Digital Dream, Chrome Reality
DIGITAL DREAM, CHROME REALITY
ROUNDUP
BACK IN OCTOBER, 2005, we featured the “virtual customs” of Australian computer artist Tim Cameron. Among these was the Dream Bike, a photo-realistic, alternative-front-suspension cruiser so completely and amazingly rendered we said it looked like it could roll right off the page. In fact, it did, and it has been renamed the V-Rex.
To say it “rolled right off” would, however, be a discredit to Christian Travert, the engineer who turned one man’s digital dream into his own metal-and-chrome reality.
Travert, builder of the Y2K turbine bike as well as a designer of armored vehicles used by various governments around the world, first approached Cameron via email after seeing the Dream Bike on the web.
“Everything started when I sent him an e-mail with the subject line: ‘The Dream Bike on the streets of America,”’ says the 46-yearold transplanted Frenchman now living and working in Florida. “I wanted to make sure he opened the e-mail. He replied, and we went from there.”
After many hours on the phone and lots of communication about the project, Cameron delivered all the material he could to help the build process.
“It was great being able to supply Christian something more than a bunch of sketches,” says Cameron. “But even though the Dream Bike looked convincingly real in 3D renders, there was no engineering to the 3D model at all. It was really only a highly developed stylistic mockup. The amount of engineering work involved in turning some of those harebrained ideas into metal cannot be understated!”
Travert worked first with the Harley-Davidson Evo powerplant Cameron had drawn as the heart of the bike, but after a couple months of CAD work instead opted for the V-Rod engine because it suited the “futuristic nature of the bike better.” “Tim designed the bike with the Evo motor but after working on the design, I said, ‘That just doesn’t fit,’ ” declares Travert. “Then I started with the V-Rod. It’s a much stronger casting and has more connecting points. The engine is part of the frame.”
In fact, all the major parts T are the frame. The gas tank, for example, is a thin-walled aluminum casting that acts as a major structural member, forming a “bridge” over the engine and helping to connect the seating area with the front end.
“The bike is mainly five pieces,” he says. “The gas tank, two swingarms, the fork arm from the steering
column to the front swingarm, and the engine.”
A few points were lost in the translation, none more integral to the original computer rendering than the hydraulic two-wheel-drive system. The V-Rex instead relies on conventional belt final [ drive. Although Travert did reinvent the wheel (he has his own cast in alloy) and makes the shocks, handlebars
and indeed most parts for the bike, the wiring harness, fuelinjection system and other bits, such as the handlebar controls and speedometer, are V-Rod pieces.
So far Travert says his company, Travertson Motorcycles [www.travert son.com), has taken orders for nearly 600 of the bikes for $39,900 apiece and intends to build the VR-2 (shown), a more conventional standardstyle bike, and the VR-3, - a new, drawings-unreleased sport standard.
“I consider that Christian took the design far, far further than I could have ever considered possible,” admits Cameron. “Some of his engineering solutions, such as the gas-tank/mainframe assembly, are just inspired. His choice of the VRod engine I think completed the whole vision of a futuristic cruiser.”
The Dream Bike is a dream no more. -Mark Hoyer
