I remember watching Motorcycle Sidecar racing on TV from when I was a little kid. I thought how crazy and exciting it was seeing someone hang off of the bike going full speed. And I mean hang off of the bike. Like feet off of the bike.

The AHRMA Vintage Motorcycle Festival at NJMP had these old bikes and I had to go see it in person.

The American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA) is dedicated to restoring and competing on classic motorcycles.

I can’t profess to know a whole lot about bikes, but I absolutely love these sidecar bikes.

One of the riders explained to me some of the features on these sidecar bikes.

The sidecar is hard fixed to the bike. So the bike cannot lean and taking turns is aided by the second person on the bike called the “Monkey”.

Their main purpose of the Monkey is to lean into the turns and shift the weight so the bike will not tip over.

There is a variety of places on the sidecar to find places to hang onto. Hand grab rails, slots & rails to slide your feet into.

Some have fairings to stay aerodynamic while others are wide open.

One of the items I thought was interesting was the kill switch for the Monkey, incase the rider fell off of the bike and not the Monkey.

I was able to watch as someone learned to be a Monkey. With a few pointers from a seasoned female veteran Monkey.

In these next two images you can see the Monkeys working the bike.

Both leaning off of the bike for weight, but notice the difference due to the bikes sidecar being on different sides of the bike.

Another rider told me some bikes are set up to run more left or right turns according to how the tracks are laid out.

There is such a great diversity of age of bikes at a AHMRA event.

And the diversity of people is wide as well. Older, young, male & female.

Its good to see a wide spectrum of people involved.

Including this gentlemen who was ripping around the course.

You can find out more about the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association via this link.

https://www.ahrma.org