Suzuki Beamish Sidecar

[sutty]

any one out there who can help me im thinking of buying a suzuki beamish sidecar its a genuine one out of the factory whitlock one owner from new and registered but its been stood for a few years in a shed but it runs fine and its all there nothing is missing at all just wondering what its worth and if its a good investment or stay away from it thanks !!

[hillary]

I had two Beamish Suzuki, 325 sidecar outfits in the early 'eighties, and rode all the British Championship series on them for about five or six years. At the time it was an excellent machine, very reliable and in the hands of John Gaskell was a British Championship winner - the best I did was five national wins and third in the series.

The problem now is that the machines are 20+ years old and spares for Suzukis are not easy to come by. Some bits are plentiful, others don't exist and if you are considering competing on one, remember everybody else is on modern, water-cooled, single shock machines which have progressed massively.

The engines rattled like mad, but being typical Japanese, are pretty bulletproof. Pricing one is a bit difficult, but I wouldn't be inclined to lay out too much for one, simply because the return in usage is fairly low. I don't know for sure how many outfits were built, but probably 50 - 80 seems a likely number, no doubt somebody will know.

[beamish owners club]

I'd say that 50-80 is a fair estimate of the numbers built. Mick Whitlock is probably the only one left who will know for sure as he made them!

There are a few about still, not sure how many are being used as opposed to restored and polished! Value is very difficult, it depends on how original it is and the condition, could be anything from