While Emperor Hirohito died on January 7, 1989, his state funeral wasn't held till February 24.



Note the funeral procession; I'm assuming the hearse is a Nissan Prince Royal, and the Nissan Prince Royal Limousines are used as well. The huge fleet of Toyota Centuries might've been property of the Imperial Household Agency. I'm assuming that some of them might be used by the Palace Guards (given theirs 4 of them up front before the hearse). Note the open top Toyota Crown and Cadillac police cars. Also note that both the hearse and the limos both wear the Imperial Standard on the license plates areas. Anyone can ID the bikes, and explain why some have the sidecar on one side and the sidecar on the other side?

NOTE: It's split into 9 parts, so you might be advancing abit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tISFbOPR ... er&list=UL

I haven't watched the link yet, but as far as I know the sidecar is on the left side in countries with LHD (so that the driver is positioned on the side that is most to the middle of the road, just like with cars) and the sidecar on the right side is usually from countries with RHD (for the same reason). So I think they just used motorcycles with sidecars from several countries.

Edit: sorry, I switched LHD & RHD. The actual meaning of:

LHD = Left-hand drive = the vehicle keeps on the left lane on the road (like in Australia, Japan, the UK, etc.)
RHD = Right-hand drive = the vehicle keeps on the right lane on the road (like in the rest of Europe, the US, Canada, etc.)

In LHD countries, because the vehicle keeps on the left lane it is easier if the driver sits on the right side of the vehicle, this is because he can see more of what is happening on the road. So if you will put a sidecar on your motorcycle in a LHD country, you will probably put the sidecar on the left side (so that the driver can still see most of what's happening on the road).

However, for the same reason you will probably put the sidecar on the right side in an RHD country.

So, to answer your question: They probably used motorcycles with sidecars from different (RHD as well as LHD) countries.

I hope this will explain my earlier post better?

_________________
'83 Mitsubishi Galant 1600 GLX

Um.....okay, now i'm more confused.