Where does the passenger go?

How to carry a passenger?

Today, we motorcyclists may carry passengers on pillion seats or in sidecars, but for the first pioneer motorcyclists, no such existed. Many early motorcycles were direct drive machines, powered by small, attached engines, which were often pedal started. They were devoid of a clutch or other free engine facility and the rider stopped the engine at each halt. If a passenger was to be carried, that passenger would have had to mount after the machine was underway (with the engine started) and dismount on stopping, or the rider would have to pedal/bump/paddle start the motorcycle with the passenger aboard. Either scenario was hardly ideal.

Even if carrying a passenger aboard the motorised cycle was viable, where to place their seat was the next question. Ideas included towing a passenger-carrying trailer behind a solo motorcycle (with some ambitious souls designing the trailer for two or more passengers), or to fit a forecar, comprising a seat mounted on a chassis between two wheels fitted to the motorcycle in place of the front fork. The next development was the manufactured forecar, with its united chassis serving both the motorcycle part and the forecar. Progressively, these became more sophisticated, but the desirability of carrying the passenger/s in front of drivers soon waned, in favour of sidecar outfits or cars.

To us, it seems logical passengers travelling on solo motorcycles sit on a seat behind the rider, while sidecar outfits serve to carry goods or one or more passengers. But even by 1903 this solution wasn’t obvious, January 7, 1903, page 413). Moore’s sketch follows the rose-tinted thoughts of many in the period, in that the male motorcycle rider wanted to transport his lady love, but scanning the letters pages of the period motorcycling press uncovers a variety of reasons for passenger carrying – from transporting children to a West Country lady whose specially-built tandem-type motorcycle enabled to her to visit nearby towns and further afield relatives accompanied by her blind passenger husband during the early Edwardian period.