The motorcycle or the girlfriend?

Hi Peter, I’m at the Poplar Grove airport (C77), just west of Chicago. I do have access to local aircraft and the welding is under control. I built a very nice aluminum cutting miter station and I cut and fit all of the tubes myself. Once my welding fixtures are full of tubes, a professional aluminum welder comes over for the day to finish up.

At some point, I’m going to be looking for Beechcraft owners to borrow the prototype. I’d like to have at least a half-dozen people put it to use and share feedback with me. Do you have any interest in borrowing a motorcycle and loading system for a few weeks?

We currently use a customized Yamaha XT-225 with a lot of modifications to make it smaller and lighter: Smaller wheels, lowered suspension, folding handlebars, quick-release front axle and center stand, carbon fiber fenders, folding pegs, low-profile lights, etc. They get finished with custom decals to match the airplane.

We also developed a pretty neat non-spill plumbing system. Although we never spilled a single drop, we wanted completely redundant protection against fuel spills. The upper surface of the loading system forms a shallow spill pan. This is lined with enough fuel absorbent material to contain 110% of the motorcycle liquids.

The finished motorcycle is extremely compact and weighs 230 pounds dry. However, it does a great job of hauling two adults down the highway and it has a top speed of around 80mph. Unfortunately, Yamaha recently stopped making it. They turned it into the XT-250, which weighs around 40 pounds more. Later in the year, I’ll be selecting and modifying a newer motorcycle but I still don’t know which one it will be yet.

Now that is really pretty cool. I came close to buying one of those Yamahoppers about two years ago for my daughter. It might even be still available. I might go look this spring when the stores open. My wife wont get in the plane let alone on the back of a motorcycle so I guess I have to go find the girlfriend!!! I will let you know when I am ready to try out the prototype, but from the sounds of it you might almost be ready for the real thing. I like the Old Mushroom light over the door of Slim's shop I think it came from an old Texaco Station. I cant tell you how many hundreds of those I sent to the junk yard years ago. Keep up the good work and let us know when they are available. 80 MPH is a whole lot faster than I can pedal a bike.
PL

Welcome!
Nice job on your projects.

Tom

The motorcycle or the girlfriend?

Now that is creativity at its finest. Only in the US is this possible. Welcome David

Welcome
I dig the bike idea. Post on the all of correct forums and blast away. Take a Beech and the bike then post it on Trip Talk. Better reading than tha LA Times!
Mark

Many women don’t care for our toys… but most of them love going places.

I still remember my very first trip with the motorcycle. I took my girlfriend to a fly-in, in Sheboygan, WI. She wasn’t very enthusiastic about looking at airplanes and eating cheap hamburgers. After lunch, we rode the motorcycle into town for ice cream and shopping. We visited the harbor and spent a few hours on the beach. Then we rode south, to a state park, and explored nature trails and sand dunes. Out of everyone who attended the fly-in, I can honestly say that we had the best time. After that, she never hesitated to fly with me again.

Here are a couple pictures from that first trip. You can see that the front fender is still missing and the fuel tank has some primer on it! It was still a work in progress at that point.

Pilots do like their motorized toys. Motorcycles, boats, watercraft, etc.

Also like guns.

Might be something to do with turning money into noise.