History of our Goulding Sidecar






The dry environment resulted in preserving the sidecar in its current form
Our Goulding sidecar started life in or around 1924 and was made in Melbourne Victoria Australia.

It appears that this sidecar served its previous owner well, as it was removed intact and was placed  under a gum tree on a friends farm for the next 30 -40 years.
It was obtained by a friend in the early 80's and stored until it was offered for sale.

 I was searching for a period correct sidecar  when this one presented itself and was a good match.

The Golding sidecars made in Australia all carry a stamped serial number and are readily identifiable because of the different foot plates they used.
There were many different styles of foot plates cast and like most manufacturers they were able to offer the buyers name cast into the foot plate if they bought over x qty.

Rhodes Motor Cycle Foot plate

The one that is fitted to our invincible was made specifically for Rhodes Motors, who were the local indian and harley dealer in Melbourne and had a business address less than 300 meters from the Invincible factory.

Given that the Turner Brothers, who were the  builders of the Invincible Jap, were not into building sidecar's it would be feasable that they would have approched the largest retail outlet to close another sale.

The wheel and fender were long gone, and these were obtained from swap meets and pal's as were the mounting brackets.
Goulding sidecar wheels had a distinct G hubcap and these are interesting, and hard to obtain in servicable condition.
This is partially due to the Hubcap collectors, and also due to the fact that most have had chisel's to undo them on the side of the road.
We are running an original Goulding Sidecar wheel, laced up to a more modern 19" WM 3 Rim.
The sidecar wheel still has the original curved wheel bearings fitted when new.

We have spoken about changing these to elimiate another possible weak point, however have decided to run these and carry some spares.

We are searching for information on how to adjust these curved hour glass bearings and would welcome any comments that are factual.

The sidecar fender is also a goulding, and these varied depending on the style of body fitted.
The later coach work bodies seemed to have the fender supported on the body of the sidecar, and as such it was totally independant of the chassis.

We decided to fit the fender to the chassis, and thus elimiate anothe possible weak point.
The photo shows oppisite shows the outline of the fender and wheel radius.







At the current time we are unsure what design body we will fit to the Goulding, but it will be a period reproduction wicker (Cane) body and our current thoughts are leading towards a cigar shapped bullet style, with room for wet weather gear in the trunk.

Cheers

Chris

3 comments:

  1. Hi Chris...
    I am Ron Rae, Jimmy Goulding's grandson and author of The Goulding Album. Always glad to find a "cousin" from Down Under or "OZ" as the current fashion has it. Mark Neberman just sent me the Australian advertising items he got from your web site. I had never seen most of it. I worked at the Goulding Factory in Saginaw Michigan off and on as a teenager. If you have read my book, you know how close I was to my Grandfather.
    Best Regards,
    Ron Rae

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  2. Hi Ron.

    Mark is forwarding me a copy of your book as i have not seen this to date.
    The Goulding sidecars are not uncommon in Australia as they were a fairly simple but advanced design, and are usually LH units.

    I will review your book on the Blog once received.

    Keep an eye on our Blog, as things are progressing.

    Hope to catch up with you somewere allong the route in the Usa.

    Rgds

    Chris

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  3. Chris
    It was great to see you again riding the Cannonball in Milwaukee.
    It was also wonderful to meet Christina.
    Thanks for the little Koala Bear and the post card signed.
    I will try to post the picture I took of you and "rig" with Nancy and Willie G.
    Good luck with the race and God bless all your fun with Christina and all the other racers. Sorry I missed you in Anamosa. I did see the "Rig" again though.
    Your Illinois friend Phill

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