking” style of racing, without much overload of the engine and chassis, without much risk on the track, which is so necessary for victory.
Motorcycles "Ural"
If you're looking for a new motorcycle with sidecar, the only real option is Ural, a Russian motorcycle company. They have been producing motorcycles with sidecars since World War II, when the Soviet Union modified the BMW sidecar for use in the Red Army's winter war with Finland. Ural has been producing motorcycles for civilian use since the late 1950s, and modern versions strive to live up to their rugged origins, with the Ural Gear Up model designed for intensive off-road use.
While we may never see sidecar use as widespread as we did in the early 20th century, a motorcycle with sidecar on the modern road still evokes a sense of nostalgia, and riding in a sidecar makes you feel like you were in a motorcycle race in the first half of the 20th century.
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The crew of Veniamin Gubin and Alexey Dubskikh on the M-72 on the track of the first “official” motocross in Irbit, 1945.
The crew of Veniamin Gubin and Alexey Dubskikh on the M-72 on the track of the first “official” motocross in Irbit, 1945.
In preparation for the 1947 national championship in two disciplines - “ring” and “cross”, special sports strollers were produced at the Irbit Motorcycle Plant (for the first time in the country on an industrial basis). They called them “TT”, by analogy with the famous race on the Isle of Man - “Tourist Trophy”. The stroller was universal - both for road racing and cross-country. On the eve of the championship of the Soviet Union, the championship of the RSFSR was held in Serpukhov. Six Irbit crews took off using updated equipment. For road racing, an M-75 engine was installed in a lightweight chassis, and for cross-country racing, an M-72 engine was installed. Using such equipment, the Irbitsk team was beyond competition, and the pair Alexander Lukoyanov/Nikolai Sachkov became the absolute winners of the RSFSR - both in road racing and cross-country. This crew also performed brilliantly at the USSR Championships in Tallinn - victory on the “ring” and second place in the cross-country. Of course, the “TT” stroller was not perfect and had a rigid wheel suspension (racers called it a “double-support”). Torsion bar suspension appeared only in the early 50s.
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The plant produced single copies of 750 and 1000 cc motorcycles for the country's leading racers.
The plant produced single copies of 750 and 1000 cc motorcycles for the country's leading racers.
In the 70s and until the mid-80s, the plant produced special cross-country vehicles with 750 and 1000 cm³ engines for the country's leading racers. They were produced in limited quantities at the request of TsAMK in the experimental workshop. Our athletes rode these motorcycles not only at domestic championships, but also at European and world championships. However, at the same time, the plant’s conveyor belt continued to churn out the wretched IMZ-8.201 - a pile of obsolete scrap metal. In DOSAAF, when they received such cars, they were openly perplexed: “Why does the plant, having excellent modern cross-country motorcycles, supply them with such squalor?” Meanwhile, the plant repeatedly tried to launch the production of more modern devices on which one could perform without fear for one’s health. But all these notorious ministerial and departmental approvals, permits, clarifications, limits, etc. plunged the developers' initiative into a bureaucratic abyss. At this time, from 500 to 1000 obsolete cars rolled off the assembly line annually. The last five IMZ-8.201 were assembled in 1992. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, I left the cross-country bike, which at that time was more suitable for extreme hunting or fishing trips than for participating in a race, even at the yard level.
