Things I learned about three wheels…

Warning: This is a very wordy blog! Sorry… I had a lot to say….
Well, the Las Vegas Bikefest is over and we have all taken our bikes and gone home. But what a wild ride it was while we were there.
First you have to imagine that my bike was placed in the “Radical” group. Really? You should have seen the competition. Outrageous would be the word for all but my sweet little black darling with the two little wheels on the front. Man was she out-of-place!  But what was amazing is that right off the bat, we drew a crowd. Kelly, Jason’s fiance, was out there talking and demonstrating but the people were coming so fast that I got out there and helped. We talked to people and handed out my cards and the wooden nickles for Hellcat Customs.

It didn’t surprise me that the majority of the interest was with the older crowd, in the same age bracket as the main group for single vehicle fatalities (see here). That was actually what prompted me to start advocating for an alternative riding method that will give the rider the same or similar thrill as riding a standard two-wheeled motorcycle but with an added bit of safety. Then my motorcycle club, Rose City MC, lost one of its long-standing members and a very longtime rider who got the front tire of the bike into gravel around a curve on a road that he had traveled for decades. That just cemented what I already knew…. as we get older, our abilities diminish a little more as time passes. I don’t see as well, I’m not as quick as I used to be, and I can’t hear for crap! Along with that, I’m just not as strong as I used to be. So, whats a girl to do? Call the one guy that can build anything…. which wasnt how this story begins so I digress;
I started on Twitter when I started the website Motorcycle Travel America.com and did it to find other motorcycle people. And, wow, did I. That is where I became familiar with Jason Sarratt of Hellcat Customs. I did my homework to find out a little bit about him and was impressed with what I found. I needed an artist to do some specialty artwork on one of my bikes and wanted portrait work. That isn’t the easiest thing to do and if it doesn’t come out right, it doesn’t look good. After seeing some of his work and realizing how delicate it was, I was sold. Let me just remind you all… he painted Dorothy… remember. I wasnt disappointed in fact, I was thrilled!
So, here comes a time in my business world that will require a company vehicle and I have given considerable thought to the fact that I want something different for the long rides and with a spin for me to use to get my point across about older riders. I did so much research and found two really fine adaptations that might have worked for me. One was Mystery Design in Dallas, Texas and the other was Tilting Motor Works in Marysville, Washington. Both were excellent products and both tilted! Sorry, I just can’t give up the lean… So, after much research and consideration, I decided to let Jason purchase a bike for me and called Tilting Motor Works to order a kit to be sent to him. Unfortunately, the kits were only for the HD Road King and to make a conversion to the kit to fit the Sportster I had already purchased would have taken 6-8 months to complete and then longer to attach it to the bike. That would be too late to put it in the LV Bikefest as well.   Fortunately for me…. Jason has a remarkable mind and has been doing what he does for a very long time! I had many a conversation with Jason about his past experience and was always impressed and so, we decided to go ahead and let him make the most of his remarkable mind!  Here is a rundown of what he has been doing up until now;
He started out under hoods and around motorcycles in highschool and did a mc repair class as a trade school elective. Later he started as a Tech with Honda of America and did repairs and reports back to the factory on “at risk lemon law” cars and correcting design flaws on the mechanical side. Some of his duties led him to develop a lot of repairs to correct engineering issues. He had an admirable record of averaging 8-10 cars a day for 6 days a week and only had one come back with an error that couldn’t be remedied. He even helped write test questions for Honda to use to hire Research and Development Techs, like he was.
I asked him about his education and the answer certainly didn’t surprise me… He said,”I went to school to start a mechanical engineering degree and quit when the professor couldn’t answer the questions I asked. I figured he had nothing to teach me!”.
And so, the story began and the story still continues today.
Now the thing I learned at this particular show with the revealing of my little 3 wheeled wonder is that there is a definite interest in the design… but with more than just older riders. The interest with men wanting their women to come look at it and their delight at what they saw was overwhelming. The comment from the ladies was always the same…”now that bike I would ride!”. The stability that the front end offers is just what some women need to make them feel like they could ride it themselves. Heck, she stands with no kickstand. And that brings us a third group and the one that blew me away.
I was standing with a crowd and noticed a man on the fringe examining the bike. And then he walked off abruptly. It looked quite suspicious! He came back in about 10 minutes with a woman in an electric wheelchair and said to her, “I think you can ride that, what do you think?”. She said the same thing I had heard all day…”I could ride that bike!”. We had a gentleman that had only 20% use of one knee.. he loved the design and even sat on it to give it a try. Last but not least was a young man who lost nearly all the use of his one arm in a motorcycle accident. He didn’t want to give up riding and got really excited about the thought of being able to ride again and this bike design could be altered to make riding available to even a guy with only partial use of one arm. The excitement in the crowd got us excited. Jason was really happy to think that he could do some good with the design to benefit people. He’s just that way, God bless his heart!
This could open a lot of doors for Jason and give riding back to people who thought they had lost the option of riding something other than a rigid trike or a CanAm Spider. Not that there is anything wrong with those options but, its nice to know there is something more. So here is to innovation, here is to Jason’s beautiful mind, and here is to the future. Stay tuned…. there is a lot more to come!

