Few modes of transportation can rival the elegance of the wooden boats made by the renowned Italian company Riva. But what if you could capture that sophistication in a well-executed classic sidecar rig"
That’s exactly what the French sidecar specialists, Alternative Sidecar, have just done. Based in Ablon-sur-Seine (about ten miles from the Parisian city center), their latest build pairs a modern Indian Scout with a new version of one of their existing sidecar designs. Except this one’s been finished with luxurious leather and wood finishes.

To pull it off, Alternative Sidecar roped in Jacques Jouvin of Atelier JAB?a carpenter that specializes in automotive work. Jacques has experience creating wooden trim for cars, motorcycles and sidecars, and has even built his own wooden Yamaha XS650 cafe racer. With the team assembled, all that was left was to find a suitable donor. They settled on a current-model Indian Scout 1200, and sourced one from the Indian dealership in Valence.

Alternative Sidecar hadn’t built a rig on a Scout until now?but luckily they’ve been building sidecars for modern classics for five years already. So they took their existing ‘Gran’Large’ design and reworked it to sit lower, and to match up with the Scout’s proportions.
Their proprietary attachment system doesn’t require any frame mods on the parent bike, which means that they can now offer this new ‘Gran’Sport’ unit as ...