About this blog

This blog is mostly about motorbikes, especially a-symmetric 3 wheelers (sidecars, hacks, chairs, combinations and whatever else you like to call them). It will, I anticipate, include stories about trips, past, present and planned.  It will be a personal account and not a historical reference.  I hope to include my collection of photos that I have downloaded from the web. I have neglected to keep the credits for these photos and I include them because they are interesting but I don't claim them to be mine.  In the 1970's I covered a lot of miles on a Honda CB750 K2 with a homebuilt sidecar. Lots of interesting trips took place on this rig and I will try to recollect some of them and post photos from those trips.  My interest in sidecars was rekindled a few years ago and in my stable I now have 4 combinations, 2 spare sidecars and I still have my old solo Bultaco 350 Alpina from about 1975. Although a couple of these combinations should be kept locked up just to look at, I feel that they will all get plenty of use since I get most of my pleasure from the ride and not from the polishing. A few trips have already been completed and so I will add accounts from the past and the present as long as my inclination to ride and write continues.

First Attraction.
Back in the early 70's I was riding a Suzuki 1970 T 250.  It was my first bike and I was riding from Sydney's Eastern  Suburbs beaches to Revesby, a distance of about 20 miles to a factory where I was an apprentice Toolmaker. Traffic then and probably now was and is a nightmare. I tried lots of creative routes to get to work in as little time as possible but I was almost always a few minutes late. 2 minutes late clocking in was OK; 3 minutes late and I would loose 15 minutes pay. It wasn't a lot of money, I was only getting 70 cents per hour. The lateness continued as I hated being early for anything. One day the foreman invited me into his little sanctuary and offered me a pay rise.  I was stupid enough to think that at last my work was valued.  I never got the pay rise because it was conditional upon my getting to work on time and that's all he was offering, a full weeks pay instead of being short a few quarter hour blocks.
About this time one of the other apprentices arrived at work with a Honda CB 500 4 and I started to realise that my TS250 wasn't as quick as I thought it was. And so the endless dream of a new bike began. Speed wasn't the only thing that interested me because at around this time, Capitol Motors started to import the range of Russian Bikes known as Cossacks. The one that interested me in particular was the 650 with sidecar. $650 for a 650cc with sidecar with beautiful classic motorcycle lines,  I wanted one of these. At around the same time a few of my mates had graduated to bikes like the Laverda 1000 and the Kawasaki 750 triple (H1 I think) and for offroad  the CZ400 and the ever reliable XL 250 and the DT 250.

My mates talked me out of the Cossack as it was under-performing, unreliable, unrideable and just plain old "Russian crap".  I gave up on my overt support for the marque but I secretly still loved the classic lines of the Cossack combination.

The 1974 Dnepr MT-9 is often referred to as "the best Cossack"

The Cossack brand lasted from the early 1970s until around 1978, and were sold quite successfully due to their extremeley competetive pricing in the motorcycle market (AUD$650 for a brand new Ural M-63 solo). In fact the sales slogan for the 650cc Ural was "a dollar a cc", "a Cossack is built to withstand anything, to beat all roads and tame all weathers", and "Cossack From Russia With Love".
 ( from b-coss website)



My apprenticeship was over and I was off to see the world.  I had by now repowered a 1962 EK Holden ute with a 161 cub inch "red motor"and built an interesting aluminium canopy with a tilt up roof which had a hammock built in to it.  My mate Bill and I headed off to Townsville for work. One memorable incident on that trip occurred when overtaking a car and caravan. The poor old ute had a terrible whine and just as I drew level with the front of the car and van, the whine stopped, the engine roared, and the propeller shaft fell on to the road and I had to skulk back in behind the van and pull over. The repair was achieved by hitchhiking into the next town to the local wrecker and buying a replacement prop shaft and hitch-hiking back and installing  it by the side of the road. My Suzuki 250  was retrieved from the family home and it was soon traded in on another Suzuki. This time a small trail bike a TS185cc unit I think. After six months work in the Evans Deakin slipway and the construction of the Yabulu Nickel Refinery it was time to return to familiar faces and the warm sand of Evans Head.
The new year arrived and so did  a job in Lismore building sand mining equipment. Living in Casino 20 miles away saw the need for cheap transport arise. A single cylinder 125cc 4 stroke Honda road bike did the trick. One of the apprentices in Lismore had a lovely looking green 500cc Matchless (from memory) with a very neat looking Dusting sidecar. I used to love watching him perform with this bike. Flying the chair on left hand corners and all the way around figure 8s, then coming to a stop with the chair still high in the air. I started saving for a big road bike. I had lots of places I wanted to visit and I reckoned a BMW R75 would be just the shot. I needed about 3000 to 3500 dollars so it was head down and stay away from the drink.  Some time later after a meltdown on the 125 and whilst I was trying to secure parts in the local Honda shop I noticed an old stock new CB 750 K2 giving me that come-on look. I had saved half the price of a new BMW and here was this CB 750 giving me the eye. The $1600 I had saved was just enough to secure the purchase and ride away. I still remember my heart pounding as I threw my leg over the saddle and rode away toward a 100 000km partnership.  I had never ridden a bike bigger than a 250cc before.  It was a very exciting moment.