Dream

Monocoque Aircraft Construction. This one is a Russian Tu-22M3.

    I was at a friend's house and I had just heard that someone was going to build a fully enclosed monocoque motorcycle. They were using plans for a machine that had been in production, but lapsed, kind of like Saab automobiles. I was really excited about this because it meant that the three wheeled machine of my dreams was now a possibility. I leave and I am walking, heading home, when I realize that someone at the house might be able to give me a ride. Since it's an eight mile walk to my house I decide it might be worthwhile to go back and see if I can catch that ride. I'm walking back the three or four blocks and somewhere along the way it changes to a bike ride in traffic. I'm pedaling like mad and not doing a bad job of keeping up with traffic, but it's not enough for the drivers in their cars. They are in full rush hour mode and are bobbing and weaving to get past me so they can rush up behind the next car and start tail-gating them. I'm not sure, but I may have been going through the motions of pedaling and pedaling so furiously that I woke myself up. You don't suppose those fake margarita's I had last night had anything to do with it, do you?


Gyro-X Test Drive
Music City Metalcraft
    The fully enclosed motorcycle was one of my dream ideas. A guy in Portland actually builds (built?) them. I don't think he uses monocoque construction though. Secretly I think three wheeled motorcycles are for people who can't keep their balance. They do have the advantage that they don't fall over when the roads get slick. The fully enclosed bike uses a gyroscope to keep its balance.
    I had been to this city before, at least in my head. It is not a real place, but it was very familiar. My planned route home involved navigating through a downtown area, constricted by a river, railroad tracks and one way streets. There were multiple routes that were all about the same distance and would have taken about the same amount of time, but none of them were what you would call a 'straight shot'.


Gyro-stabilized Electric Motorcycle Hits Road

Some Californians seem to have revived the idea of the gyro-balanced motorcycle.

Update July 2019 replaced missing first video. Don't remember what it was, so this one is probably different.

Update May 2023 repaired broken video link.