Welcome to Thoughts from the Road. Austin and Ellie bought a sidecar, drove it around town for 20 miles and then set off to ride the world. Over 2 years, 48 countries and 30,000 miles later, here’s their story…
Thoughts From the Road is a corner on Mad or Nomad for motorcycle travellers to share short stories from their experiences travelling the world. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments and join the discussion.
By Austin and Ellie
RTW sidecar travellers aka sidebysidecar
Austin and Ellie met back in 2018 playing basketball in Denver Colorado. Eight months after getting married, they bought a Ural sidecar, drove 20 miles around town, and decided to take off around the world.
2+ years and many breakdowns later, they made it across the USA, Europe, North Africa, Asia and just arrived in Darwin Australia.
As they travel, Austin and Ellie are on the hunt for the next place they may call home after their journey is finished.
Instagram: @sidebysidecar
Round the World in a Sidecar
My wife Ellie and I (Austin) quit our jobs, sold our belongings, and took off on our motorcycle with a stencilled plan to drive around the world. And if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance it’s a familiar story… The beauty of travel is that every trip for each person is perfectly unique with its own style, encounters and obstacles along the way. Our unique journey began when we left Colorado, USA over two years ago as newlyweds – sitting side by side.
Why we chose the sidecar
The most common question we get asked while traveling is: “why a sidecar?” Our casual reply is usually along the lines of “it sounded like a fun idea at the time.” But in reality, it was a much bigger decision. When we first started planning our trip, we weren’t even sure if we’d travel by motorcycle…
Neither of us are motorcycle fanatics and riding two-up didn’t sound appealing. So, we talked about backpacking, hitchhiking, or even getting a camper van. Then one day, I saw a picture of a Ural sidecar for the first time and sent it to Ellie (mostly as a joke). Ellie instantly fell in love with the idea and there was no looking back… we were going to ride around the world on three wheels.
What we love about it
There’s a lot to love about a sidecar. It handles quite differently to a regular motorcycle. Turning is all in the arms, braking requires using both the front and rear brakes otherwise the bike tugs to one side or the other, and you can take left turns fast but must go slow on right turns unless you intend to “fly the sidecar” as they call it.
As the driver, I feel like I’m learning how to ride all over again, and am enjoying the challenge of trying to master a new skill. Of the few sidecar options out there, the main reason we chose our Ural was for its two-wheel drive capability. Whether it’s steep mountain passes in Turkey, muddy roads in Indonesia or desert sand in Turkmenistan, the 2wd (plus a passenger with a shovel) has taken us to places we would never have been able to reach riding two-up.
What weather?
It’s not only great for off-road riding. One of the biggest advantages is how well the sidecar handles in adverse weather. Rain, wind or snow, the third wheel gives additional stability to ride safely in most environments. To prepare for cold weather riding, we put seat and back heaters in the sidecar, which have come in handy when riding in negative temperatures in Norway and through snow in the Atlas mountains.
For the passenger, it doesn’t get more comfortable than riding in the hack. Not only can you extend your legs all the way, but being able to have an unobstructed view in almost every direction has been one of Ellie’s favourite parts of riding in the tub. Our ride also feels more like a team effort as Ellie helps navigate, counter leans when we are taking fast turns… and makes funny faces when we almost hit something!
Packing light
Spending 2+ years on the road started with a lot of tricky decisions on what to pack. Fortunately, we have quite a bit more space than a regular motorcycle between our 90L locking trunk, gear racks behind the driver, on the sidecar nose and spare wheel. While we try to keep to minimalist principles, it has been wonderful to have some luxury items like compact camping chairs, plenty of books and a large tool roll.
Difficulties
Speaking of tools, we have certainly needed the extras we carry. We quickly learned why you don’t see sidecars traveling around the world very often. While the sidecar makes for a lot of fun, there’s something about the physics and design (far beyond my understanding) that has taught us to plan ample buffer days on the road.
It’s hard to attribute the breakdowns to simply having a sidecar, the rough terrain or Ural’s WWII Soviet Union engineering, but I suspect it’s a bit of all three. The electronics can be wonky, bearings fail, bolts snap, fenders crack, universal joints fall apart, and we even managed to snap the frame in the Pamir mountains.
To the bike’s credit, we have fortunately avoided any serious breakdowns and can usually fix it ourselves with the help of YouTube or a local mechanic.
But few mechanics out there have seen a modern sidecar, and while they always manage to get us up and running, there seems to be quite a bit of guess work, which occasionally leaves us with more issues down the road.
The trickiest problem of them all has been finding parts. Sidecars are either custom built or if they are manufactured, like our Ural, the dealer’s global footprint is limited. Even with a trunk full of spares, we have to plan ahead for tyres as they are somewhere between a car and motorcycle tyre and difficult to source.
Need for speed
Having only ridden 20 miles on the sidecar before starting our trip, our biggest surprise has been the speed – or lack thereof. There are lots of factors slowing us down: overall weight (330 kg dry, 600+ kg fully loaded with us), drag from the third wheel and we are as aerodynamic as a box truck with our windshields.
Our cruising speed is around 80 kph and while we prefer the back roads, there have been plenty of long days in the 48C Uzbekistan desert or pouring rain on a Chinese highway where we wish we had more speed.
The long days are made even longer with the physical exhaustion that comes with riding a sidecar. There’s no leaning involved so when a biker sees a beautiful curvy mountain road, all I see is an incoming shoulder and back workout.
The bright side
For a traveller though, breakdowns become a chance to meet locals, mechanic shops become a place of international teamwork through charades, waiting on parts creates an unplanned opportunity to see daily life in a small town, slow means more backroads and physical exertion is a free gym membership.
What do you think?
Our favourite interactions came when driving through the ex-Soviet countries of central Asia. Ural sidecars were many working-class families’ main transportation back in 1960s USSR, but given their increased cost today, the modern bikes are exported and rare to come across.
For many of the older adults, seeing our bike brought back fond memories of riding around in the sidecar as a young kid. Locals would show us black and white photographs of the Ural that their parents or grandparents owned and would thoroughly inspect our bike, pointing out the modern improvements like fuel injection, seat heaters and 2-wheel drive. Occasionally we would return from lunch to see an old Kazakh man sitting in the sidecar, presumably reliving some childhood memories.
Little did we know that the intrigue of the sidecar would create opportunities for us to interact with locals all over the world. Whether pulling up to a city centre or refilling gas, it doesn’t take long for someone to strike up a conversation about the sidecar.
Vehicle enthusiasts love the style, grandparents love the accessibility, kids love the uniqueness and adventurers love the places it can take us. Everyone wants to go for a spin in the sidecar!
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Share your thoughts in the comments below…
Lovely article. That’s amazingly brave that you tested one and then just went for it. My hat comes off to you both!
Always wanted a Ural there’s something about them and this is very inspring guys
What a great way to travel. I used to have a gold wing with sidecar, hubby on the back, special needs child in the car. Was a fun way to travel but eventually the strain on increasingly arthritic hands became too much. Now I go piliion on our travels but I can understand the fun and at times hard work your trip would be
Just brilliant. What a fantastic read. Well done to the pairs of you.
I have a Royal Enfield interceptor/Velorex chair to carry my Pug and Chug, I will be following your trip, good luck and stay safe.