Surrey Sidecars and the Syvan

 One of the things I enjoy most about writing this blog is when someone gets in touch with stories about their own machinery or bikes they have known.

One such gentleman dropped me a line after seeing the scanned Surrey Sidecars brochure I posted back at the beginning of summer. He is the grandson of Edward Ford (the chap behind Surrey Sidecars), of whom it is rather nice to hear is 94 years young and still with us. Edward still has some material relating to his Surrey Sidecar days and, no doubt, some interesting stories to tell.

Richard, grandson of Edward, has kindly forwarded several images of Surrey Sidecars to share. There were several rather nicely styled chairs in the Surrey range and a number of the models had some unusual / innovative features. One such was the Syvan sidecar caravan / tent of which there are a couple of images reproduced on this page.

And now, a plea. Are there are Surrey Sidecar owners out there who could get in touch? Richard would very much like to see one of his grandfather's creations in the flesh. If you are the proud owner of a Surrey Sidecar please drop an email to this blog or comment below and I'll put you in contact.

The Surrey Sidecars Syvan. Basic, but that's
how holidays were for most folks back in the
immediate post war era.

At a time when the sidecar was family transport for many and
mini caravans were on the market for towing behind your outfit
the Surrey Sidecars Syvan would have seemed like a very
suitable alternative. Even recently I've seen folks at bike rallies
using old child adult sidecars as sleeping quarters that are a step
up from a tent.