For the Sidecar Boys

[YSS]

The bush pigs where from Broken Hill and hade somesort of a Cr 500 when I raced against them last time in Crystal Brook in 92

[Colin Jay]

For info,

I am the sencible one (handle bars in hands) and Wilso is the insane one (swinging for me).  BUSHPIG SIDECARS was a mythical company that I come up with in the mid 70's when I build a sidecar on a RT1 360 Yamaha (I will have to see if I can find a picture of it).

The name came about because the elder brother,s mate painted "BUSHPIG" down the side of my EH ute in pressure pack paint because that was the general condition of the ute. I bought the ute for $100 (a lot of money for an apprentice in 1976) with 9 months rego, drove it for 2 years on that rego! and turned over the 200,000th mile on the original engine (used to used 2nd sump oil from the local servo as it really did use more oil than petrol!)

Anyway when Wilso and I built our first observed trials outfit in on my KT250 Kawasaki (still in the shed) in about 1977/78, we put the Bushpig Sidecars name on it. All the subsequent sidecar that either Wilso or I built carried on the tradition of being Bushpigs.

I formalised the design of the Bushpig Sidecar logo that was used on the T shirts and riding jumper after Wilso drew a texta logo on Phill Lovett's KTM front mudguard after I welded up his broken frame before the 4-day enduro in Broken Hill in the early 80's (he ended up outright winner from memory). Phill  offered to get Tycon Jerseys (his sponsor) to make up some tops for us using the logo.  Hence all the t shirts and jerseys were always Tycon.

Sine then the Bushpig Sidecars has sort of progressed into mini legend status in the trials scene from the late 70's/early 80's.  Wilso has helped a few people with other trials and a few MX and enduro outfits.  He is currently running PREMIER Sidecars from a workshop in Broken Hill.  The last outfit I made was on one of my Bultaco Sherpas in the 1994. Although I an working on a XT500 outfit and also a XS1100 road outfit using one of Wilsos fibreglass bodies on my onw chassis.

CJ (aka Slob)

[Wombat]

Another piece in the VMX/old dirt bikes jigsaw. Great story!

[Colin Jay]

I scaneed some old photos of two of the early Bushpig sidecars when I got home from work at 10pm last night, proof that I have no life.


This is actually the 2nd sidecar I made (the first was on a DT100A with a bent frame that was written off when I put it into the front end of a XB Falcon station wagon on 9th may 1975).  The bike is an RT1 360 Yamaha.  The sidecar is basically an old bedhead! and a 13" Holden wheel on a rigid trailer stub axle.  Wilso still stirs me up about this one.  For the sidecar experts, from memory, the kickplates on the forks gave about 2" negative trail (lead?), resulting in not a single wiggle from the handle bars at any speed and very light steering.  The outfit was built for mucking about/sliding on some of the local claypans and in the local limestone gravel pits. You could powerslide it forever in every gear which was great fun.


This is the 1st outfit built in co-operation with Wilso.  In '77 we were both riding C grade trials, Wilso on a TY175B, myself on a TY250B, on the way home from a trial, we descided to built a sidecar. 3 weeks later we fronted thenext event and change our solo entries to a sidecar entry, and thus began our competion sidecar careers, ending with Wilso wining the Aust title passengering for Roger Greenhalch.  The Bike is my Kawasaki KT250A, and the sidecar was built out of steel electrical conduit and aluminium road signs.

You might notice that both have "Bushpig Engineering" on them, this was the first mythical business that eventually evolved into Bushpig Sidecars once were were riding the Kawasaki in competion.

CJ

[Colin Jay]

I should not have started going thru my old photos. I found this one and though it might be of some interest. It is another beast I built somewhere around 1982/83.



The donor bike was a wrecked Honda CB350F, the front end is from a XL250 Motosport with an 18" rim, the rear wheels are 15" x 16" lowprofile hand cut slicks from a speedway supermodified stock car. It was geared for about 80mph and used on the same claypans and limestone pits as the 360 Yammie above. Back in that era trikes were all the rage, unit the US government desided that they were dangerous and pretty well banned the manufacurers from building them, leading to every one moving to 4 wheeled ATVs.

I had a few nasty falls from it, mainly thru running over my legs and being pulled under it by the rear wheels when my foot slipped of the pegs. The photo was taken in the late 90's while it was parked with a lot of my other bike out the back of the shed at my mum's place. It is now in the back of my shed and I occasionally think of rebuilding it.

CJ

[Wombat]

That's a wicked looking beast!

"...the US government desided that they were dangerous and pretty well banned the manufacurers from building them....

I had a few nasty falls from it, mainly thru running over my legs and being pulled under it by the rear wheels when my foot slipped of the pegs."

The Seppos cop a lot of flak but I'm thinking maybe their Government got this one right.

[firko]

Restore it Col! That beasty is too cool and would be the perfect Classic Dirt pitbike
One of the worst of my numerous bike related injuries occurred when my leg was sucked under the back wheel causing the trike to do a quick left turn into a tree. I was in top gear with shorts and no helmet at the time and ended up with a torn achilles tendon and dislocated shoulder. I never rode a trike again in the interest of self preservation.

[Tim754]

Cute small bore!!!!! resurrect it Hey Col wish you had started this thread in the Sidecar section it has been very well read. Cheers tim

[Colin Jay]

I think the reason they US government turned against them was because of the basic insabilty of a trike.  This one of mine is quite stable due to the overal weight and especially the weight of the rear end. With some of the light weight, powerful trikes that Honda and Yamaha were building back then, it was not hard to flip them over in turns as due to the rigid rear axle, unless you slide them you have to lift the inside rear whell to turn, and if you aren't a competent rider they just flipped rear-over-front. Combining this with the fact that they were often bought by non motorcycle riders who had no knowledge of bike dynamics.

Plus the US is the place where, if you hurt youself, no matter how stupid you were acting, you don't accept responcibility, you sue whoever made what you were using!

CJ