The Bikes

airheadignite In 2005 we changed our mode of transportation. The main reason for this change was to use much simpler technology - the BMW R-Series Flat Twin motor. The second reason is economics - the cost of supporting two modern day motorcycles is becoming cost prohibitive for us.

In 2004 we had been having thoughts about going to a sidecar rig and had actually discussed it with the owner of a small company which does conversions near Karlsruhe, Germany. To learn more about our reasons for switching from two solo motorcycles to a single sidecar see the Why A Sidecar page.

Through blind luck we happened to stop in a gasoline station in Austria later in 2004 where we encountered the exact bike we had in mind. To learn more about the machine we saw, the man who built it and the sidecar rig he built for us, see The Making of the Sidecar page.

Here are two pictures of our new mode of transportation, as of the summer of 2005:

Bike on Hill Matera

NOTE: The gray box that can be seen with bungee cords holding it to the fender above the sidecar wheel is our washing machine. We have grown extremely tired of washing clothes in sinks in hotels and campgrounds and wanted something that would free us from this almost daily chore. Our solution is a water tight plastic box that is normally used to protect things like camera equipment from liquids. We are using the box to keep liquid inside while our clothes slosh about as we move down the road. At the end of the day we rinse things out and hang them to dry. Wonderful!

Bike on hilltop

We have to give special thanks to our friend Sascha Leitz of Karlsruhe, Germany for the art work on the bike. Sascha was able to get our snail logo made as a vinyl sticker so we could attach it to the box in the front of the bike and also on the rear of the top box. And he then repainted the tank incorporating the snail logo along with the words, “World Tour” above the snail on the tank. Thanks Sascha!

We find that almost every child that sees the bike is immediately entranced with it. We have decided that the snail is something they can identify with and the machine also looks a lot like something that you could find on a carnival ride for children.

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