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As many know from my past posts, I picked up a pair of 1986 Yamaha Venture Royale’s back in October of 2014 to have an excuse to spend time with my Father turning wrenches and restoring these wonder pieces of Yamaha engineering with the intention of getting him back in the saddle again after a long hiatus of him riding. My father has ridden motorcycles all his life and was the reason I too have the bike bug. He taught me everything I know. My Dad and I had a great time restoring our matching Venture’s and spent some really memorable times on the road during the summer of 2015. As you can see, he started me young (picture of me in my knitted "helmet" circa early 1970's on one of his bikes) But I need to clarify one thing….My Dad is 75 years old this year and getting him back in the saddle of a large and heavy bike like the MKII Venture Royale caused a bit of stress for him. He was once a big burly police officer that road Police Harley’s on the street, in high speed pursuits, rode dirt bikes on the many trails we have here in the mountains of Alberta Canada…..but unfortunately he is not the big, strong man, with razor reflexes like he once was. Although he is in great shape and could probably still kick my butt, age catches up with all of us unfortunately. The point of riding is to have a pleasurable, relaxing, and fun time. But if you are constantly worrying about dropping your bike or avoiding roads with traffic lights that make you stop and balance your bike then that is not a good thing, and that is where my father is unfortunately coming to this 2016 riding season. So I saw this as a challenge and quest to find a way to keep my Dad riding with me, but to hopefully take the stress out of it for him. So I set out to trike his bike. Being that we only paid $500 each for our lovely Venture’s I could not justifying spending thousands of dollars on the many trike kits and conversions out there. Nor did my Dad want to shell out the money for a already triked machine since he doesn’t know how many years of riding he has left. So I thought about alternatives, did a lot of research, checked Craig’s List every day, and even bought some DYI trike plans off the internet to see if I could build my own. Well, one lovely day in June 2015 I was sitting in my office in Calgary Alberta Canada and was checking Craig’s list for Phoenix Arizona and found an ad for “Motorcycle trailer Insta-trike”. I reached out the the very nice fellow in Casa Grande Arizona who said that he had bought a property and in one of the sheds there was some assorted metal and a trailer for a motorcycle which had a sticker on it calling it an “Insta-trike” and he would sell it to me and the scrap for $100. Well from my research I know this was not trailer at all, but a trike kit for a motorcycle….Eureka I found a solution for my Dad and for only $100!!!!! Yippie. Now the problem, the Insta-Trike was located in Arizona but my Dad's Bike is located 2550km away. Plus the trike had been modified to fit a mystery bike that was definitely not a 1986 Yamaha Venture Royale. Being that I sometimes overestimate my mechanical, fabrication, and transportation abilities, I purchased the Insta-trike and scrap metal over the phone and told him I would pick it up the next time I was in Arizona. We were schedule to head down to our house in Phoenix for a Summer vacation in July so the seller was kind enough to store the “scrap metal” for me for an additional month. Well July rolled around and this is what greeted me when I picked it up. Well I then proceeded to spend many hours cleaning it, repainting, and upgrading the bald tires and larger rims so my Dad wouldn’t think I was putting a set of used “training wheels” on his nicely restored Venture. Got that all done and was very proud of myself and the project……but then it dawned on me “how the heck do I get this home to Canada” as it weighs a ton! Plus “How the heck do I connect this trike to my Dad’s bike since it clearly was meant for a different bike and was missing brackets!” I proceed to tackle the “How do I connect it to my Dad’s Bike” first. I contacted Tow-Pac the makers of the “insta-trike kit” asking if I could purchase parts and possibly a bracket kit for the Yamaha Venture. They instantly refused me saying they only sell the brackets for a specific bike with a full trike kit. I then asked if I could purchase a few replacement parts…they asked me to send them a picture of my insta-trike for reference before they would sell me parts. Once I sent them pictures of my “$100” find then proceed to send me a refusal email saying that my trike appeared to have been modified and they would NOT sell me anything related to parts or accessories. Plus they were rather rude in the process like I had violated a cardinal rule of purchasing a “used” and “Butchered” product of theirs. That total Pissed me off! I have never been refused by a vendor to sell me parts for their product! Well, that was the last I will ever try to work with Tow-Pac ever again. So it is up to me to fabricate brackets….I can do that….right? I own lots of big scary tools that can cut, grind, weld, and drill metal…it is only my Father’s safety going down the road at 110km per hour….how hard could it be? Next challenge….”how the heck do it transport this 200lb metal contraption to Canada from Arizona?” I checked into all kinds of transport options and they were all Very Expensive!!!! My Shipping options ranged from $1200 to $600 to get it across the border and moved 2550km away. Kind of defeats the purpose of going cheap if shipping it would cost that much. Plus I didn’t feel like driving, nor do I have the time to drive 48 hour and travel 5000km round trip in my truck to pick it up personally. So I decided to see if I could take it on the airplane with me! How do you eat an elephant….well one bite at a time…so I decide to use the same approach with getting this thing home on the airplane. I stripped the trike down to it’s smallest parts possible and took a part or two in my suite case or box every time I went down to Arizona. Both my wife and the airlines thought I was crazy, but if I kept the size and weight down to their maximum levels then each item would only cost me $20 to take on the plane…..AND if I could fit it in my carry on bag it was free! I like FREE!!! Have you ever went through Airport security with a full torsion axel and hub in your carry on bag? Well I have, and had to do some sweet talking with a supervisor at the Security check point to prove it was not hazardous, or could be used as a weapon on board the airplane. Luckily Airport security supervisor was a motorcycle guy too and let me pass after some very detailed questions about my Yamaha Venture’s and my personal intentions with the part on board. Plus I made him chuckle with my story of how I was transporting my Dad’s trike kit one piece at a time. Unfortunately, my wife did not find it humors waiting for me to clear security and thinking I was getting strip searched in the interrogation room! After 4 trips to Arizona and $100 in extra baggage fees I finally got the elephant eaten and the kit made it home to my shop in Canada! Yippie!!!! Now time to fabricate the Brackets to attach it to my Dad’s Bike. To be Continued!
