Here she is, I think a 50's model M20 combination....together with drip tin.
I bought it off a friend who himself had just bought a 650 Gold Flash combination.
This M20 holds many memories for the 1 year I spent with her.
Going to a disco, 5 miles away, 7 up. 3 sitting on the bike (one on the rear mudguard) and 4 on the sidecar which was in the shape of a coffin....oh dear.
Turning it over into a ditch and coming round 5 minutes after with me lying in the running water with the bike straddled from bank to bank immediately above. My pillion mate (Colin) lying in the road above, moaning or was it cursing. The side car wheel had clipped a water gully, on a left bend and flipped it over......at midnight.
Then the day I took a short cut through a back street in Aldershot only to come across a police car with its contents blocking the road. Needless to say with the noise it was making (exhausts were always better loud) the contents emerged from the Panda and approached me. Get off he said and as I did so the 'always loose' seat slid down the side of the engine onto the road. He said very little, just, "take it home sonny and get it OFF the road. A lucky escape that one.
Every morning as I tore off the work (apprenticeship) the guy at the bottom of my road would be stood at his gate shaking his fist......again such a loud exhaust noise at 7am was not good....but I was then young and he old.
Anyway, girls came along and cars so I had to sell her. That day is as clear to me know as then. A soldier from Crookham camp came along, handed me the £11, I handed him the bike and my old crash helmet and away he tore down the road, no questions asked.........not even a test drive.
The day I removed the sidecar and took it for a spin but had great difficulty cornering due to the large square profile tyres.....plus I was on a provo licence.
those were the days.....my short biking days.
Don
