Watsonian-Squire, the British sidecar manufacturer, unveiled a new outfit at Motorcycle Live with a very special feature – a low price of just £7,999. It’ll even be available for a limited offer at £7,499, a £500 saving. Watsonian sidecars normally cost £5-7,000, just for the chair, so this complete, ready-to-ride outfit looks like a bargain

Ben Matthews, Watsonian Squire’s Managing Director, said that the new budget sidecar drew on the company’s heritage. “Back in the 1980s Squire produced hundreds of sidecars for the importers of budget Jawa and MZ motorcycles. This created fantastic economics of scale and made sidecars an affordable option for thousands of riders. We still get enquiries from customers looking to buy a complete outfit ‘off the shelf’ and so we decided to create a modern equivalent.”

The SB1 outfit’s motorcycle is a Benelli Imperiale 400 (usually costing £3699 as a solo) and the company insists that its air-cooled 374cc single has enough grunt to power a sidecar as well. Money was also saved on the sidecar, which has a GRP wind deflector rather than a full windscreen. If owners fancy a solo ride, the sidecar can be removed/reattached to the bike using basic instructions.

Jim Freeman, chair of the BMF welcomed this affordable addition to the traditional sidecar market: “Watsonian know their market and that removable chair idea is wonderful, if they can make it really simple to do. I’ve helped people set up chairs and its often quite a faff working out all that toe-in and lead stuff, so if they can make it ‘plug and play’ without resorting to yards of string, planks of wood, or for the digital era, lasers, that’s terrific. I’m not familiar with the Benelli, but if an MZ 250 or Jawa 350 had enough mojo, I’m sure a modern engine should cope. Don’t expect any handling problems, you’d need at least an FJ12 for that!”

Written by Peter Henshaw

Top image courtesy of Watsonian Sidecars