Mash Black Side 445 2024 — Specifications

Few vehicles are capable of causing spontaneous slowdowns among passersby. The sidecar is one of them. Not because it's beautiful, not because it's fast, but because it disrupts visual habits. It belongs to an era when mobility had not yet been standardized, when a family could fit in a three-wheeled rig on roads not yet paved. That past is something Mash fully embraces with its Black Side 445, the brand's third sidecar after the Family-Side in 2017 and the Force in 2021.

The Black Side takes the Force as its working base, but distinguishes itself through a radical aesthetic treatment: black everywhere, lifted by a few white pinstripes that evoke postwar BMW outfits. The resemblance to current Urals is no accident. The 41 mm leading-link fork, the sidecar body in keeping with the overall silhouette, the knobby 18-inch tires on each wheel, the dual seat, the knee guards on the tank — everything conspires to display an assumed kinship with the Soviet school of the rugged, no-frills sidecar.

The real difference from the Force plays out on the scales. Mash did not resort to carbon fiber or forged aluminum to shed weight: it simply removed superfluous accessories. Luggage rack, spare wheel, decorative ammunition boxes, headlight grille, false front plate, sidecar fender support — all shown the door. The result: 317 kg instead of 342, a saving of 25 kg without touching the engine or the tubular steel frame. And the price follows the same diet: €9,999, just below the symbolic five-figure threshold. It is currently the least expensive sidecar on the market, and that is a meaningful argument in a segment where Urals comfortably exceed €15,000.

On the powertrain side, the 445 cc four-stroke single-cylinder, with four valves per cylinder and a 9.5:1 compression ratio, delivers 28.5 horsepower at 6,000 rpm for a torque figure of 34.3 Nm at 5,500 rpm. On a solo motorcycle, that holds its own. On 317 kg of rig with a passenger in the sidecar, it demands patience. The five-speed chain-drive gearbox works hard, top speed is capped at 105 km/h, and one can't help wishing Mash had grafted on its 650 cc twin-cylinder found on the Six Hundred or the X-Ride — a displacement far better suited to the machine's bulk. But that choice would reflect a different philosophy, and likely a different price tag.

The Black Side is not aimed at track riders or the hurried tourer. Its register is the Sunday ride at conversation pace, country roads where the rider can turn to face their passenger without risking the ditch, village markets where the rig generates more curiosity than an Italian superbike. Its large trunk, reverse gear, contained price, and retro stance form a coherent package for a public seeking something other than speed: a three-wheeled riding experience that is offbeat, endearing, and difficult to justify rationally. Which is precisely why people buy it.