The sidecar and my husband before things get dirty.
I have a confession to make. I’m a swinger – a sidecar swinger that is! In my spare time I race around a vintage motocross track hanging off the side of a sidecar. Now most people who ride vintage motocross will tell you you have to have a few screws loose to swing on a sidecar. I think in my case, ignorance was bliss!
It was towards the end of a season and my husband, who has ridden vintage motocross for years was without a passenger. I know how much he loves his sidecar so I offered to help out. How hard could it be?
Turns out – really hard!!
You see the passenger is the person who helps the bike turn. If there’s a left-hand corner, the passenger has to hand out of the left hand side of the chair, if it’s a right-hand corner, they have to get up on the seat behind the rider. This means a lot of movement throughout the race.
The first time I went out swinging, I lasted two laps before I had to get off and collapse in a heap breathing heavily. I have since improved my fitness so I can make a full race (3 laps) and don’t immediately collapse when I get off.
Yesterday was the first meet of the season at our home track in Narrogin. I was racing my solo (you can just see the blue bike in the background of the above picture) as well as swinging on the sidecar. It took the practice laps to get into the swing of things (pun intended) again and find my rhythm, but by the end of the day I was moving across the chair with some semblance of flow.
Unfortunately that means that today I can feel every single muscle in my body. Ow.
