DUAL PURPOSE?

You’ve probably heard of the Sidecar Guys, but what are they up to now? PeTeR heNShaW asked them

a homemade chair) for the big trip was deliberate, as the boys explained in their book ‘Our Ridiculous World Trip.’ In the midst of the Brexit debate and rising panic over cross-Channel migrants, they wanted to show that the rest of the world was more welcoming than it sometimes seemed.

“We thought if we could show people at home that everyday people from different places are generally good, then maybe we could remind everyone that the world isn’t that scary after all and we would pour just a tiny bit of cold water over this burning pandemic of fear-driven politics....We decided the optimum vehicle would be a scooter and sidecar. It would be unsuited, impractical and would break a lot, which would render us in need of help.”

Motorcycling, especially overland motorcycling, isn’t big on double acts, unless you count Ewan and Charley, plus the handful of couples who have done big trips. I suppose it’s because riding a bike the length of Africa or round the world is the stuff of individualists. Well that certainly doesn’t apply to Matt Bishop and Reece Gilkes, who come across as motorcycling’s Morecambe & Wise. They’ve clearly known each other for years, are best mates and even occasionally finish each other’s sentences.

Matt and Reece are of course the Sidecar Guys, best known for riding around the world on a scooter sidecar outfit in 2018/19, the first people mad enough to attempt such a thing. But if you insist on taking a sidecar outfit, why not choose a tough as old boots Ural, or a knobbly-tyred BMW GS or KTM? It turns out that choosing one of the most unsuitable vehicles (300cc Honda plus

The plan worked, because both Honda and sidecar broke often, and its occupants were duly assisted by ordinary people all over the world. “It ended up as an excellent way of meeting people,” they told me from their new base in Northumberland.

“We really learned about how similar most people are under the surface. In the States we stayed with some folk who were very pro-logging, or in Russia there were people with very different views on geo-politics from us! A Russian soldier, in full uniform, bought us a steak dinner – we swapped T-shirts! It’s exposure to what’s around you, the media in each country, which really shapes who you are as a person, but underneath it all we’re the same.”

The big trip was also run to raise awareness and funds for Modern Slavery, a charity which highlights the fact that slave labour is still very much part of the modern world. £1 from each copy of ‘Our Ridiculous World Trip’ goes to the charity. More recently, Reece and Matt have raised money for Mental Health Motorbike, Black Dog Outdoors and Shelter Box.

Let’s Start a Festival

So what happened when they got home, after the initial buzz of excitement and the book launch was over? A lot of overland travellers struggle with getting back into day to day life after a big trip, but the sidecar guys don’t seem to have suffered from that – Reece resumed his job in a travel agency while Matt went back to fundraising.

And, apart from the odd shorter adventure, that might have been it, but then Covid and lockdown happened. “We were both furloughed,” says Matt, “and because no one could go anywhere we had the idea of running a virtual travellers festival online –hence the name, Armchair Adventure Festival. Initially, it was just intended to be a few mates getting together, but a techy friend offered to put it up on Youtube so that anyone could take part. Doing that meant we could bring in some big names like Ted Simon and Charley Boorman. Reece and I were actually bricking it on the night, never having produced something like this before, but in the event it worked really well and we had 20,000 live viewers over a weekend.”

So well did the Armchair festival go that Reece and Matt decided to quit their day jobs and run two more virtual festivals before turning it into a real-life event in 2021, based at Mount Edgecumbe near Plymouth. It’s since become an annual fixture.

One thing that marks the festival apart from other more bikefocused events is that it’s always been open to all modes of travel, though bikers still make up the lion’s share of attendees. “From the start, we had hikers, cyclists and kayakers, which is fun, and it works because many adventure bikers are interested in many of those other things too. We wanted it to have its own identity, as there are several bike-only festivals, and the ‘armchair’ tag came from its virtual beginnings, so it’s stuck. We’ve talked about changing the name but it has its own community now and we quite like the vibe that the ‘armchair’ name gives it.”

The Ural Connection

Naturally, Reece and Matt always bring the now famous scooter sidecar outfit to the festivals, because it’s become their calling card, and they’re universally known as ‘the Sidecar Guys.’ That was all very well, but they wanted to extend their three-wheel experience and on a whim messaged Ural Europe, who quickly invited them to a sidecar experience weekend in Portugal.

It turned into a business opportunity, and according to Matt, “they slowly persuaded us that we needed to become the new UK importers!” Ural production, incidentally, moved out of Russia last year, thanks to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the international sanctions that came as a result (see box).

The company has been American-owned for years, so the prospective UK team went out to Seattle to meet the bosses. They found that Ural, although it’s very well known and gives an impression of being a major force, is actually a very small company, building only around 1200 bikes a year. “The dealers are the same, often small, which suited us fine and of course the name is very much associated with adventure travel, which ticked another box.”

They’re not kidding about the Ural adventures. Visit the official website and you find plenty of stories about people doing big trips on the flat-twin outfits. Most memorable has to be the group of six ex-art students who rode five Ural outfits right across Russia and left them in Siberia to pick up the trip (with another batch of old Urals) in Alaska. They made it to New York and the film of their trip, 972 Breakdowns, is a gripping 90-minute watch – catch it if you ever get the chance. As for the Sidecar Guys’ new business venture, they are now Ural UK’s sole dealer, with a shop in London and a ‘Sidecar Experience’ centre in Northumberland.

