Just visited Gallery Aaldering. It was teeming with Lotuses, because the Lotus Club was also visiting. Our attention went more to the classic motorcycles in Brummen. There are many more there than there are on the site. That has something to do with Nick Aaldering's hobby. Like his colleague Albert Venema from Drempt, he buys classics that he himself finds very beautiful and then does not explicitly offer them for sale. Albert Venema, for example, has a few exceptional American classics with big V8s. At Nick the 'underkuffer offer' is therefore two-wheeled. And sometimes three-wheeled.
So you are looking at an emphatically classic sidecar combination, a Harley WL side valve with a nice slender Steib on it. There was once a commercial about Husqvarna where a singing voice in the background vocalized: “Uihuit Zweeheeden”. The side-valve combination also came from that country. You could tell that not only from the number plate, but also from the way the third wheel was tied to the Harley: on the left. That made sense. Because in Sweden they once also drove on the left side of the road.
For sidecar drivers it is quite important which side of the road is used. Because with a box for right-hand drivers on roads where they usually drive on the left? That's tricky. That is also the case the other way around. And it's all the fault of the curvature of the road. The 'cant' as it is apparently called. In cross-section, the road surface is somewhat sloping or convex. That's because of the drainage or something and it doesn't make a difference in decimetres, but still.
If you drive in the right direction on a combination with the box in front of us, then you drive the motorcycle high up the slope, while the third wheel follows a little bit lower.
With a left-mounted box, sidecar riding is just uncomfortable because the third wheel is higher than the wheels of the motorcycle. That steers weird, also because the tricycle so adjusted does not track well on the wrong side of the dike. But you can adjust the case nicely by adjusting the base of the box. It is possible to drive. But if sidecar riding is weird motorcycling, then this is weird riding with a bonus. But if you master that game? Then you are completely in charge. Especially on such a beautiful side-valve combination that, with its tractor-like torque, seems born to go through a long life as a tricycle.
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I look at the photo with the 2 sidecars.
I also drive a sidecar myself and it seems a bit strange to steer. But apart from that I wonder:
Is this allowed by Dutch law??
The RDW will not understand this!
And it is also not allowed due to vehicle width..
“Certainly on such a beautiful side-valve combination that, with its tractor-like torque, seems born to go through a long life as a tricycle…”
Mmm, it may seem so…but Ivan and Pjotr had a different experience in WWII; the 750 is actually too light, both in power and frame sturdiness, to go through life as a third-wheel tractor.
Now, with contemporary use and paved road surfaces, that is not too bad, but in the Russian mud underpowered pulling a bucket and full (3 men) luggage resulted in engine damage and a crooked frame.
My ex-Red Army WLA was also crooked, a scar I deliberately left as proof and tribute to its heroic past.
Well. No matter how impressive and tough endearing those 750 side valves are…. They were too heavy, too slow and for Russia they had very little ground clearance. The copies made especially for the Russians therefore had longer front forks for more ground clearance. Nice to hear that you have such an ex Russian. And the technical condition of yours was pretty representative of the other survivors from that corner. Cherish him!
The Russians did NOT have their own version.
Only one (1!) was made, but it had a kink in the frame… no long front fork.
This WLR never made it to the production stage, and the only one is in the museum in Milwaukee.
The long front fork was only on the 40WLA and 41WLA, after that they got rid of it because of handling and steering behavior.
Thanks for the info. Handling & steering behaviour…. I can't imagine much else with Sun WL (Just kidding)