The awesome EcoBike is the shining result of a selective genetics program. Some of the earlier creations were a touch “Frankensteinish” and downright frightening to behold.
As “Genius Geoff” was committed to other projects at the time we were ready to commit…
( I told you he was in demand, and he doesn’t even have a website, knows nothing of social media, and has a sort of inverse promotional ethos which requires that you must buy all beer and food whilst in his presence. A sort of inverted snobbery type phenomena which some modern small bars apply in today’s cities… you know…where you seek down dark and forbidding alleyways to discover a tiny handwritten symbol chalked on the lintel and guarded by a scowling massive man/ogre where upon entry you are efficiently deprived of your entire night’s entertainment budget for the provision 4 beers of indeterminate origin and taste… but at least you can post that you have been there!…but I digress…)
Sooo… he had the idea of bringing on board a friend of his to make a start on the prototype of the world”s first ELECTRIC 4WD All Terrain Vehicle (don’t mention the word “quadbike”… bad connotations of youths destroying whole sanddune ecosystems in an afternoon and calling it “ a hellsick, badass avo dude!”
Nooo… we are all about ecologically sound means of transport and have spent countless hours in discussion distancing our beautiful and environmentally sensitive EcoBike from such aberrant behaviour…thank you very much…
Yooo… back to the friend… lets call him THE BIG “D” cos… well he”s… big. THE BIG D sports a luxuriant pair of sideburns. I would often find myself gazing at them in admiration and wondering if they were a latent tribute to Elvis… dont know but I wish I was brave enough.
THE BIG D had no wife, no children, or anything else that I know of, but he had one all-consuming passion::: to race motorcycles… and not just ordinary motorcycles… ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLES!!!
I went to a race circuit in Sydney called Eastern Creek…got a really cool hat there 🙂 … and was absloutely stupefied to see him and his mates come hurtling down the main straight at speeds which must have been well in excess of 200km/h AND MAKING NO NOISE AT ALL!!!! Just WHOOOOOSH!!! Felt surreal… had to pinch myself…. but THE (now) FEARLESS BIG D was undertaking… overtaking and assuming lean angles on corners that seem to ignore the laws of physics… he had scrapes on his elbows…no lie!
Wooo… Impressed I was… but… despite his unerring enthusiasm… not with his first incarnation of the prototype…when we tested it at a local park.
All 4 wheels simultaneously ripped up great swathes of lovely manicured parkland… whilst he flew past me madly grinning and yelling “Ninety Ks and only just past half throttle!”… before spinning up onto two wheels in a U turn that sent water birds screeching from the pond and young toddlers yelling “I want one” to their traumatised mothers.
Nooo… THE BIG D and I didnt work out but I still admire his skill, commitment and most of all… those sideburns.