California Sidecars
CALIFORNIA SIDECARS
DESPITE THE FACT that only one engine (the works BMW) has more than a three-wheeled ghost of a chance at wining the FIM world sidecar championship each year, European three-wheeler racing continues to attract a huge following, season after season.
Californians got their first taste of the competition that breeds such fan support recently, when the American Federation of Motorcyclists discovered two sidecar rigs present at a Cotati road race and promptly arranged a dice.
The AFM has been hoping to include sidecar road racing in its regular program for quite a while, but until this event, the most the group has been able to muster has been a solitary machine to do a few demonstration laps for the crowd.
The two machines which were to comprise the first gosh-for-real race differed about as much as two sidehacks could. One was a basically stock Harley Davidson 74, the other a somewhat more esoteric Triumph powered Norton.
The Harley is the creation of Jim Sadilek of Eureka, and Mark Strong of Sacramento. The pair built the rig in about three months, when Sadilek was still living in the state capital.
The engine is completely stock, they say, and the frame has also been left in its pristine state. Sixteen-inch wheels lower the machine considerably, and HarleyDavidson sidecar forks are fitted. The “chair” is on the right side of the machine.
Harley-Davidson’s hydraulic rear braking system provides a handy source of power for the sidecar’s disc brake. Tires are 3 50/16s. The HD’s front brake is of mystery origin. It was found in a junkyard in Italy and Pridmore says he doesn’t know what it was designed for.
The Triton (Nortumph?) is an English import, a veteran of at least one British short circuit. Reg Pridmore and Ernie Caesar, both of Santa Barbara, obtained it second hand through friends in England.
“We’re not sure where it was raced,” Caesar told CYCLE WORLD. “We do know it ran at Caldwell Park though, because it had a stamp from there on it.” The machine is powered by a Triumph 650cc non-unit construction engine, with power going to a close-ratio BSA gearbox. The bike’s two wheels are 16-inchers, while the sidecar sports a 12-inch wheel.
The front forks are leading link “specials” for sidecar racing, and the outfit is neatly streamlined with a fiberglass fairing.
The large crowd of spectators at Cotati (three grandstands were jammed) was quite curious to see how the smaller English machine would do against the 74 cubic inches of the domestic product. The answer turned out to be quite well on the corners, but not up to snuff on the straightaways.
Sadilek and Strong on the HD leaped into a good lead right at the start, displaying once again the old truism that there “ain’t no substitute for you-knowwhat.” Pridmore and Caesar were able to overtake the Harley in the corners, but their short moments of glory never lasted past the first few yards of straight-away. The Bonniebed (Featherville?) turned out to be a particularly hairy beast in the turns, and the jammed grandstands got an eyeful at least once, as Pridmore nearly got sideways in the last turn, his forks waggling like some maniac G reeves rider’s nightmare.
But cubic inches won the day, and despite a tendency toward squirrelly cornering, it was Sadilek, Strong, Duo-Glide & Co. who, you should pardon the pun, triumphed.
Before the race Strong had said, “We’re going to run it stock and if they win we’ll go home and do something to the engine.” He mused a moment and added, “On second thought if we win, then they are going to go home and do something to their engine, so even if we win we’ll have to go home and do something to our engine.”
It may be time well spent, for Caesar predicts at least four more three wheelers will be competing in AFM events by the end of this summer’s racing season.
Anyone got a works BMW? H
