This was one of a bundle of sets my sister and I received as a joint birthday gift, which our parents had bought second-hand. It looks quite a modest set but I remember it being great fun despite this.

The arrangement of a basic seat and sidecar rack (complete with 'parcel') is pretty simple but there's enough to play about with a little. Move the handlebars and seat forward, add in the 'parcel' as a backrest, and you've got room for a pillion passenger. And, being a three-wheeled vehicle, it stands up by itself on any surface, unlike other motorbikes. The only disadvantage of these early designs of motorbike is the tendency for the handlebar arrangement to work itself loose.

I have always loved sidecar motorcycles. Especially if it's from Lego. So apart from the fact that this machine has a very square shape, I love it! :) What I especially like is that we don’t get a piece of specialised frame like today, but it has to be assembled from traditional elements. As far as I know so far there are 4 lego sets that have a sidecar motorcycle. This set and the 6373, 6622, and 7620 sets. It’s sad, though, how many options would there be with today’s parts.

But let's get back to the title. Building experience:

The motorcycle in the picture is pretty nice, and I was right to expect that the end result would be like that, but it didn't happen that way. Namely, the instruction sheet is different from the photo, it has to be built completely different so it just resembles the picture from the final instruction. The end result is much uglier than the picture if we follow the instructions. The front of the motorcycle will be 1 brick high and the picture will be 1 plate high. Another layer of blue plates should be built between the wheel and the seat. By then, the designers could have replaced the two 2x4 plates with one 4x4s. I don't understand, seriously, wasn't the structure so strong enough? Thus, they only worsened the already boxed look. Respectively, it would have been better for 2 mini figures and the second figure to have a usable seat in the sidecar, because that way that black brick would always fall off the two yellow fence elements if we went faster than the speed limit. The seating position is too far, the guy doesn’t reach the handlebar. This makes it dangerous to drive.

Minifig

He even uses the old kind of helmet so his eyes tear at high speeds and the beetles go in easily. Poor guy. No painting, no stickers. Simple, but looks nice and honest. What could be in the black brick that he is so happy about? Can it be the same as in the Pulp Fiction in the briefcase?

Overall opinion

Good idea, we rarely see this, but te end result is very ugly. Once again lazy design work.

My rebuild

It looks pretty good with minimal modification. It annoyed me that the sidecar was too close to the motorbike. And the result is strong enough, it doesn't fall apart. The spare tire is from the 673 set. So now the minifigure reaches the handlebars and the two can fit comfortably side by side.