THE story of when George met Linda goes back 50 years, it was a relationship that began as teenagers, and now as retirees, a clever modification to their motorbike’s sidecar means when they go out, they do so together.
The Fassifern Guardian met the Cunningham’s at their permanent caravan site within Boonah Showgrounds.
Parked outside their dwelling is a bright blue motorbike and attached to it, a large sidecar shaped like a boat.
“Linda and I have been riding sidecars on and off for near on 50 years,” George said.
“We’ve had mostly side cars, well...we’ve also had two trikes, but then put our focus back on to the sidecar.
“Since Linda’s mobility has decreased, her ability to get in and out of a sidecar has decreased.
“Sidecars are very much like putting a foot into a shoe, you’ve got to get over the edge and then you hold all your body weight as you put your legs down into the nose part.
“This is something Linda cannot do, so it needed to be designed so that the seat was high, and she didn’t need to lift a leg over anything to get in.”
Around eighteen years ago Linda was diagnosed with osteoarthritis.
“It’s in my body...my knees, feet, back and hands,” she explained.
George said the decision to go with a nautical theme was because it was the shape he needed to create.
“The shape had that boat shape to it, so I thought ‘well I’ll go with what we need’,” he explained.                                                                                                              “When sidecars first came into popular production in the early 1900s, the biggest firm in England was Swallow Sidecars.
“That later became Jaguar, so that’s how that brand first started.
“The common terminology for the body on a sidecar frame, is a boat.
“So, it’s got links back to the early histories of sidecars and it has the practicalities of what we need in order to go out together.”
The first sidecar they tried out on their current motorbike was shaped like a bullet and they called it the ‘F-bomb’, but it was too small.
“It was designed to give me balance on the sidecar, because I have a bad leg, and to take the dog out and carry some groceries,” he said.
“I did that for nearly 12 months and Linda said, ‘don’t consider me in the design, because I can’t get in and out’.
“Then I got sick of the idea of never been able to take Linda out, so I made a new body on the existing chassis.”
There is a lot to consider when creating a bespoke sidecar and most of it involves engineering.
“The chassis, suspension, the alignment between the sidecar and bike...everything is spot on,” he said.
“Cars need to have wheel alignment and the same thing needs to be done with a sidecar.
“There is a lot of science involved, the sidecar needs to be away from the bike to a certain degree.”
George got to work and nutted out the science to create a large boat shaped sidecar his beloved Linda could easily get in and out of.
Even the seat he chose was handpicked for comfort.
He said he wasn’t aware just how good a job he’d done with Linda’s seat until he had the opportunity to sit on it himself.
“I was waiting for Linda outside the hairdressers when I thought ‘why am I standing when I can sit on the sidecar’s seat,” he laughed.
“It was the first time I’d sat there and was blown away by just how comfortable it was.”
George is Linda’s fulltime carer.
“He has to help me get showered and dressed for the day but he is starting to feel the job getting harder for him because he’s getting arthritis in his hands,” Linda said.
“We try to help each other as much as we can.”
The couple moved to Boonah just over seven years ago.
They once owned a house but sold it when their daughter became ill, and they needed money for medical bills.
Trips about town also include their fur buddy, a small fox terrier cross named Fang who travels with them wearing a special pair of ‘doggles’.
“We’ve settled here now and put down roots,” George said.
“Boonah is where we want to be and since arriving, we haven’t looked back.”