Comments on: Motorcycle Radio Transmitters Aid Police in War on Crime

By: fornetti

fornetti — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:11:20 +0000

I do not believe this

By: mrchurchill109

mrchurchill109 — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:24:26 +0000

All agreed to - the license plate mount on the front does point to a European origin rather than North American - don’t believe we ever bothered to do that curved plate thing.

Alan

By: Blurgle

Blurgle — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 21:27:30 +0000

You’re right in that British sidecars are always on the left of the motorcycle. In addition, the controls on that radio are positioned for a right-handed user, which makes it unlikely that the image has been flipped.

“Running gun battles” were very much a North American experience at the time, and bootlegging was a serious problem on both sides of the US-Canada border. Sidecars were also much more commonly used by police in Canada than in the US or Britain at the time. I’m guessing this was actually something done up by the OPP or some other police force.

This could be yet another instance where some editor thought Canada wasn’t “interesting” or “developed” enough and edited the story to change the setting to the US or the UK.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:51:15 +0000

There are a few things that don’t add up here.
‘Running gun battles with bandits’ is something that is very likely unheard of in Britain.

That outfit is a LHD. i.e. used for driving on the right side of the road (unless the image/negative has been reversed).

The fact that the sidecar wheel is in-line with the bike rear wheel points to it being a two-wheel drive outfit. More common in Germany or Eastern Bloc countries and not, as far as I’m aware, a design built in Britain (and at that time importing a foreign motorcycle into Britain would be sacrilege).

I’m open to corrections of course