Watsonian Squire Open Weekend 2013

Watsonian Squire hold an open weekend every year where they invite all and sundry to ride out to their headquarters in the Cotswolds to have a look around the factory and have a good chat with like minded folks. Side car riders are a dedicated bunch and as I found when I attended the Watsonian Centenary last year there is always some interesting combinations that turn up.

1973 Norton 850 Commando

(ink & watercolour)

Known as his Trusty Steed this Commando has covered some serious miles with it's proud owner Tony who and I quote thinks "it's the best bike ever".

Flexit Outfit

(ink & watercolour)

This stopped me in my tracks when it rolled in, especially when the cockpit opened electronically!

This space age designed sidecar is called a Flexit . It was designed by Hannes Myburgh and was pretty much his lifes work. The design leans with the bike enabling the bike to be ridden like a solo The Flexit was produced between 1981 and 2005. Legend has it that Hannes took the Flexit to the Triumph test track and lapped the circuit at 161mph, and could have possibly gone faster if he had stuck with 5th gear rather than using the 6th (override) gear. There are some debates as to how many were produced but world authority on the Flexit John Goff says it's most probably about 167.

This particular outfit has been owned for 20 years. For the first year the Flexit was combined with a BMW but the body boom in the cockpit was too much, so the owners opted for the ST 1100 Pan European. The outfit has now covered 30,000 miles!