🤷♂️ Sidecar Or Not? 🛵 Brainstorming Future Family Transport For The USA 👨👩👧👧
While brainstorming family transport ideas for our potential arrival in the USA, I remembered there are sidecars available for my classic Vespa.
I Miss My Vespa 🛵
I should first mention I am not a car person and neither is my Cambodian family. In the past we've owned bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, and even our own tuk-tuk in Cambodia. We might find ourselves in the USA before 2022, so I've been brainstorming family transportation solutions that don't involve owning a car, something we can't afford to maintain or purchase.
The only thing I have for transport back in the USA is my Vespa PX200, so I've been thinking it might be time for a sidecar, allowing me to legally transport 3 out of 4 family members. With this sidecar for the Vespa, I'd only have to arrange a small bike for @sreypov to ride by herself.
The only example I have of a Vespa and sidecar combo is the above photo, taken in 2009 when I attended a scooter rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. Okay, this isn't exactly a beautiful rig but it still demonstrates the scale, allowing your imagination to brew.
Enter The Cozy Sidecar 🧸
image source
It's not impossible to find a sidecar for vintage Vespas in the USA, but it will require a 2,000+ km road trip to grab one in Texas from the American Scooter Center, where they retail for $2,095 USD. This may be the first tangible thing we'll purchase with converted crypto earnings, and Hive was the springboard for it all.
An AutoRickshaw Would Be Better 🛺
We would much rather have a Bajaj RE like we had in Cambodia, or a Piaggio Ape, but the United States has really strict laws making importing and licensing one of these nearly impossible.
It may be possible in the distant future because I've been communicating with a Piaggio dealer in northern Mexico who can export them to the USA without an engine, where they are often used in shopping malls and movie sets as decorative props.
After receiving the Ape in the USA, I could then arrange a second shipment for the diesel engine. The Ape would have to be registered, but I think I have a workaround for that if I can strip the logos and serial numbers and request a new VIN number for a "custom homebuilt" bike.
With some receipts for custom modifications and materials, this is theoretically possible to achieve, but a sidecar and another bike for Pov will be be the easiest and cheapest solution.
What Will @Sreypov Ride? 🛵
The above scooter is a modern 50cc twist-n-go that I bought in Cambodia for @Sreypov before being separated for 6 months due to visa complications. She got quite comfortable and confident on this little thing, and she's even driven a Honda Dream a few times, which has an auto-clutch and 4 gears.
Even though she's capable of riding a 125cc Cambodian style underbone motorcycle, in the USA she'd have to first pass a written test for how to drive a car, then pass a physical driving test with a car, and then she would receive her driver's license. Only with a driver's license in the USA can you attempt to obtain a motorcycle license, which also requires a written test and physical riding test to ride anything bigger than 50cc.
Maybe A Honda C100 🏍️
The Honda C100 is one of the few 50cc underbones available in the USA, and they occasionally come up for sale like the above bike, which is listed on Facebook Marketplace for $1,500 USD. The 70cc and 90cc versions of this bike are much more common and cheaper, but are technically motorcycles by law, so there would be too much bureaucracy for Pov to conquer.
source
With a VIN number on the frame for a 50cc bike, we could do an engine swap from a 70 or 90 donor bike (hush, secret), then she could keep up with small town traffic and occasional short highway trips. Life is boring in Suriname, so I try to stay distracted with dreams for the future such as this.
What do you (ASEAN) Hivers think? Can you envision Pov on this beautiful 1965 Honda C100?
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Tuk Tuk in the state please. I'd love to see you put up a US flag vinyl wrap on that Tuk Tuk 😂
Hahaha.....that would be a stylin' vinyl wrap.
Bajaj briefly exported them to the USA for a couple years about 10 years ago, but they didn't sell well and the importation stopped. Now these legal USA Bajaj's can demand a $10,000 price tag, too much for me. The only other option is to import a broken down antique tuk-tuk from Italy and weld it's serial numbers to the Mexican Piaggio. Anything older than 25 years is easy to register, and also anything homebuilt. I also think if I removed enough parts from this thing and made it look a little homemade, the they would allow me to register it as a custom bike.
Time will tell...
Looking forward to that homemade tuk tuk!
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Side car looks convenient for passenger or pet?
Both, but the only dog that can replace a human is a golden retriever with goggles. We will be the talk of the town with a sidecar, which hasn't been cool since the 50s.
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Oh I really miss ride my motorcycle, I can’t wait for do it.
I am looking on FB Marketplace every day for a Honda Dream C100 for you. I think it is silly you have to learn how to drive a car and get an auto license before you can drive a 50cc+ moto in the USA. In Cambodia people must learn to drive a small moto before taking on a large responsibility like a car. That's why I love Cambodia, everything is the opposite of where I'm from, and fortunately most of it makes perfect sense why.
Sidecar for sure! I'm surprised they are not more common, on all motorbikes and scooters in general. And they are all strictly for one passenger only? It seems like they should be big enough for two. You got a lovely looking Vespa, by the way! It's fun to imagine the whole family together on it for an outing. Otherwise (and I'm sure the girls will appreciate this idea too), I'd say let each one have their own ride, whether motorized or pedal-powered. That way the same outing can be just as fun, as you'd be riding together, yet autonomously. :-)
I don't the exact law(s) on sidecars in the USA because every state is different. I have seen two-passenger sidecars in the USA for sale, so I wonder if the limit is on total number of passengers per three wheels or the way passengers are secured on the bike? I don't really know, but as long as I can find Pov something beautiful and classic within the 50cc range, we can mod it out and make it go way faster than it's supposed to.
Shame we can't ride 4-up one bike like we used to in Cambo-land, that is a good time and it keeps us on a diet.
In many Asia country auto rickshaws 🛺 are very common. For a family of 4 I think this would be the most compatible and can carry a lot of things . But I have never seen one in North America.
They are very rare in North America, and most of what exists are 50cc versions of the 400cc Indian and Italian originals. This 50cc thing helps to evade a lot of complicated import and safety laws, but it makes long distance travel impossible. Apparently the Mexican dealer sells lots of 50cc box truck versions to California where they are used as coffee and wine displays.
A Piaggio Ape Xtra Diesel is still our dream car, and we hope we can make it happen. This variety is bigger than the one we used to have, and the back has a much larger space for cargo or passengers. The USA would be really exciting in a ride like this.
I’m not good with the vehicles in general but the one in he pictures looks actually very nice. My 3 year old just came by now and saw the picture she said “bumblebee!!!” 😂I guess in her eyes this is the transformer car in the movie lol
it's a very cool old car.
in our area now such a car is being targeted by collectors, they want to make it as decoration in the museum.
Great.
There is still a bit of a Vespa culture in Indonesia.
Yeah.
Oh cool! You have your own tuk tuk back in Cambodia :D When you and your family happens to visit PH, try riding a tricycle. It's the tuk tuk equivalent here.
Good luck on getting the sidecar!
I have seen the Philippines style before, and I've always been curious why Bajaj and Piaggio tuk-tuks have never become popular there. It seems the enclosed sidecar is the most popular moto taxi. Similar to this right?
Yes, it looks similar to that. Not sure why we have this design instead of something like tuk-tuk but it looks like our tricycle here have more room for passengers. Lol. Overloading is already illegal especially on cities but they still do this on some areas.