Wacky 50

Comfortable!

Footfirst  and all....

... but I think I´d be happeir sitting up a bit with the feel of the feet on the pegs.

Cheers!

And now as they say, for something completely different, I give you the.......... ROADOG!

The creation of `Wild Bill` Gelbke, what ever was going on in Bill`s head at the time must have been seriously influenced by hallucinogenic compounds.This monster goes far beyond the common precepts of a motor-cycle! Shocking, outrageous, implausible, preposterous, in equal measure and yet, and yet there is a lot to admire.

Chevy motor with auto transmission and reverse, hydraulic rams front and back to be able to park the thing and stabilisers to take the weight a traffic lights, apparently good for 90mph!

I recon this thing out-Wakies everything else!!!!

Trevor

Wow!

Immmm -- PRESSSIVE!!

Would it get past the Brit MOT ??????

Twin axle vehicles here can be 12m in length....

CheerS!

JayBee...

A good use for spare bits?

http://www.twistedspinemotorcycles.com/#!bsa-navigator/cavd

Ops, just noticed it had featured before!

Jim

Dear goodness, my memory really needs a decoke! Was suppose to add to the previous post that the bike is featured in:

http://www.backstreetheroes.com/issue-385-cover-bike/

with build spec, etc. Why not visit your local 'reading library' (ie W H Smith, etc) and have a look.

Nice pictures Jimmie, when you get to our age the odd lapse of memory is forgivable!

Now I know this is not strictly just a bike but it is so incredible it just has to become a Wacky. The guy in the back ground seems to have lost his way going to the office?

Trevor

Well done Trevor...! Do you know more about the event or the bikes? Suggests America but the registration plates looks very English and the bikes might be Broughs ...? My 1927 500Triumph had a reg number of twenty-something-or-other ... followed by 3 letters which are forgotten, which was very much like those in the pic.....
Cheers!
jayBee.

I have a feeling it might be America John, so the machines could be Harleys or Indians. I just found the picture randomly on unassociated site that was American, but there was no text to provide a clue? The noise must have been ear splitting with all of those open exhaust pipes, but what a spectacle, makes Bantam racing look a bit tame by comparison!

Trevor

Reckon you are right Trevor!
ACU would not permit such safety headware!
More Indian than Brough or Harley and I´d reckon American because such a Circus type event wouldn´t happen in Britain but the bloke with the brief-case looks typically on his way to his Civil Service office in London...

Only thing missing -- the umbrella.

Take care,
Cheers!

JayBee...

Sorry but can't seem to be able to post the image. Have we seen this one before?



http://blog.modernmechanix.com/war-tank-on-one-wheel-operated-by-one-man/

Love it Jimmie, another outrageously fanciful concept, mono wheels seem to have been popular in the 1930s. Quite how steering was accomplished when the pilot was blasting away with the machine gun is of course not explained, but there you go? Just imagine a swarm of those things being released onto the beaches of Normandy!!!!!
A worthy Wacky that one !

Trevor

Now for something altogether more sedate, I confess to having to have a double take when I first saw this Solex based runaround, just how were those wheels kept in place? There also appears to be some sort of flexy cable and friction drive to the front wheel enabling motion.
Lovely workmanship and inspired thinking; way outside of the box, another fine Wacky to add to the expanding list.
Anyone have a favourite yet, or a theme to expand upon?

Cheers Trevor

Probably the only solo track-laying vehicle in existence has to be the Snowmobile...

... probably ....? Is it??

... but wars have a habit of producing the most amazing inventions. Poor Captain Scott´s tractors failed miserably during his attempt at being first at the South Pole.

On another tack back to wheels:--

I remember seeing in "Dad´s Army" a two wheel contraption -- looking a bit like a farm-seeder where two large wheels are at the end of the seed-box that was pulled by a tractor. This thiing in "Dad´s Army" -- invented by lance-Corpral Jones, of course -- had rockets in the periphery of the wheels to accelerate it at the beginning of a slope and a great bomb, across-wise between the wheels. The idea was to start it off with the rockets and then on the slope it would gather speed to rush, virtually silently, into the enemy´s ranks and blast them to kingdom come...

... you can guess at what followed in that Home Guard situation when L/Cpl Jones demonstrated his "Secret Weapon" ...


Cheers!

Fortunately this montrack is accompanied by some explanatory text, and like the monowheel in Jimmie`s post it offers a military option complete with the obligatory machine gun. So it would appear the snowmobile concept might have preempted by a few years!
Ah, Dad`s Army, they don`t make comedies like that any more, but crikey that ages us a bit John!

Trevor

What a lovely way to commit suicide. Even with armoured plating it would be Selbsmord (self murder). I don´t see it cornering at all cleverly in a tight situation....

Thanks Trevor...

...for your few kind words an´all.

Cheers!

JayBee.....

I wonder if it was fitted with a reverse gear?

It was meant to be an attack vehicle John. Typically empire-heroic it would never back off -- just plow on forward against the might of the machine-guns... Our masters never learn... We belong to a different kind of insanity which only hurts -- our selves -- when we fall off....

Cheers1
John-Boy....

No excuses now if the weather goes down hill, a few lengths of spare timber and those old Bantam bits kicking around the garage and youre in business.
This wooden wonder is the creation of the self-styled Alabama Red Neck, 350 Honda engine propels the thing. Can`t be much of a redneck and not have a 1200cc Harley mill in there!  And don't those cars look very European ?

Trevor

Thanks Trevor!


If the rider gets lost and runs out of gas in the wintér wilderness of the Alaska he can keep himself warm by using the forks and frame for a bonfire -- otherwise this is just weirder and wackier than ever...

Where do you find them?

Don´t bother to answer that  -- just keep them coming.

Cheers!


John-Boy!

The machine featured here is George Tucker`s much modified AJW Super Four `Gun Bike`, and the scene is of the garages at the rear of the famous Brooklands circuit some time in the late 1920s. The super charged Anzani engine/gearbox unit has 4cylinders of 985cc displacement, and a car type chassis with hub centre steering is all concealed beneath the rudimentary aluminium streamlining.
With the racing style kneeler position of the rider, head lights and machine gun; quite what the original concept was for its construction is a bit confusing but here it is for you to draw your own conclusion on that small matter. But it is a whole lot of fun to behold so it gets its place in the Wacky files! Every one seemed to wear a suit, tie and flat cap back in those days so the picture also revels a small window of social history as well.

Trevor

Wünderbar, Trevor!

I think it probably had a `Chair´ attached -- wicker most likely -- `cos there´s another bloke´s head peeking out behind the rider´s posterior. And up on the upper right looks like Excelsior had a pits there but I couldn´t imagine Excelsior having much to do with that rather heavy contraption, Excelsior made a very good racer....

Massive `U´bolt holding the little headlamp in place!

You´d think people -- after the first WW -- would NOT want to see guns any more but the making of contraptions to carry guns, and guns themselves, was very popular between the wars. Still is, of course, across the Pond where John Wayne is remebered with tears in the eyes of would-bre cowboys...

Thanks --- & Cheers!

JayBee...

I`m not going to say a word about this, just put your own caption to it!

Trevor

Since BREXIT the common market agricultural policy is having adverse effects on beef production in Europe!
Didn`t want you thinking no one cares anymore John, this should cheer you up!

Trevor

Wünderbar! Thank you Trevor. Cheered up Irmgard my CO also. She said at least 5 times during the day "Cowasaki" with a alaugh that had me joining in. I must try looking up MCN on the internet -- won´t be so funny but needs showing ....

Take care, go well and stay well.

Cheers!

JayBee.