Lady Godiva….. feeling very grateful!
Next up… the newest ideas for the reverse trike. What until you hear who Jason is talking design ideas with!!

“When life gives you lemons…build a bike!” Jason Sarratt of Hellcat Customs is at it again….

Well, here we go again, folks.  As the title states, when life gives you lemons… build a bike.  My sweet friends from Hellcat Customs are some of the select few who have had to listened to me whine about life for the past few months.  With everyone’s words of wisdom and kindness, ultimately I bounced  back and hit the drawing board with a new idea for a bike that is sure to lift my spirits as I roar through my home town and to places far away. Of course, Jason Sarratt, owner of Hellcat Customs, is always a good sounding board for me and a great person to listen to the ideas because he is so knowledgable and exuberant. He gets as excited about my projects as I do, maybe even a little more! So……… here we go again with a new adventure coupling Hellcat Customs and Motorcycle Travel America.com.  So, sit down and relax and join us on the journey…..
As I have said many times, I am an old girl who loves to ride. The stats on riders as we age is a staggering read and has made me do some reflecting. I don’t want to give up riding but I do realize that I am experiencing diminished capacities; i.e. vision, strength, hearing, reflexes and response time. With that said, I have decided that if I am to enjoy the long ride and the draw of the open road, I may have to make some changes. One thing I decided to do is research alternative riding machines. I looked at tilting trikes with two wheels on the rear out in Texas at Mystery Designs and two wheels in the front at Tilting Motor Works up in Washington state. Both are really great adaptations and allow you to ride with the feel of the lean that we all love so much and that I was not willing to give up. In the end I decided on the two wheels on the front and the excellent build by Tilting Motor Works owner, Robert Mighell.
Of course, the only person that will be building bikes for me is the brilliant and talented Jason Sarratt because of his innovative ideas and passion for the project. You may recall the absolutely outstanding artwork he did on my Brammo EV motorcycle, Dorothy.  (I know it sounds like I’m gushing about the guy but, I can hardly help it! He really is that good!) So, the call was made to Jason and a bike was located and purchased. Here is what she looked like in her perfect off the showroom floor condition… a sweet little 2010 HD Sportster 883.  But, she wont look like that for long.  A call to Tilting Motor Works revealed that the add-on for the front end currently could only fit a HD Road King and that the fitting of a Sportster would take several months. That was several months that we didn’t have because Jason, in true Hellcat Custom style, had promised the bike to be shown in the upcoming Las Vegas Bike Fest at the end of September. I was truly bummed but Jason wasnt worried at all. He decided to build me one from scratch…. no, really! He designed and is building a unit that leans to attach to the front end of my beautiful bike. The guy never stops amazing me…..

So, that is the beginning of the whole story. There is much more to come and I am so honored to have Hellcat Customs build me this wonderful bike. I am even more honored to have Jason Sarratt (HellcatCustoms on Twitter) and his beautiful pink haired fiance Kelly Rogers (FieryPinkGirl on Twitter) as my friends. I look forward to this project and all that comes with it! And so the journey begins…..

Lady Godiva on wheels saying, “somebody pinch me cause this is like a dream come true!”

A little P.S.  The next build will be a Road King and Jason has promised to install the front end from Tilting Motor Works because I believe in it. Kudos to Robert Mighell! Take a look for yourself at tiltingmotorworks.com.. If that doesn’t suit you, try the fabulous machines at Mystery Designs out Texas way. See them here..   They are both great ideas and good people to work with.  Dont be afraid to tell them I sent ya!!

My weekend rendezvous with the bike from Tilting Motor Works..

