The Project
July 2011 was the first time I rode a motorbike with a sidecar, and I haven't looked back since, other than in the rear view mirrors. I have fallen so much for the sidecar that in May 2013 I sold the Bonneville and dedicated my riding experience to the sidecar rig. Yes, it's that good.
On the ride back from Tamworth in 2011 I spent nine days riding and staying in motels. Even though I was able to carry a lot of gear, after a six hundred kilometre ride each day all I wanted was a hot shower, a meal, and a bed, not to have to set up a tent or swag.
In June 2012 I went on a long ride around Western Australia's wildflower region for two weeks. At first my packing included tent, sleeping bag and cooking gear, and the intention was to do the whole trip on the cheap. But after packing it all in the sidecar I stood back and had a bit of a think; why am I doing this the hard way. The rig was not set up for convenient camping in that packing gear in and getting it out of the sidecar was quite a task. So the tent, sleeping bag and other stuff went back in the house and I booked into hotels/motels wherever I ended up at the end of each day or leg of the trip.
Cue to a year later in the timeline as I was riding along in dream land (with my full attention on the road, of course) and a thought came to me; Why was I paying for hotels when I could just as easily have a camper sidecar. And so it was that I set about designing one.
Many pages of scrap paper later, I realised that the best way to convey what I wanted to the guys who would be making it was to make a template out of wood. In March 2013 I was forced to take a couple of weeks off work and so, while ill in bed (honest), I took a couple of days to paste and screw together "the box". In early April I took the box to work and explained what I wanted, and emphasized that this would be a work in progress; that there were no design constraints other than the sizes and anything else that I made up along the way. I also reassured them that I would not be making too many changes away from my original discussions unless it was to implement obvious improvements. All suggestions were welcome, but not necessarily acted on if determined counter to what I was trying to achieve. About eighty percent of this worked.
The end date was originally left open, with a target for six weeks completion. This would fit with my scheduled holidays at the end of May, at which time I planned to have the house and pets cared for and take a three week tour out through the gold fields. The best laid......
While the work wasn't completed in time for my holiday, it did finally arrive last week and I am now in the process of setting everything up to go camping....next holiday.
