A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, producing a three-wheeled vehicle. A motorcycle with a sidecar is sometimes called a combination, an outfit, a rig or a hack.
Mr M Bertoux, a French army officer, secured a prize offered by a French newspaper in 1893 for the best method of carrying a passenger on a bicycle. The sidecar wheel was mounted on the same lateral plane as the bicycle's rear and was supported by a triangulation of tubes from the bicycle. A sprung seat with back rest was mounted above the cross-member and a footboard hung below. A sidecar appeared in a cartoon by George Moore in the January 7, 1903, issue of the British newspaper Motor Cycling. Three weeks later, a provisional patent was granted to Mr. W. J. Graham of Graham Brothers, Enfield, Middlesex. He partnered with Jonathan A. Kahn to begin production.
One of Britain's oldest sidecar manufacturers, Watsonian, was founded in 1912. It is still trading as Watsonian Squire. Automobile producer Jaguar Cars was founded in 1922 as a sidecar manufacturer, the Swallow Sidecar Company.
The sidecar is a cocktail traditionally made with cognac, orange liqueur (Cointreau, Grand Marnier, Grand Gala or another triple sec), and lemon juice. In its ingredients, the drink is perhaps most closely related to the older brandy crusta, which differs both in presentation and in proportions of its components.
The exact origin of the sidecar is unclear, but it is thought to have been invented around the end of World War I in either London or Paris. The drink was directly named for the motorcycle attachment.
The Ritz Hotel in Paris claims origin of the drink. The first recipes for the Sidecar appear in 1922, in Harry MacElhone's Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails and Robert Vermeire's Cocktails and How to Mix Them. It is one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948).
In early editions of MacElhone's book, he cites the inventor as Pat MacGarry, "the popular bartender at Buck's Club, London", but in later editions he cites himself. Vermiere states that the drink was "very popular in France. It was first introduced in London by MacGarry, the celebrated bartender of Buck's Club." Embury credits the invention of the drink to an American army captain in Paris during World War I and named after the motorcycle sidecar that the captain used.
Sidecar was a US company that provided ride-sharing services and business-to-business delivery services. It was founded in 2011 in San Francisco and closed on December 31, 2015.
Sidecar was founded in September 2011 by Sunil Paul, CEO, Jahan Khanna, CTO, and Adrian Fortino. The company expanded its operations into Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Austin. At the South By Southwest festival in 2013, Sidecar made all rides during the conference free. In 2013 the company started operating in Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Charlotte, Chicago, San Diego, Long Beach and Oakland.
Sidecar was backed by a number of wealthy investors including Union Square Ventures, Avalon Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Google Ventures, and Sir Richard Branson.The company raised US$10 million in Series-A funding from Google Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners in a 2012.
In the fall of 2012, the California Public Utilities Commission issued a cease and desist letter to Sidecar (along with rideshare companies Lyft and Uber) and fined each $20,000. However, in 2013 an interim agreement was reached reversing those actions. In September 2013, the CPUC unanimously voted to make the agreement permanent, creating a new category of service called "Transportation Network Companies" to cover Lyft, UberX, and Sidecar, and making California the first state to recognize such services.
Wake up, wake up, wake up, I want to take you
To all the places I thought we could
I was feeling so lost for so long
I was feeling so lost for so long
I didn't know what to do
Sit up, sit up, sit up, I went and made you
Breakfast in bed, coffee and juice
I was feeling so lost for so long
You were feeling so lost for so long
We didn't know what to do
You and I will be sidecars
There to chase down the hard stuff
There to chase down the hard stuff
Wait up, wait up, you let me show you
All of the monsters I was holding on to
So get up, get up, get up, it's gonna be good
'Cause you all know what nothing, nothing
No one owes you
You were feeling so lost for so long
I was feeling so lost for so long
You were feeling so lost for so long
We didn't know what to do
You and I will be sidecars
There to chase down the hard stuff with you
There to chase down
You and I will be sidecars
There to chase down the hard stuff with you