Friday, March 24, 2006

Trying to 'Tucker' Cheap Two Wheel Transportation

I received an email from Roland Bosma of SpookyTooth the other day. Roland and I first met a couple of years ago when I was with the GarageChoppers magazine site. Keeping tabs on him now and then, it's been fun to watch his venture grow. Roland and his crew remind me of Preston Tucker and the stink he had to go through to realize his dream. The same hoops and hurdles for a guy just trying to make something work by doing it different.
This crew at Spooky Tooth has fantastic entrepreneurial spirit and builds and sells these cool bikes that get 150 miles per gallon. They are just the thing for anyone needing cheap transportation around town or the college campus. Much better than one of those Mopeds and a ton better looking too.

Seems the powers that be are trying to 'Tucker' him, as I call such things, out of business. The police don't know quite how to list them and scratch their heads about it. But they have given some riders tickets for not having a tag or license to ride one. After going to court though, many fines have been dropped because of the D.O.T not knowing how to classify them. It's not a Motorcycle or a moped. It's sort of a bicycle but then again...it's not.
I dig the hell out of the look of them and I want one. Roland even has a road race with this things and customers flock in to be there. His business, that began in his bedroom, has blossomed into a full fledged business and the demand for them is hard for he and his crew to keep up with.


PUBLISHED ON MARCH 23, 2006:
Spooky Spokes
With some help from a lawmaker, Roland Bosma wants to start a transportation revolution
By SAXON BURNS

Jason Swift
"This is Third World transportation at its finest. These engines have been driven around the world since the '40s," said Spooky Tooth Cycles co-founder Roland Bosma.Roland Bosma talks about motorized bicycles like a revolutionary bent on destroying the transportation system as we know it.
According to Bosma, Spooky Tooth Cycles, which he co-founded, provides options to people who may not have the money to buy a car, but find it exhausting to manually bike around Tucson's sprawl in the summer heat. The "green" crowd also likes that the bicycles get 150 miles per gallon, polluting less and reducing dependence on The Man (i.e., oil companies), he said.
If Bosma's bohemian shop, at 657 W. St. Mary's Road, is indeed fomenting rebellion, the movement is in danger of being sidetracked, if not derailed, by state laws that don't know what to make of the motorized bikes.
"Now that we have about 200 bikes on the road, people

Read the full article that he sent me by going here: http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/currents/content?oid=oid:80052

You can also visit the Spookytoothcycles site and get one for yourself and check out all the bitchen pictures and the bikes themselves. These things remind me of the first old Harley's and Hendersons. Very simple, practical and cheap to operate fuel wise. Go give Roland Bosma and crew a visit. It might just be what your looking for. Tell him Wooleybugger Sent 'ya.
www.spookytoothcycles.com

2 comments:

Kathleen Jennette said...

I like the 20" lowrider.... reminds me of the old sting ray bikes...150 Miles.... hmmmmm.. ya think the Woley ride? Naaaa... but they would be fun to get around the neighborhood and get a carton or milk... room for saddlebags? Need those...

FYI my dads name was Preston...

WooleyBugger said...

Well, we could use them for the ride except we may need to make the trip just a bit longer.

With a name like that he must have been a smart sort.