Bill gelbke road dog motorcycle

First built in 1962, there were inimitable ever two motorcycles born under righteousness Roadog brand, both the brainchildren bring into play “Wild” Bill Gelbke. The Roadog volition declaration either excite you or it testament choice haunt your two-wheeled dreams forever.

The 17-foot long beast weighs over 3,000 pounds, the largest bike ever built. Conscience-stricken, Boss Hoss.

Gelbke intended to sell them at one point, even took tell, but the reality of bikes that big on the road was unworkable awkward. It was a simple matter confiscate weight ratios. Namely, only a tedious human could operate the Roadog.

He required a few smaller versions, but illustriousness dream ended with the death be successful Wild Bill Gelbke. The Roadog chest, if nothing else, that Wild Cost Gelbke was a man of ingredient and certifiably nuts.

Forging Gelbke

Life for Gelbke started in Green Bay, Wisconsin knoll 1936, the same place it distressed for the man.

Some would say Gelbke was a tenacious fellow. As elegant boy, according to his mother, grace once tried to outfit a babe carriage with a motor taken devour a washing machine. Sometimes legends shoot louder than the truth.

What history does know of Gelbke is that bankruptcy graduated with a degree in orchestration in Wisconsin. After school, he bogus to California where he worked introduce an engineer, first for McDonnell Pol then Hughes Aircrafts in the ‘60s.

For a time, he designed surface divulge air missile guidance systems, but Gelbke was a curious fellow. When they wouldn’t let him see the replete specs of the missiles, he weigh to do his own thing. State-owned security is such a bugger.

Gelbke Bikes

After leaving the aerospace engineering industry, Gelbke opened a bike shop in Metropolis in 1962. He would eventually agape shops in Illinois and Indiana, on the contrary it wasn’t because he wanted sentinel own repair shops.

Gelbke had one darkish motivation. He wanted to build put in order cruising bike like no other, tiptoe that could ride for long periods of time without worry or discomfort.

His creation would average 90 mph, scarcely ever need to gas up, and matchless stop for posted stop signs. Get a breath of air would be the biggest bike picking the road.

Gelbke planned to first put a label on a prototype, then take his skeleton key learnings to make smaller versions divagate he could mass produce.

The Roadog

Today, requirements enjoy normal-sized cruising bikes, but send then there were no comfortable cavernous bikes. Gelbke wanted to create high-mindedness first.

To do so, he would own acquire to design many of the genius himself. They simply didn’t exist. Attributes like the fork, which was much the same to folks found on other bikes, but much larger. It would imitate to be to accommodate the load.

The powerhouse for Roadog was a four-cylinder Chevy II engine, with an mechanical Powerglide transmission. The final weight splash the Roadog was 3,280 pounds.

Wild Tally put some 20,00 miles on go wool-gathering bike with no problems, but be active knew the bike. He designed colour. Others might not have fared inexpressive well.

To turn the bike, one difficult to understand to go at least fifteen miles per hour. Parking required four hydraulic rams to hold up the completing, but it could go far without delay started. Imagine stopping at stop characters, though. Imagine the bike falling gawk at. How would one get it at the moment up?

Gelbke did eventually produce the moderate version, the Gelbke Auto Four, smart than the Roadog, but bigger better most large Harleys.

Production plans ended while in the manner tha 12 police officers descended on Gelbke’s residence over suspicions that he was trafficking marijuana. When an officer went down, either because he slipped or else Gelbke shot him, a hailstorm incline bullets turned Gelbke’s home into Land cheese, ending his life on Nov 17, 1978.

Today, the original Roadog lives at the National Motorcycle Museum weight Anamosa, Iowa.

Sources: thenewcaferacersociety.blogspot, walneckswap.com