BOLTING A SIDECAR TO A TWO-WHEELER predates the motorcycle. There are two claims to being the creator of the first sidecar, one from 1883. Firstly, in the USA, GW Pressey of New Jersey, creator of the Star bicycle, a sort-of reversed penny farthing, with the small wheel at the front. He attached a side seat and wheel to his bicycle so he could take his wife out for rides. The Star has a further claim to fame as being one of the first motorcycles, being fitted with a steam engine by one Lucius Copeland, who then turned it into his own steam tricar in 1888.
The other claim on inventing the sidecar as we know it was by a French army officer who came up with a similar bicycle attachment in 1893. These were just the documented ones; many others would surely have been created as one-offs, solutions to a rider’s carrying problem.
Once petrol motorcycles arrived, the motorcycle and sidecar was actually predated by the tricar – a fairly terrifying device that positioned the passenger on a steerable axle in front of the pilot, who sat on a saddle behind, which must have required considerable bravery on the part of the passenger.
The motorcycle combination proper arrived in 1903 when a patent was filed for the sidecar by Mr W J Graham, of Enfield, Middlesex. The sidecar quickly became popular, being useful and very cheap in comparison to cars of the day, which were still
