You know, I really don't remember if I even watched to see how he reacted. But, I bet he won't ever just stand and look all stupid at another woman driving a sidehack!
As I understand, the taxis in England called hacks back in the day by horse-drawn. sidecars when they began to be used as taxis in which they called sidehacks.
Connie:
If you go to LA - Los Angeles, not the cajan country - the moment a pedestrian steps out from the curb in a pedestrian crossing - you have to avoid him as if he were God Almighty himself. Likewise in the UK and also Australia. But they must be in the pedestrian crosswalk. Watch them critters. They wait till they see a biker coming then launch themselves into the crosswalk as if propelled by a catapult. Then laugh as he tries to avoid them in a back wheel skid. That is where a sidehack has a better chance - at least it will not fall over, and is better able to more quickly alter direction than a solo.
As for the knife blades, my old rig I built up from scratch had a Honda front wheel for the sidecar wheel. It was mounted in a solid 1-3/8" heavy wall aluminium frame. The wheel was dropped into the frame. I built it up in the US so it was a right hander. Then I went to the UK and took it with me - where you are supposed to have it as a lefthander. But on the highway from London to Tring - google it - I was in the normal lane up a hill which had a slow lane running left. As I am approaching the brow of a hill and looking directly into an approaching vehicle I hear a horn toot just behind me. I glanced back to my left - nothing - never did I think some idiot would try passing me on a curve up a hill with another vehicle dead ahead. Sure - it was some idiot in a big cat - Jaguar type - that overtook me driving into the oncoming vehicle. He almost made it. By sideswiping the outer frame supporting my sidecar wheel. He screeched to a halt just ahead. Damage. My outrigger frame had cut his front and his left fenders like a kife through hot butter. Not a scratch on my rig. After telling him what a fool he was I left him consoling with his two kids on the side of the road. Never mess with a sidecarist!
In the '50s an Oakland cop told me that if a pedestrian steps onto the roadway in a crosswalk you MUST stop, even if it is a 6 lane road.
If they're not in a crosswalk he will pin a ticket on the corpse.
L.
i grew up in england in the fourties and fifties, in those days there well over 100,000 sidecar rigs running all over the place used as year round transportation, i never ever heard the term hack used in reference to sidecars until got back into sidecars in the usa in the seventies. i thought it was an americanism, where it came from i have no idea. if the name originated in the uk, why did never hear it used? or maybe i just led a sheltered life. there brit members out there, is the word hack used over there in place of chair outfit or combo?, was it ever used?.
Might I respectfully suggest that it not just the fact that you grew upn the UK in the fourties and the fiftiew, but rather - WHERE yoiu gre upin the UK. The historical fact is that there were taxis in London that used a motorcycle and a sidecar.
http://www.pashnit.com/bikes/sidecar.htm
http://www.impaktbicycles.com/index.php?c=html&s=more&id=-2
http://fan.tcm.com/_McQueen-sicover/photo/4991334/66470.html?createPassive=true
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicab
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_taxi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackney_carriage
http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/PhotoGallerys/med/PI-27.jp g" target="_blank">
http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/Image/4029/Thumb/4029R-367114.jp g" target="_blank">
I asked my good friend and learned sidecar historian the following - and his response. He also sent me a dozen photos of taxis fitted to motorcycles, and to bicycles, from many parts of the world. There is no question that taxis were used from motorcycles in many parts of the world, especially after WWI and WWII, and also in many countries still. It is also undeniable that the word hack was derived from the horse drawn carrage for hire, and thence into the world of taxis. However, I have not seen that the word hack going directly to mean a sidecar, except from implication.
The movies he provides - see links - are very informative.
===
Dear Hal:
I have read your message with great interest.
I went into that aspect from the sidelines. In Italian do not exist an equivalent word for "hack".
It is true that in the past various sidecars were used as taxi. The maximum spread of these vehicles was in the post WW1 because the car was too expensive. The taxi sidecar was also important after the WW2 but the sidecar was often attached to a bicycle because of the scarcity of gas in Europe.