As I have written in a prior blog, https://mtajudy.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/i-might-have-to-rethink-the-traditional-trike/ , I have been looking for the bike that I can ride, even though I am a 55-year-old grandmother of four.
As I have said many times, the thought of riding a bike that doesn’t lean or feel like a motorcycle is not at all appealing. Yet, I have to admit that muscling a big bike around is no longer as easy as it once was. I have looked at all kinds of bikes and I have yet to find one that fits the bill…. until now!
I have been watching the Tilting Motor Works come along in the production of a three-wheeled motorcycle, for a couple of years now. I asked permission to come up and see the operation and interview the owner and his crew. To that he replied, “I am the crew, a crew of one.”  At the time, there was very little to see, but we kept in touch via emails and I anticipated seeing the bike when it was ready. I watched every one of the YouTube videos that showed the leaning abilities of the mechanism attached to a bike, riding down the street and making maneuvers that a two-wheeled bike makes. However, it is no match to actually seeing it in front of you, and that’s what I had the chance to do.
Bob Mighell (pronounced Mile), the owner and designer/developer of this fabulous mechanism, emailed me to let me know that he was, indeed, taking the trip from his home in Marysville,Washington, down to Southern California, to show off the Harley Davidson Road King with the leaning mechanism attached. It was the first long trip with the finished prototype, to test it out and see what the bike could do. (Read the Tilting Motor Works blog..http://tiltingmotorworks.wordpress.com/  for updates on his journey and to whom he expects to show the bike.) He offered to stop by and let me see the bike.. to which I jumped at the chance.
I have to tell you that I was as sick as a dog with allergies but, Saturday morning I dragged my butt out of the house and went to see the bike I had been waiting so long to see. We met in a local restaurant parking lot directly off the I-5 freeway, to make it easier for him to find his way back on. Bob was a lovely person and passionate about the bike.
We went over the mechanism and how it was attached, how it worked, and some changes that were to be made. The mechanism was fabulous. It was perfectly placed for a low center of gravity, stout with nice welds, smoothly moving parts, well placed bracing, and more than enough weight to the metal to make it worth a lifetime of riding pleasure. And then, Bob leaned the bike. I was speechless!! I hadn’t expected it to nearly touch the ground.
I wanted to ride it myself, in the worst way… but, I knew what this guy had riding on his Road King and I happily settled for a spin on the back. If you didn’t know that the bike had two wheels in the front, you wouldn’t have known it from the ride, either. It flowed, it cornered, it banked, it made the “S” move that I love when I’m bored on a straight road….you know the one I mean!! I said, “wow” so many times while on the back of the bike that I started to think it was the only word I knew. When the ride was over, I shook Bob’s hand. I think this man has finally found a bike that can accommodate new riders that don’t feel comfortable, people with disabilities, women that can’t muscle a heavy bike, older folks that need a little help riding, a bike for that long road trip, and anyone that just wants an “easy” ride. The safety factors for riding this bike are numerous. Bob and I are going to collaborate on a blog on that subject when he gets home.

One more little foot note; I am buying one! As soon as I can find a bike that I like, I will have one made that looks like the red Road King in the video from my last blog about Tilting Motor Works. For me, this bike has everything I need and then some. I still get the luxury of the saddlebag. I can get as large a bike as I choose and still be able to handle the weight. I can still feel the rush of the leaning, cornering, and banking that we all love. I can still be the bad-ass! Does life get any better than this?? I think not…
FYI..  The prototype Road King is void of the front nose piece that fits between the front fenders so that the tilting mechanism is more visible.

Lady Godiva on wheels….. I’m the one, above, with the helmet hair!!

I might have to rethink the traditional trike..

There is a gentleman that lives up in Marysville,Washington named Bob. Bob is the owner of a company called Tilting Motor Works and has developed a great looking bike that consists of two wheels in the front. Bob has made a three wheeler that should do Harley proud…and I want one!! In fact, I want the red Road King in the YouTube entitled “Tilting Motor Works I Am Free Enterprise”.  Im sure once you watch the short video shown below, you will agree that it looks bad ass!  Bottom line here is that I can be old and still be bad ass……  Actually, that goes without saying! But, the bike will simply drive the point home. LOL

Bob is planning a trip this summer from Washington state down to Southern California to show off that particular red Road King up and down the west coast. I have asked him to let me know when he comes this way so I can see the bike and he has agreed to let me take it for a spin. The thing he doesnt know is that once I straddle that bad boy, Im just gunna ride it home….. dont tell him!!  I dont want him to see it comin!

 Remember, I am too old to try to pretend Im not. Maybe its time we riders admit that we need to consider alternative riding ideas. It might just lower the accident rate for older riders…since half of all motorcycle fatalities are people 40 yrs old and older and half of those were 50 yrs old and older.  FYI..42% of all fatalities are from riders not wearing helmets!
With all that said, let me know what you think of the bike I want…..

An old Lady Godiva on wheels…..wearing a helmet!!