Re: Motor bikes & side cars.

My Aunt June and Uncle John had a bike and sidecar back around 1960? -being a Baptist minister did not pay well.

Since then I guess it was only `The Two Fat Ladies`

Re: Motor bikes & side cars.

I remember back in the day when a rural ice cream man used to come around on a 3 wheeled machine that the back half was a motorcycle and the front was a large freezer box between 2 wheels.

Re: Motor bikes & side cars.

Was only talking about those the other day with a friend. More than a few of them came from Italy, and were made by well known motorcycle companies such as Gilera and Moto Guzzi. Some are still being made today by Piaggio, better known for their Vespa scooters.

Re: Motor bikes & side cars.

I haven't seen one for years, they always used to make me smile to myself, so quaint.

Re: Motor bikes & side cars.

I was thinking back to the 60's of something that was a minimum of 20 years old then. Gilera to me is a new name and Moto Guzzi from the advent of converting pump engines into motor cycle frames.

Re: Motor bikes & side cars.

Gilera dates back to before WW1, and were famous for making a four cylinder motorcycle. I always remember seeing Derek Minter racing one back in the '60's.

Moto Guzzi are (I think) the only company that have built and raced a 500cc V8 motorcycle. If the pump engine referred to is the one I think it is, the V twin, that was supposed to be the original engine for the Fiat 500 but was deemed to powerful!

Re: Motor bikes & side cars.

I was unaware of this and do find it interesting. Not wishing to highjack this thread but was there a fiat 500 built in Austria by Styer with a flat twin? I like the way Fiat got around having any power on the 500.

Re: Motor bikes & side cars.

Yep, the Steyr Puch 500. I think, but would have to check, the engine was a BMW one. They were also producing a rear engined car at the time.

Theres a bit of an odd twist here. Back in the late '50's/early '60's, BMW were only producing motorbikes and what are today called microcars. Sometime around the mid 1960's, they bought out another bavarian company called Hans Glas Gmbh. They were also known for micro cars, but had just started producing some rather nice cars, including one with a small V8. BMW changed the grille a little, made more of them, and became the company we know today.

Sorry about the hijack, everyone.

Re: Motor bikes & side cars.

You the man, now you have made a rod for your own back. I am going to be hitting on you with all my quirky motoring questions like you were a fresh face youth in a gay bar like; what was wrong with the 2 stroke diesel or the B.S.A. stepped piston or can you still get a wankel/did they ever develop the ceramic rota? Yes, Hans Glas, very high end back in the day, up against the Jaguar Piranna and Gordon Keeble. Again, apologise every one, I would not do this if I was sober.

Re: Motor bikes & side cars.

I would suggest a new topic being started after this reply, but to answer your questions:

Noise was the big problem with the two stroke diesle. They were very difficult to effectively silence. Personally, I did like the sound they made. The old Commer TS3 brings back fond memories...The ones I really liked were the Detroit 71 Series. They sounded more like an F1 car than an F1 car did...

The BSA stepped piston engine was dropped, they concentrated on the rotary engine. A version of which brought Norton their first IoM TT win for years. Cant answer the ceramic rotor question, but good old Norton did solve the sealing problems associated with these engines.