I have found some footage in internet, at British Pathe website:
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=64651
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=24176
In attached you will find pictures of taxi sidecars, mostly taken in the Twenties. Unfortunately I can not give any other reliable information.
Best regards,
Costantino Frontalini
From: hal kendell
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 2:34 PM
To: 'SIDECAR MUSEUM'
Subject: RE: Motorcycle Taxis - Hackney - Sidehack - Hacks
Dear Constantino:
Recently, on one of our forums, the question was raised - just where, exactly, did the term hack or sidehack come from as referring to the sidecar.
Quickly, the discussion turned to – well – it goes back to the term hackney – referring to the horse drawn conveyances used for the taxi trade.
OK – well what does that have to do with sidecars?
Turns out that in the 1930s to 1940s, or was it from the 40s to the 50s, when sidecaring was near at its peak that there were quite a few sidecars in fact functioning as taxis.
OK – prove it – show us some pictures or some reliable historic source.
I know I have seen such pictures in the past but when push came to shove I could not come up with anything concrete.
Can you help?
I do have many photos of sidecar taxis - modern – as used in small foreign countries such as Cambodia, the pacific islands, etc.
In fact – on one trip to the islands around Fiji my wife and I were escorted around the island in such a conveyance.
But this does not answer the question – when and how did a sidecar become a hack or a sidehack?
Regards
Hal
Dear Hal:
I have read your message with great interest.
I went into that aspect from the sidelines. In Italian do not exist an equivalent word for "hack".
It is true that in the past various sidecars were used as taxi. The maximum spread of these vehicles was in the post WW1 because the car was too expensive. The taxi sidecar was also important after the WW2 but the sidecar was often attached to a bicycle because of the scarcity of gas in Europe.
I have found some footage in internet, at British Pathe website:
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=64651
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=24176
In attached you will find pictures of taxi sidecars, mostly taken in the Twenties. Unfortunately I can not give any other reliable information.
Best regards,
Costantino Frontalini
From: hal kendell
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 2:34 PM
To: 'SIDECAR MUSEUM'
Subject: RE: Motorcycle Taxis - Hackney - Sidehack - Hacks
Dear Constantino:
Recently, on one of our forums, the question was raised - just where, exactly, did the term hack or sidehack come from as referring to the sidecar.
Quickly, the discussion turned to – well – it goes back to the term hackney – referring to the horse drawn conveyances used for the taxi trade.
OK – well what does that have to do with sidecars?
Turns out that in the 1930s to 1940s, or was it from the 40s to the 50s, when sidecaring was near at its peak that there were quite a few sidecars in fact functioning as taxis.
OK – prove it – show us some pictures or some reliable historic source.
I know I have seen such pictures in the past but when push came to shove I could not come up with anything concrete.
Can you help?
I do have many photos of sidecar taxis - modern – as used in small foreign countries such as Cambodia, the pacific islands, etc.
In fact – on one trip to the islands around Fiji my wife and I were escorted around the island in such a conveyance.
But this does not answer the question – when and how did a sidecar become a hack or a sidehack?
Regards
Hal
hal, while trying to find linkage from sidecar to sidehack (without success
hal, while trying to find linkage from to sidecar to sidehack, and finding none at this point, i found the word hack is still used in new york city, and a taxi licence is called a hack licence. boston police dept .contains a hackney carriage unit to police taxis in the city of boston, they issue hackney carriage medallions to operators who meet their licencing requirements, just pointing out that the brits are not the only ones using the word hackney, a dictionary tells me a hack was a worn out horse? and hackney could be a horse or carriage for hire. none of this answers Dr Dukes question, but i am getting an education, and regarding where i grew up in england it was 125 miles from london, and a good place to be in the early fourties , because people wearing swastikas were bombing the crap out of london. keep digging for the answer to Dr Dukes question.
