Ola Chicos - Side story K750 and Vespa GTR 125

 

Dont' know why but have always liked sidecar.  The first time I almost bought one was in Dubai.  It was a Royal Enfield 500.  Our son was newly born and my wife started enquiring how we were gonna ride with a new kid on the block.   So, I found this nice little add for a Royal Enfield side coming directly from the factory in India.   It belong to an Emirates Airline pilot who had brought it back from one of his trip.   But as you can imagine all the commands and even the side was on the wrong side of the road.  So when I took it for a test ride with my wife (who had just delivered) I did not manage it pretty well and we hit the curb a few times.  That was it, the boss had said NO !!!

Few years later I saw one in Shanghai (Chang Jiang) which had been modified by a European and decided it was time to buy one.   I knew one guy in Shanghai who owned one and was relocating to Oslo.  So I made the deal to buy it from him when he reached Oslo.  But when he got to Oslo, he decided not to sell it anymore and kept it for himself.      

Strangely enough, few weeks later, I found an old Russian Military side that must have been rebuilt and hand painted one million time. I did not let that opportunity go by.  The K750 was the Russian Army version of the BMW (R35 model I think).   As the story goes, BMW has sold the right of the R35 to the Russian as they had already developed the R39 model, but second world war started and the Russian never paid BMW.   After the war, the Russian continued to build the side.   They had 2 factories, one in Russia which made side for civilian, call URAL, and one in Kiev which made same model but stronger for military use.  Since it was assembled in Kiev they called it K750. 

I drove for a few years, but spent more time working on the engine than on any other bikes.  It used to drive my wife crazy cause every time we made plan to go out with the side, there was always a mechanical issue.  The oil filter was made on fishing rods.   Funny enough, one day, I was travelling through Ukraine, I found a guy that was selling some K750 parts and brought them back to Norway with me.  But in spite of that, there was always some work to do on the engine.  

Luckily for me, my wife who was also into side, suggest the idea that we sell the K750 and buy another one instead.   And one day as I was shopping for a front fork for my vespa, I came about really nice Vespa GTR 125 side.  And there it was, I lost my K750 and my wife got her GTR 125.    

And that's how my daughter got to school in our small Southern French Coast Village.