Kenna

HKenna Sidecar History

Below is the Kenna Sidecar history as told by Ronald R. starting in the 1970’s.

It’s history is very interesting and actually two generations older than you have written.  Back in the 70’s, at the time of the Arab oil embargo, Ronald was visiting a fiberglass production shop and noticed a very sleek fiberglass sidecar body sitting in a corner. As an old sidecar enthusiast from England, Ronald was interested enough to inquire about it. It turned out that in those days of gasoline shortage the owner of the shop noticed a motorcycle-sidecar outfit being ridden past his shop each day.  Always thinking of business, the thought entered his head that this must be economical on gas and if he could produce fiberglass sidecar bodies there must be somebody out there that could design and manufacture a chassis and sell a lot of them. He talked this over with the sidecarist and they agreed to design and produce the chassis and body between them. The mold was produced but the chassis production was not a success and the partnership broke up. That’s when I came along and bought the mold with the agreement that I could order bodies, as and when I needed them at a fixed price. Ronald designed a new chassis which and had it fabricated by another company. It had torsion rubber suspension similar to that used on a light trailer specially adapted for my chassis. 

As a car history buff Ronald learned that at the turn of the twentieth century Carl Benz was selling his cars to a dealer in France who added the name of his daughter, Mercedes, to the Benz name and Mercedes Benz was born. Ronald thought that was a good idea and named the sidecar Kenna after his daughter. Rondald still had a full time job at that time and his plan then was to finish upholstering the body, installing the necessary lighting and other equipment, and assembling the complete sidecar in his garage. This all became too much for him, particularly as he had to design new mounts for each model of bike, which took a lot of time. His second customer offered to buy the business and that is how it ended up in Merced/Modesto. 

Those two men made a few sidecars and in 1982 Barry Bates and a friend bought the molds and have owned the rights to the Kenna Sidecar until DMC sidecar acquired the Kenna sidecar. Barry was fortunate to meet with the original designer and look through his pictures of the development of the Kenna Sidecar design. The torsion suspension used when they bought the Kenna Sidecar was actually a small version of the
same unit used by Airstream trailers. Barry built a few sidecars in Mission, British Columbia, Canada using the same suspension.

 One “stretch” sidecar version was made adding six inches into the cockpit area for a friend with a Yamaha XS750 to help accommodate his family. Barry’s friend still has one of the Kenna Sidecars he built back then on his Suzuki RE5.

Barry Bates then went to work for California Sidecar for a couple years and then helped to found Champion Sidecars.

    The Kenna Sidecar was brought out of hibernation when Barry went to work with DMC Sidecars in Washington state and made the “stretched” version of the sidecar permanent by building a new mold at that time. Barry also designed the current swing arm shock suspension on the new sidecar frame at that time. DMC Sidecars has been making the Kenna Sidecars through Jan 2023 when Texas Sidecar Company acquired the assets of DMC and moved it to Central Texas area.

   A big thank you to Barry Bates for his help with this history of The Kenna Sidecar!!! He has retired from the sidecar business and Florida Sidecar for keeping the history of sidecars as they have been doing.