Vetter Unfurls His Wings
VETTER UNFURLS HIS WINGS
AFTER AN 18-YEAR ABsence, one of motorcycling’s greatest visionaries is back in business. Craig Vetter, famed inventor of Windjammer fairings, has returned with a new company called Winged Wheels of America (Box 2019, Monterey, CA 93942; 800/842-1949) and an innovative, if odd, new product called the Wingjammer Flairing.
The story of Vetter’s re-emergence is told in a 12-page comic book that is part history lesson, part sales brochure.
After producing hundreds of thousands of Windjammers in his two factories in California and Illinois, Vetter sold his company in 1978 and more or less retired.
Having already designed the legendary Triumph Hurricane,
Vetter created a Kawasaki-powered prototype called the Mystery Ship before a hang-gliding accident left him with two broken legs. He then spent a few years building racing wheelchairs before deciding to return to motorcycling by sponsoring a popular fueleconomy contest during the Laguna Seca roadraces.
Prevented from designing fairings by a non-compete clause in his buy-out contract, Vetter spent the next decade or so puttering around his house in Carmel, California. Recently, though, he began to think that he wasn’t making a very good role model for his two teenage sons, and he started to look for something productive to do with his life.
One day, inspired by his father’s WWII airman’s wings, Vetter picked up his sketch pad and began making drawings that culminated in the Wingjammer Flairing. Attached to a bike’s fork tubes using stainless steel and aluminum mounts, this consists of a sandcast aluminum center section and leatherettetextured black plastic wingtips. As if that isn’t strange enough, the 3/i6-inchthick windshield raises and lowers with an electric motor, while side flares slide in and out to provide additional wind protection. Options include allmetal, highly polished alu-
minum wingtips, a tinted win shield, color-matched wingtips, wingtip fringe kits and a leather dash bag. Currently, the new fairing is offered for wide-fork HarleyDavidson Softails only, but fu ture plans call for fitment to other Harley models plus the Honda Shadow and Valkyrie, Kawasaki Vulcan and Yamaha Royal Star. Prices start at $1344, available through dealers only. If the Flairing looks a little weird to you, Vetter is okay with that. Some people thought Wind jammers were weird when he started making them, too.
Brian Catterson
