On the Road: Two wheels good, three wheels better

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In 1967, Gerry Walker bought his first motorcycle, a brand new 500cc Triumph Daytona T100. Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Walker rode the Triumph around the city and on highway jaunts. He wasn’t without a motorcycle until 1980. He went without a bike for 15 years before buying a 1981 Harley-Davidson. Walker then stuck with the Milwaukee-built machines, moving to a 1983 Softail and then a 2004 Road King.

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“I ride to Sturgis (for the annual bike rally in South Dakota) every year and meet friends from Winnipeg,” the 74-year old says. “But I’m short in stature and I was getting older and the ’04 Road King, when loaded with gear, was heavy. Sometimes my feet would slip out from beneath me when moving the bike around and that made me a bit nervous.”

So, in 2016, Walker thought he’d look into buying a motorcycle-based trike, something he wouldn’t have to worry about when stopped and putting his foot down. “At that time, Harley-Davidson wanted $38,000 for a bare bones trike, and there was no storage on it,” Walker explains. “I thought I could build something myself for less money.”

Walker moved from Winnipeg to Kamloops, B.C., when he was 32, and about 15 years ago, he relocated to the Vancouver area. Now based in Chilliwack, Walker began investigating Volkswagen Beetle trike conversions. These types of vehicles feature the back half of an air-cooled VW mated to the front half of a motorcycle.

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While popular in the 1960s and early 1970s with some manufacturers such as Wil-Mac and Stires producing fibre glass bodies and trike kits for VWs, builders often developed their own machines. And to continue his riding adventures that’s just what Walker has done.

A trained diesel mechanic who never actually worked in the trade, Walker instead spent years working in hotel and bush camp maintenance. “I’ve always had to figure out how keep something going and adapting,” he says. “I have a toolbox for every trade, from plumbing to electrical to mechanical.”

Walker visited The Bug Shop in Delta, B.C. where he spoke with proprietor Ed Lowney. The pair tossed around ideas, and Lowney was able to supply the back half of a 1968 VW Beetle chassis – essentially, from the torsion bars back. Included was a transaxle. “There was no motor, but Ed built me a 1,776cc twin carb Beetle engine complete from the block up to power it,” Walker says.

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Walker began the project in 2017 by mocking up several different versions of a chassis with a Harley-Davidson Super Glide fork, wheel and brake to mate to the Beetle pan. He eventually settled on a platform he liked and hired a professional welder to make the critical structural welds. A 47 litre steel gas tank was also professionally made and from Princess Auto came the seat, fenders and trailer lights. “I’m not a custom bike builder, there’s not much chrome or anything fancy, I’m more about function,” he says.

In its first iteration, the trike was painted blue and featured an open cockpit with a central dash and a windscreen mounted farther forward. He had the machine inspected, licenced and insured for the road and added quite a few miles in this configuration, including a couple of his annual pilgrimages to the Sturgis rally.

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However, he says when Covid hit, he spent time building a box like structure around the handlebars to move the dash and windscreen closer to him. All of the panels are formed from sheet aluminum and he had everything powder coated sparkle grey. “It’s a road trike not a show trike,” Walker says of his creation.

He tows a 290 lbs. cargo trailer and has now added close to 22,000 kilometres to the rig, including a trip this year to Manitoba, down to Sturgis and back up to the Winnipeg area to stay with friends before heading west and home.

“It handles very well, and with the VW suspension out back and the seat mounted on springs, the ride is also very comfortable,” Walker says. “I don’t think of it as driving, I’m riding. As long as my face is in the wind and I can smell the cow dung or fresh hay in the field, I’m riding.”

Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Have a column tip? Contact him at 403-287-1067 or [email protected]