side-car téléthon carole 2006

Trans-channeling just now I came across motorcycle sidecar racing. A little bit surprising, because I had been thinking somehow that it might be extinct. This is some exciting stuff, the bikes are purpose-built and strange, the physics is all wrong, these things are dangerous. I'm happy to see that there are still guys brave enough to race them.

We used to call them "kneelers." Both the rider (driver) and the passenger have to kneel on the low, low frame. The passenger's job is to provide ballast, to make sure that the thing doesn't flip over in turns. In this video you can see the frame without the fairing; you can see just how weird the frame geometry really is.

Look for some race footage. Keeping these things flat on the track is a chore, it's fun to watch.