Anyone familiar with this brand? In particular the Model SL-110?
Thanks for any info.
This company has been out of business for quite a while. I don't even know when John Sweet started its operation. I may have a picture of the SL-110 somewhere in my sidecar picture repository. I have also seen two or three SL-110 for sale on ebay in the last couple of years. It looks like a good, solid, nice sidecar.
Piero Bassi
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Pierro,
Thanks for clearing that up my friend. I had always heard of these called 'Sweet Sidecars' and the name 'Hydroplane' threw me off. Do you know how many may had actually beed produced and during what years? Is John Sweet still around? What kind of frame did they have?
see attached
John Sweet and Lyons began designing the SL-110 in 1973. I was in high school at the time but over the years building the bodies for Johnny paid my college tuition as well as by roofing with him. He and I built at least 300 units up until 1989. The height of production was around 1978. He resides in Greenville SC and still has the fiberglass shop and metal fabrication facilities. He has built several sidecars over the last 10 years.
The chassis was 90% built by us. The only purchased items were the hub, the axle, the bearings and the tire/wheel assembly (we had a supply of surplus shock units that worked well). We made the entire body, did the paint and sewed the upholstry. The standard paint was either white or black but for a negotiated price one could have candy apple colors or metalflake paint by the metalflake corporation.
The SL-220 was an upgrade that added a windshield which was the largest selling style. We built the SF-330 that was slightly larger with a bolt-on fender for ease of construction but not as stylish. Then we built a Harley knock-off that sold well.
Over the years we sand casted aluminum speed parts for stock outboard racing hydroplanes and owned several limited inboard hydros that we raced mostly in Canada. We also had a couple of open-wheeled supermodified cars that we raced locally. Sidecars were mostly a side business where we could make money in the late winter and spring when people started placing their orders. By mid-summer we were roofing and racing and driving our rigs, not building them unless we needed a new one ourselves which happened every year because someone would come around and buy them out from under us, oftentimes bike and all.
BTW. thanks for the image of the stationary. I haven't seen this in decades.
Being new to side cars, are there any photos available? It would be interesting to see what they looked like.
Take a look. The red sidecar was mine.
Really interesting sort of "retro-futuristic" design. Reminds me of the Watsonian Flight in the front. Very nice!
see attached
below is a link to some Sweet Sidecars photos in my web album.
Check it out.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sweetcomposites/SidecarsForUpload?feat=directlink
Eric J. Sweet
esweet@neweracomposites.com
I spoke to John Sunday. He informed me that I may share his email with the the forum. You can contact him at jsweet450@yahoo.com .
He plans on building the original SL220 sidecar using new tooling. The old tooling was over 30 years old. He recreated the SL220 from the original SL220 mold which he still has.
