Can anyone help me with the identification of this sidecar? It's in albums under Mikthebike's UFO. The person I bought it from said it came from California, and was handmade, but the production was more than a few. But then again, they were missing teeth and stuff. It has four "U" shaped mounting brackets and the tub is a two piece unit glued together. The subframe is chromoly. Thanks!
So I'm guessing this is a vintage velorex sidecar? Excellent. I am most indebeted to your greatness. Did some of these come without windscreens?
The photo Claude posted the URL for, showed the Velorex 560, or 'Bullett' as it was stock. Looking at the photo of yours, it's seen extensive modding. Someone has reglassed/refinished the forward section of the body, to remove the holes in which the windscreen stays were mounted to (notice the paint overspray in that curved area). The windshield were made of heavy guage stamped sheet steel, so they probably got damaged beyond repair sometime in it's life. The trim strip and front stamped tin 'badge' has been removed. The frame itself appears to have been chromed, and the wheel axle assembly has been replaced with a home made assembly of some sort .. whether an intentional modification, or one to get by a worn out shock tower/bent axle/broken full fender.. it's not stock. The stock axle was quite small in diameter, about 17 mm, and tended to get bent if you so much as looked cross eyed at it. Mounting hardware is a universal setup, thats commonly shared by later model Velorex/Jawa 562 and 700 models.
There is some flack around that due to the present "Retro vogue" and with the discontinuance of the 562E, the 560 model may be reintroduced. Possibly with a few safety upgrades, if the market interest is there. They were a very popular car in their time, as was the 562E model.
Allright, thanks for all your consideration and time. I can certainly see where all the modifications would produce this model. It's obviously not from California, but that does SOUND like Czechoslovakia. It looks like the axle has been beefed up past 17 mm. It does not have a shock, though, just a spring (I think I found a set of teeth in the nose of the car).
Mik
Just happened across this old thread while searching for information on my sidecar rig. The sidecar pictured in Mikethebike's UFO is most definitely not a Jawa Velorex 560. It is a Bingham Mark MK-I made by Doug Bingham (inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame as "Mr. Sidecar") of Side Strider Inc. in California. Side Strider is still open for business and be found at www.sidestrider.com. I own both a Jawa Velorex 560 rigged to a 1978 Yamaha SR500 and an Bingham MK-I that is waiting for a tug (probably another SR500).
Epicmoto has the correct identification.
