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ARTICLE BY ONE OF OUR READERS Stephen Sinfield

WHAT does a motorcycle and sidecar

represent to you?

For the older generation it’s perhaps

memories of zipping around town with

their parents or partner.

While for the younger generation it’s

more likely to be somewhat of a novelty.

More of aWallace and Gromit style affair

— although I’m not sure how many sidecars come with a control panel to turn

them into an aeroplane.

There’s no denying that sidecar numbers have dwindled, but the original

and many argue, the best sidecar manufacturer is still in operation.

To see how they’re made, what’s on

offer and what it’s like to be a passenger

in a sidecar, I headed to a former airfield

industrial estate in Blockley, Gloucestershire.

The company in question? Watsonian

Squire Ltd.

The firm was founded in 1912 by

Thomas Fredrick (Fred) Watson a

builder by trade.

Imagine that own a motorcycle and you

live in a terraced house and you want to

be able to carry an extra passenger or

some bulky materials on your bike but

you don’t want the hassle of trying to

store this extra wheeled contraption on

the street. You want to be able to park the

bike and sidecar on your backyard.

That’s the dilemma which faced Fred

so he put his building credentials to the

test and invented a collapsible sidecar.

The idea quickly catches on and Fred

sets up a factory at Balsall Heath in

Birmingham under the name of theWatsonian Folding Sidecar Co.

However, the public’s enthusiasm for

collapsible sidecars starts to wean as

curiously, the public didn’t particularly

like the idea of riding in something

which is designed to fall to pieces.

This formed the early progression to

what we now recognise as a sidecar.

During the First World War the factory

was busy making motorcycle ambulances whereby the sidecar acted as a

stretcher carrier.

Following the war, the company relocated to Hockley, in Birmingham, in

1922 and was renamed the Watsonian

Sidecar Company in 1931.

A fire in the same year destroyed the

workshops and forced the factory to

relocate once again to Greet, in Birmingham.

Another World War soon loomed but

again the company survived and in

1956, Watsonian took over the Swallow

Sidecar company.

They started to experiment with glass

fibre body panels rather than the heavy

ash, plywood or steel frames.

At this point there were around

160,000 sidecars on Britain’s roads and

Watsonian had built half of them.

Motorcycling in general and especially

motorcycling with sidecars took a massive nosedive when the first affordable

family cars rolled off the production

line.

But Fred Watson was content as it was

his company supplying many of the

glass fibre body panels for the cars while

his sidecar arm of the business

accounted for just 20 per cent of their

workload.

In 1984, the factory relocated to its

current home in the beautiful Cotswolds

and merged with Squire Sidecars in 1988

to form what we now know asWatsonian

Squire Ltd.

Today the business is still busy with a

peak in orders experienced during the

late 90s and a boom in exports to countries such as Japan.

The company now produces around

200 units per year — each and every one

by hand.

It was intriguing to see this small factory in operation from the racks of steel

tubing ready for the framework through

to a workshop brimming with motorcycles having their sidecars fitted.

On the day of my visit alone, there was

a scooter having a sidecar fitted alongside a BMW adventure bike which is

having a custom-designed off-road style

sidecar fitted for a couple’s trekking holiday.

A quick glance at the showroom of finished products reinforced that this is

not a one-shape-fits-all operation.

There are sidecars to suit all tastes

from the small sports sidecars designed

to handle speed through to much larger

sidecars capable of carrying either two

children, or an adult and a child complete with hinged windscreen and room

for luggage.

But what struck my attention most

and is certainly something I would consider buying if I felt the need was the

company’s line of motorcycle trailers.

These glass fibre trailers with fully

working lights and watertight lids are far

superior to the basic steel-bodied trailers you buy for your car.

If you’re wondering what? How? Or

why? The concept is quite simple.

These are trailers connect to a motorcycle using exactly the same towing ball

mechanism and electrics as your car,

they’re large (between 283 and 595

litres), sophisticated (cast alloy wheels

and coiled spring suspension) and

impressive.

But don’t they make handling a bike

heavy and impossible?

Try and argue that point to the rider

who managed to clock up an average

speed of 139.5mph over a two-mile circuit towing a 595 litre capacity trailer

weighted down with 35kg of ballast — a

GuinnessWorld Record.

But I wasn’t here to buy myself a trailer,

I was here to look at some Royal Enfield

motorcycles (Watsonian Squire were

appointed UK distributor for the brand

in 1999) and to see what it’s like to ride

in a sidecar.

I was given a spin in a Watsonian

Squire GP Manx sidecar powered by a

Royal Enfield Bullet bike.

The GP Manx is one of the most popular sidecar models on the market with

stylish spoked wheels and a glass fibre

body encased by a steel perimeter frame

and decorated with aluminium beading

to create an octagonal nose design.

Wearing a crash helmet was optional

but as I had just stepped off a Royal

Enfield bike myself I decided on this

first experience I would play extra safe

and keep the head protection in place.

My rider certainly didn’t hold back as

we flew down the Cotswold country

lanes. The speed probably wasn’t excessive but when you’re sat beneath the

rider in a fibre glass shell without any

controls, you feel the speed.

For those of you wasting your money

on theme parks and fairground rides,

you’d be better off commandeering a

sidecar and taking a spin down a twisting country lane.

Excitement and adrenaline — just brilliant.

AuTo CaR