Bad Puppy, Get Back Here
The motorcycle sidecar has a rich history, dating back to 1893 in France. A newspaper competition wanted to discover the best way to transport passengers on a bike. A French army officer won the contest with an unexpected idea, putting the passenger on the side of the bike.
Harley-Davidson began to fit frames with Sidecar mounting lugs in the early 1900s, and in 1914 the first sidecar was made available in catalogs.
Harley-Davidson motorcycles were first used in the U.S. Army when they ordered twelve motorcycles with machine gun-mounted sidecars for 1916 Mexican Excursion.
Throughout World War I, 20,000 motorcycles were produced by Harley-Davidson to support the war effort. Medical units used them to save the wounded on stretcher-equipped sidecars, running ammunition, and vital information to the front lines.
The sidecar remained popular in commercial use throughout the 1920- to 1950s. For example, AAA famously used sidecars to rescue motorists stranded by their overly optimistic views on fuel range. Their commercial usages were as vast as delivering candy, milk, eggs, and other groceries, all the way up to lumber and delivering the mail.
I have been an avid motorcycle rider since a very early age. In 2020, I installed a sidecar on one of my motorcycles and planned a trip with my wife Michelle across the country. Unfortunately, the pandemic delayed the trip. Bad Puppy was painted as a way to reflect the rich history of motorcycle sidecars and, more importantly, inspired the love of ice cream by animals and people alike. Bad Puppy seeing the ice “scream” vendor broke free and flew to get his ice cream treat while the owner was yelling for the puppy to return.