We posted all the photos from the South Dakota Rally at https://www.shutterfly.com. The posting is free and folks can download or buy prints if you allow it. The poster needs to set up an account but you don't need an account to view the pictures if you set it up as public.
Thanks gentleman, I shall take a look at both of them. It just goes to show us that nothing is forever. years ago when I started this thread I figured that Photobucket would be around forever. It might be but $400 a year to have third party viewing; not for me. With over one hundred thousand views it would be a shame to let the thread go. But without pictures it takes a lot away from what's been written. So I've been told. I've already received some emails and have been informed that if I drop the thread some of my followers will not be happy with me.
Thanks again, Johnny
Hi Johnny...i switched to postimage.com. Work good for me....
I had been looking for one of your cars for a while then a watsonian popped up last winter so I grabbed it....wouldnt you know, a month or so later one of yours came up in Mass......figures right?......anyway...watsonian is working out fine....maybe next rig will be Sweeter.......
I was informed that this great site might be down for a while. Good luck with the move and if all works out well let's hope it will be up and running soon. When it comes to sidecars I think that this site is the best out there. I would like to thank the administrators for allowing me to post over the years.
To my many followers even though I haven't posted for some time I'm still heavily involved in sidecars. I just finished up sidecar number 76 of the latest generation of Sweet sidecars.
The thing that I'm most excited about is that my son Eric Sweet has entered into the sidecar building world. Eric's shop is in Melbourne Florida and he goes under the name of "Sweet Sidecars of Florida". What we did was duplicated everything in my shop related to building sidecars and shipped everything to the Melbourne shop. Eric has been into composites for thirty years building custom hoods. He has over 200 different designs to his credit so moving to sidecars was effortless. He has two certified welders in the shop and Eric is more than qualified with thirty plus years under his belt. Early this year a lifelong friend of mine came down from Massachusetts as he does every year for a short vacation to my place in South Carolina. My buddy Art and I built sidecars together back in the day in my shop in New Hampshire. That was over forty years ago when we were young and strong. So the two old bucks loaded up and made the trip to Eric's Melbourne shop. Once there we gathered up his crew and held school for three days building and setting up sidecar frames to different bikes. Eric and his crew caught on fast and before we left for home three new Sweet sidecars were running up and down the road. This is an exciting time with Eric entering into building the family line of Sweet Motorcycle Sidecars. It's his own deal and I have nothing to do with his business and how and what he builds. A Dad couldn't be more proud of a son's accomplishments.
Thanks for reading, Johnny Sweet PE.
Wishin' Eric and crew the best of luck there in Melbourne!! One of the little regrets of my life is not having taken a friend up on his offer to visit Melbourne back when he had a connection to the Harley dealership there. Tink was in his 90's when he passed and he's been gone a good number of years now so I'm thinking back that many plus a few. But whenever I hear of Melbourne FL, I think of Tink and the memories I missed out on by being "too busy."
Eric and his crew have been doing some fine work. Just last week they delivered two sidecars to very satisfied customers. A few pictures of one of the latest Sweet Classic's. Everything is done in-house starting with the fiberglass composite body, paint, and upholstery to the custom built frames. Every sidecar is mounted to the customer's needs. They use the time-proven Sweet Ezee mount system that I developed forty-seven years ago. It should be noted that Eric built his own sidecars thirty years ago when he was in High School and drove sidecars before he went into the business world. It's been decades and I've always hoped that he would someday manufacture our Sweet Sidecars. This is the third area of the country that our family has built sidecar in. It just proves that sidecars can be manufactured anywhere in the United States provided that you have a population and people that ride motorcycles. There is a large market for sidecars with the baby boomers that ride motorcycles. Many of the guys have been riding motorcycles for decades and as they enter into the twilight years some find that they can no longer hold up their bike. Not all want to go the motorcycle trike route and in many cases, they just store the bike in the garage. What I've found through my marketing research is that most don't set out looking for a sidecar. Many just sell their bikes while others put them up on blocks. So through an enterprising marketing scheme that I have developed, I've been able to tap into this sidecar market. This is what I've passed down to Eric. I explained to Eric that with my marketing method he would have sales in three days once it was implemented and sure enough he did and it worked in Florida as it has in South Carolina and New England.
The future looks good for Eric and his Sweet Sidecars of Florida company.
Thanks for reading,
Johnny Sweet PE.
A smile for every mile.
