Night Train hearse
DE
Three-wheeled ride to hog heaven
25 June 2002
What a way to go - Upper Hutt resident Cherie Knuckey has the ultimate
ride to hog heaven for those who like to "live hard, party hard and go
out in style".
It's an 88 cubic inch (1450cc) Harley Davidson Night Train motorcycle
with a specially built coffin-carrying sidecar.
Ms Knuckey, a 38-year-old mother of two who's been around motorbikes
all her life, came up with the idea because "I thought that would be
the way I'd like to go out".
"As a bike enthusiast I can think of nothing sweeter than cruising out
in style on my last ride," said Ms Knuckey who till two months ago was
office manager with an Upper Hutt property company.
The bike is brand-new but customised and specially painted by Trike
Works in Taupo, with a new coffin-shaped petrol tank complete with
handles and a sidecar designed to securely hold a casket of any size.
All up, it cost $71,000.
Twilight Express Ltd will be officially unveiled on July 5 and
Wainuiomata funeral director Darryl Angus reckons it could appeal to a
lot of people.
"A lot of people want to do something different," said Mr Angus who
calculates that up to a third of his customers might choose the noisy
three-wheeler over the traditional sombre hearse.
MadMichael
>
> http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1247475a10,FF.html
>
> Three-wheeled ride to hog heaven
> 25 June 2002
This isn't the first one. A pic was posted on a.b.p.m.h. recently of a
similar setup, however, I don't think it had a 'coffin' gas tank...
--
MadMichael '02 FXDXT
"I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I
am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
Brian & Sharon Purcell
Thanks!
Ironhorse
>http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1247475a10,FF.html
>
>
>Three-wheeled ride to hog heaven
>25 June 2002
>
>What a way to go - Upper Hutt resident Cherie Knuckey has the ultimate
>ride to hog heaven for those who like to "live hard, party hard and go
>out in style".
This is the second one we have seen in the last couple of months. The
first one was a right mounted hack. This is a left mounted one. As a
side car driver, the physics of turning the hack and the things that
would happen to the deceased in the coffin make me shudder. On the
other hand the deceased probably won't complain much.
Ironhorse HSB #96, SENS, BS#187
96" Evo custom
2001 Ultra Classic with Ultra SideCar
Jaalinta
>similar setup, however, I don't think it had a 'coffin' gas tank...
>
>--
>MadMichael '02 FXDXT
Saw a couple at Rolling Thunder that had the hearse portion to the rear of the
bike vice a sidecar. Got digital pictures of it somewhere, I'll see if I can
find 'em.
--
Jaalinta
'99 XL1200C Lazer Red & Black "Lil Devil"
'02 FXDWG3 Black w/ Gold Flames "Darksider"
Doug Dulmage
>On 26 Jun 2002 10:42:25 -0700, delle...@netzero.net (DE) wrote:
>
>>http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1247475a10,FF.html
>>
>>
>>Three-wheeled ride to hog heaven
>>25 June 2002
>>
>>What a way to go - Upper Hutt resident Cherie Knuckey has the ultimate
>>ride to hog heaven for those who like to "live hard, party hard and go
>>out in style".
>
>This is the second one we have seen in the last couple of months. The
>first one was a right mounted hack. This is a left mounted one. As a
>side car driver, the physics of turning the hack and the things that
>would happen to the deceased in the coffin make me shudder. On the
>other hand the deceased probably won't complain much.
Seems like a trailer unit would have been a more suitable design.
I've yet to figure out how any of the pallbearers are going to
gracefully be able to lift a >350lb 6 foot long steel box when the
only availble handles are just reachable from one side. The picture
that I saw of the right hand side unit showed nothing like a slide
or anything for it to clear the bike before lifting, plus you are going to
have to bend over to lift, which is a "really bad thing", plus at least
one person is going to have to lift over the wheel and fender on the
outrigger, and it looked like a tight fit side to side which means that
the handles that swing out can't as long as it's in the sled.
A trailer type arrangement would allow access from all sides, plus
you could probably raise the height so it would be the same as coming
off of a tailgate.
Our local funeral home in Superior Wis. had a special sled built
to take casket's out to the cemetary that was about 12 miles out of
town and would get snowed in occasionally, the funeral home only
had storage for 4 "guests", and the ground at the cemetary was often
too hard to dig into in February, so they would have the service and then
pull the casket out to a wherehouse at the cemetary where it would be
held until the ground thawed. They had a very odd snowmobile made
by Allouette that sat two folks side by side and was covered, with a
heater, etc. and the home had a covered sled made to be able to haul
two caskets out. First time it was used they had the same problem
of having things too low as in powder snow the whole sled could end
up stuck under a snowbank. So they ended up building it up a foot
or two to give the ski's clearance. Worked like a charm, and I imagine
that a cycle would steer and pull something like that on wheels a bit
better than an outrigger.
Personally, I think it's a bad idea and kinda tacky to be displaying
a casket in traffic, especially in the case of an accident, which does
happen. Legally in terms of the funeral home, your remains are worth
more dead than alive, so I'm surprised that one would let anyone go,
unless the home signs a transportation release like they would to an
airline, etc. If that's the case, the person that owns the bike better have
about $5 mil. in liability insurance...
Just a very strange $.0002
Doug