Back Road Trip

That trip to Seattle to seal the Ural deal had to involve a road trip, though they only had a window of ten days, what with having a new business to look after and Matt being a family man these days. “We really wanted to do some proper off-roading because to be honest, the Honda sidecar outfit was rubbish at that.” So they borrowed an outfit and spent ten days exploring America’s Back Country Discovery Routes.

Better known as BDRs, these are a network of back lanes, dirt tracks and fire roads which stretch across 15 States. “It was great, because it took us to the most remote places we’ve ever camped, even including the big trip – the USA is a big country, still with miles of wilderness.” Washington, Idaho and California have BDRs as do Nevada, Utah and Colorado amongst others, some with a complete route across each one. “In places you can choose between beginner and more advanced sections,” add the boys, “some of which is really hard.” From Seattle, they rode to Wallace, an old mining town, to join the BDR, zigzagging through the Idaho mountains, to Nevada, Death Valley and eventually Los Angeles, covering 2200 miles in ten days. “It was about 50/50 off-road and tarmac – we couldn’t do some of the tracks as they’d been washed out after flooding. But we were impressed with the Ural. To be honest we were scared of breaking it, after our experience with the scooter outfit, but of course it was fine. The most impressive thing was that it held together in Death Valley, while riding through sand in about 40 degrees – that’s not bad for an air-cooled engine.”

The trip also taught them a lot about riding a full-size outfit, especially on the rough stuff, and their advice boils down to working with the bike rather than fighting it. “Riding an outfit off road is really hard if you try and do the opposite of what the bike wants to do – accelerating while trying to turn right for example. But if you work with the bike and help it – off the throttle on right handers, a bit more on left handers – then it’s fine. On washboard gravelly tracks, it’s like a solo in that the faster you go the more comfortable it is. On the really rutted tracks, it’s a bit more like a four-wheeler in that you have to pick your line to suit the ruts. But it’s fun to work as a team because the passenger really has to put their weight in the right place, so you’re not just sitting there waiting for your turn to ride the bike.”

As on the big trip, they shared rider and passenger duties, doing about an hour each, though sometimes more often as riding the rougher BDR sections could be hard on the arms. It’s obvious that Matt and Reece still love riding, hence their Sidecar Experience, which started up last Spring and is about to restart for 2023 as you read this. Interestingly, most of the people who come to try the Experience are sidecar novices, but like the look of the Ural and want to give it a go. “And they do have to try it,” says Reece, “because riding an outfit is so different to a solo. They are easy to crash if you treat them like a normal bike, and we always encourage novices to do the full twoday course because really you need that long to get it.”

The Future?

As for the future, with the Armchair Adventure Festival, a business to run and family responsibilities, it looks like another big trip isn’t on the cards for now. “Mind you,” adds Reece, “the Ural side consists of just Matt and I, so we can do other things as well. So if anyone is reading this and would like to pay us to do a really cool trip, then just get in touch! We didn’t mean to turn this into a career, but that’s what it’s become.” And whatever they do, it looks certainly that overlanding’s best-known double act will do it together.

www.armchairadventurefestival.com www.sidecarexperience.co.uk thesidecarguys.com

The Russia Angle

Ural is the quintessential Russian bike – what effect has Putin’s invasion of Ukraine had on the Sidecar Guys’ business? Here’s what they said:

“We agreed to take on the Ural project around September 2021, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine did make us stop and think. Our first reaction was just sadness for all the normal people wrapped up in it. We were of course worried for everyone in Ukraine but also gutted for the friends in Russia we had met on the scooter trip. We had been helped so much by the Russian people and knew that the everyday person would not be in favour of what Putin is doing – ‘stop the war’ posts from Russian friends confirmed that.

“Ural released a big 'Stop the War' social media campaign, so we felt that we could stick with them. Ural then moved production out of Russia to Kazakhstan and we now supply Russian heritage motorcycles, produced in Kazakhstan by a company based in the USA. We're happy with that, as it's not supporting Putin and we're still happy to sell stuff with Russian heritage as Russian people are just awesome...but their politicians are the absolute worst.” https://www.ural-uk.com/

These days, Ural uses a lot of imported parts such Brembo brakes and Keihin fuel injection...which it couldn’t get hold of when Western sanctions started to bite after the invasion. So in July last year, it moved production over the border into Kazakhstan, where it’s been ever since. Ironic that Putin’s bombastic nationalism has led to the country’s motorcycle icon leaving Russia..

Movie Night

Blue Monday Film Night sounds a bit suspect, but it was an online event hosted on Monday 16th January (supposedly the most depressing day of the year) by Reece and Matt, the highlight of which was the amazing film ‘972 Breakdowns’ Although free to view, the evening raised £1740 for two mental health charities – Mental Health Motorbike and Blackdog Outdoors. Said the boys: “We’re so happy that your donations will go towards these great causes and their work this year.”