Freedom Machines
Freedom Machines
UR FRONT
David Edwards
I DID NOT MEAN TO BURST CRAIG VETter’s bubble. The man who defined the modern touring bike with his Windjammer line of fairings in the 1970s is on a new crusade these days. Timely, too. He’s shooting for 100 miles per gallon from his latest project, a super-streamlined scooter.
“Save yourself the trouble,” I told him. “Just go down to the local Honda shop and buy a new CRF230L dual-purpose bike instead.”
As you can read in this issue’s “Best Firsts” story, we recorded a miserly 93 mpg from the 14-hp Single without really trying. In fact, after talking with Vetter,
I sent Off-Road Editor Ryan Dudek out on the same mixed-road mileage loop, this time with instructions to optimize mpg. With chain lubed and tires aired up to max recommended settings (33 psi), and by keeping speeds below 55 mpg, coasting to stops, turning the motor off at long stoplights and easing away when they turned green, Ryan was able to cover the 50.8 miles using just .449-gallon of premium unleaded.
Let me do the math: That works out to an amazing 113 miles per gallon!
Vetter, though impressed, has tougher requirements for his so-called “Freedom Machine.” It has to be capable of running 75 mph into a 25-mph headwind and still get 100 mpg-oh yes, and with enough cargo space for three bags of groceries.
Starting point for the 100-mpg project was Craig’s beloved, much-used Honda Helix 250 scooter, which returns 60-plus mpg in stock trim. As you can follow stepby-step on his excellent website, www. craigvetter.com, Vetter has shorn the trusty Helix of its stock plastic and is in the process of fitting a wind-cheating, fishylooking body.
In the photo below, taken during early testing, the bike is very much a work-inprogress, shown in “city mode” with abbreviated rear bodywork. For high-speed work, a longer, tapered tailsection attaches, taking overall length to almost 10 feet. The rough front fairing is still in what Vetter likes to call CAD form (“Cardboard Aided Design”) and will be much smoother and more enclosing in its final shape. He thinks he’s on the right track, though.
“This is the best fairing I have ever ridden behind,” Vetter states before going on to answer the most common question he gets about the bike: What’s it like in wind gusts, especially with the long tail attached?
“It reacts no worse in crosswinds and better than most bikes I have ridden,” he answers. “It must be the tail, which seems to ‘smooth out’ sidewinds. Perhaps the best part of this design is that ‘reverse air’ does not blow onto my back or neck. There is no flutter from the windshield, either.
“Isn’t it remarkable what one can learn after doing this for 42 years? My fairing designs beginning in 1966 are basically what you see on motorcycles today. This is the future.”
Vetter is not new to the highmileage game. From 1980-85, jp he sponsored the Craig Vetter Fuel Economy Runs. High mark was an astounding 470 mpg from one of the egg-shaped, if impractical, contraptions. Now, at a time when gas is approaching $5 a gallon, he is appalled that bike-makers haven’t already developed products that would alleviate the pain at the pumps-not to mention get a lot more people on two wheels. Where are the commuter specials, the hybrids, the (Vectrix excepted) all-electric models? The recent rise in fuel prices has caused a run on scooter stores-Aprilia scooter sales in the U.S., for instance, are up 73 percent! A manufacturer that offered the two-wheeled equivalent of a Toyota Prius would not be able to build them fast enough.
“Motorcycles in 1972-73 got 40 mpg in an era when cars got 10-15.1 was proud,” Vetter explains. “Ain’t going to happen today. Many cars get better mileage than most motorcycles. I am ashamed of our industry. Time for changes.”
Vetter sees the impetus for those changes coming from legislation that will make Freedom Machines irresistible to the public and hence drive development.
In Vetter’s ideal world, operators of this new class of vehicle will be free to go as fast on freeways as they want, no worries about tickets, as long as that century mileage mark is maintained.
Operators will be free to park in the best parking spaces at work, school or shops. Think handicapped parking without the need for a limp.
Operators will be free from paying full rates for insurance and vehicle registration. Don’t like wearing a helmet? Operators will be free from that government stipulation, too, in Vetter’s plan.
Likewise, Freedom Machine manufacturers would be immune from most lawsuits, just as the makers of anthrax inoculations are “held harmless” today.
“This would encourage American industry to stay here and not go overseas,” says Vetter. “Basically, manufacturers and operators of these machines will get their freedoms back. This will make saving fuel very desirable. No grants would need to be awarded. This will cost the government nothing. It would be a major mistake for the government to not cooperate. If a 100-mpg vehicle category is implemented in California, for example, it could be as important in encouraging a new economic boom here as the silicon chip has been.”
Save gas, save money, go fast, park up front, put people to work. That’s the kind of Green a guy could get behind.
