I'm Slacker G, naturally that's not my real name. My real name is G, but I go by Slacker. Yeah,.Right. If you believe any of that, I have some Jewelry in my basement that I'd sell to you for a great price. I'm info phobic, so the name stuff doesn't get out on the Internet. I have a real problem with Big Brother and my privacy......... the problem being, I don't have any. Neither do you.

I have never had a licence to drive a car. I have only had bikes all my life. Since I'm in my late 50's, I decided I wanted to leave this planet never having had a car. I still ride scooters all seasons, including winter. The coldest ride was in -70 below. {wind chill.} I had to take two people home through an ice storm because their car broke down. We went 7&1/2 miles on the dirt bike..one way...twice...30 real cold miles. Once for her, and once for her daughter. I'm smarter now, but not much... I still ride all winter.

First a Jerry rigged bicycle, then Cushman scooters as a kid. It beat walking. My first big ride was a Harley with a suicide clutch and the old tank mounted gearshift. I went into the Navy at the age of 17 {With a parental consent. Being a "biker", I felt I had a reputation to uphold. It was either jail or the service.} My dad immediately sold my bike. I didn't find out about it until I was back on leave. I can't even remember all the particulars about it, other than you could get a used Harley for about $300 at that time. Funny thing.. I remember everything about the Navy. It made me grow up and straighten out real fast.

My latent biker tendencies caught up with me a little later in life, and I became fascinated with high performance machines. Those little yeller fellers had done miracles with the internal combustion engine. My Two wheeler career slacked off again when I was given the last rites at 2am in the morning, after being introduced to a woman in a station wagon who was turned around swatting her kids in the back seat as she made an illegal maneuver at an intersection. Never really met her. She sped off and left me in the street. God bless her.

After months of incredibly enjoyable physical therapy, and as soon as I out of a walker and on crutches, I made a crutch rack for my bike and began riding again. The accident was on Valentines day...Feb 14th. By the time August rolled around I was riding to Sturgis. I rode two wheelers three more years to the rally, then I found a disaster of a trike. It was beautiful...but only in my eyes, I might add. It was so poorly designed { engineering wise} that it would only go 45 mph, with a new engine in it, and if the wind came up, only 35mph, with a fuel consumption of about 10 mpg. It had an automatic tranny, and the engine compartment was sealed, in order prevent the exhaust gasses from escaping. { It used them for cooling the engine} Naturally, piston ring life was only about 70 miles. However, the body design just captivated my heart. The body symmetry was two to three inches off from side to side, and top to bottom, but it wasn't that noticeable after I trimmed and extensively modified it. Years later, at the Berry Patch gathering, I met the man who created it. I told him I absolutely loved his design, but it would have been nicer if he had used some sort of measuring device when he constructed it. It was just an after thought to part of the compliment, but he didn't like me much after that...... But he still kept trying to put the make on my girl friend.

Three engines later I had totally reconstructed the thing, including aerodynamics {streamlined the body}, cut into 3 sections and narrowed it 4" so it would quit eating wheel bearings, fixed the cooling problems with a spoiler under the trike, and made engine mounts for a manual transmission. By the time I was done, I had spent thousands of dollars on it and 5 years of my life. Now it gets 23-27mpg, and top end is about 102-105 with no wind, and I love it even more than the day I first found it. I kept pics of each and every modification from day one. That thing taught me a lot about trikes!

Since then, I have begun to design trikes, and build them in my house during the winter..just to make winter go away. I have 7 trikes, but only about 4 bikes now. All the bikes are in storage. I guess I just don't like to travel without a fan club waiting for me at my destination. I don't care what kind of bike you ride, your only a guy on a bike..but trikes draw the curious. You can be a Star every where you go, but then I'm sure none of you have ever had that experience.! If you haven't fallen asleep by now, you know everything there is to know.

TrikerDon has led me around the web, and helped me put up a trike site that I hope will be of assistance to new trikers. He has helped me so much that I don't think I can ever repay his kindness, or his patience. I've been meeting a lot of people like that lately.....and a few of the other types also...but forget them.

If you're thinking about building a trike, check out My Roadart Triker Construction Site! It will teach you the easy way to make a V W based scoot.

Slacker G
__________________________________

NEXT

BACK TO CLUBHOUSE