More confusing British terminology:

jaydee75

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I'm working on an AJS, the manual often refers to the "off side".
Which side is this and why is it called that?
Jaydee
 

"Nearside or N/S

Nearside, sometimes indicated as N/S refers to the nearside of a vehicle when driving on a UK road, so the side of the vehicle which is closest to the kerb. This side is, therefore the passenger’s side of the vehicle when driving a right-hand drive vehicle on a UK road.

Offside or O/S​

Offside, sometimes indicated as O/S refers to the offside of a vehicle when driving on a UK road, so the side of the vehicle which is furthest from the kerb. This side is, therefore the driver’s side of the vehicle when driving a right-hand drive vehicle on a UK road."

Therefore, assuming the manual was intended for British riders then, "offside" is the right-hand side of the bike.
 
I always thought it was from horse riding.

Yes, it offside is also the left right side of a horse. :)
 
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So its the left side of a horse but the right side of a m/c ???
Jaydee
 
I always thought the "off side" was the side one got off a horse ...... that is the left side, and this carried over to motorcycles.

Then the "off side" would be the same as the "on side"

Slick
 
So its the left side of a horse but the right side of a m/c ???
Jaydee

No, sorry I was thinking of nearside and what it says in the horse link:

"The horse's left is his near side, the right his off side."
 
I thought it was a football (English football) rule ??? :D :D
 
Both sides of a horse should be left........

......left well alone! Temperamental beasts, and too big to argue with.
When I was 16 we visited some relatives of my father I didn't know. I was 6' tall and weighed about 220 so not meek. My father thought it would be good for me to spend some time with my cousins doing farm work. Next thing I know I'm climbing on the back of a work horse so tall I could not see over his back. Off we went through the fields for about an hour and then we started rounding up a bunch of work horses for shoeing. Of course, the whole trip was all about making sure I knew how clueless I was.

Trust me, riding a 1500+ pound horse with a bunch of Alabama "good ol boys" is not for the faint of heart! Then trying to control each leg of each horse as you dig out the crap and pull the old shoe is not fun or easy! That's the job they gave me, they did the fitting and shoeing. At least they had pity and gave me a mild mannered, easy to control horse and at least it wasn't the first time I rode a horse.
 
.. and a horse is a horse , of course, of course and no one can talk to a horse of course - that is , of course, unless that horse is the famous Mister Ed . “ Gosh Wilb- ur ur ur “
 
When motorcycles started to be used some 120 years ago, most riders where used to ride horses. So naturally they mounted from the left side. (Exception was in the artillery where the crew was riding on the right side horses hauling the cannons.) Sidesaddles used by decent females always was for left side riding and impossible to climb from the right side. When side stands was introduced by Harley-Davidson around 1923, called a jiffy stand, it was on the left side simplifying getting on the bike. Only right hand side stand I know of is Vincent with one left and one right hand side stand.
Only time I've had to get on a horse from the right side was on a very steep Norwegian mountain side where it was too high to get on the horse from the left.
 
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While waiting in a US HomeDepot one day, I heard a voice I recognized from work. A Kiwi. He was asking the twenty-ish store worker where the letterboxes were. Shop keep looking completely bewildered, my co-worker tried to elaborate with "you know, letterboxes, where you put your post?"

Being Brit born and raised in Canada by a pair of Brits, I knew exactly what he wanted but it was so much fun watching all this from a distance. I've no idea if he ever got is letterbox.
 
Then there is the one that American service people in England were told during WW2:

"If you have nowhere to stay, just knock someone up!"

Slick
 
...just knock someone up!"

And I understand from my uncles there was a lot of this.

Jaydee
 
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