sidewinders..still a learner legal loophole?

Talking to a freind of mine last night who is a learner on a 125.I told him that as a 17yr old{ahem many moons ago}that i past my test on a 400 with a sidewinder fitted to it.
for anyone who does,nt know of these...a sidewinder is a small plastic base around 2ft square that bolts onto the left hand side of the bike with a wheel about 1ft in height.Having 1 of these then enabled a learner rider of 17+yrs to ride any cc of bike whilst still having around 90% of lean angle.The main thing 2 remember was to allow for it when overtaking or parking up,also if you hit a divet in the road it would flick up and bounce at the side of the
bike{not really affecting control as its on a hinge to allow leaning angles}.So while all my mates were pottering about i was hitting the dizzy heights of 3 figures.
Now i think i may have created a monster,as he wants 2 know if the law still allows this?
Personnally i think that with todays high powered machines that the law has probably changed ie,17/21=33bhp

does anybody have information on this?

Ahhh yes, I remember them well, PB ran a story of a learner on a tuned GSXR1100 !!!!!


I am pretty sure they were excluded from the sidecar law - probably the best thing IMHO. Funny but downright dangerous.

i had an old Z1000 when i was 17 and that had a sidewinder on it i ripped it off on a parked car they was dangerous

What an idea! I'd love sidewinders on my bike

now that would be for getting cage drivers out of the way..

They were a clever way to get around the draconian 125cc law.
G2D, I suppost you could fit your sidewinder on the sidewinder.

Do they actually add stability/help stop people crashing, or was it just so it counts as a trike/sidecar?

ahhh...that picture brings back some memories,happy days.

Originally Posted by Ceri JC

Do they actually add stability/help stop people crashing, or was it just so it counts as a trike/sidecar?

They were fitted using a hinge mechanism thay kept the free wheel parallel with the bike, it was very light, so could bounce about. I never rode with one, but there were lots about at the time. Just got you round the law I think.

Originally Posted by Ceri JC

Do they actually add stability/help stop people crashing, or was it just so it counts as a trike/sidecar?

just so it counts as a trike/sidecar like you say it added no stability at all
it only came about cos of a loophole in the law