William Shatner braved both time and space as the head of the Starship Enterprise as Captain Kirk, but now he’ll embark on a more worldly journey.
The 84-year-old(!) actor will soon begin an eight-day trip across the United States on the Rivet ONE, a gloriously over-wrought motorcycle tricycle with a 500 hp V8 in its belly.
But, being the ‘Shat, the esteemed captain wouldn’t settle for just any off-the-shelf tricycle, no, Shatner was actually inspired by the wing of a B-17 bomber and from there he partnered with American Wrench to bring his bonkers, plane-derived tricycle idea to life.
But back to that mid-mounted V8 engine for a sec. We know Rivet will derive its thrust from one of our favorite sedans, the Cadillac CTS-V. Now, now, it’s likely not a de-tuned version of the gargantuan 6.2L V8 LT4 from the new CTS-V, but rather the 6.2L LSA V8 out of the last-generation vehicle.
Either way, aluminum bodied tricycle, plus a 500 hp V8, plus one William Shatner should make for a seriously interesting journey, regardless of whether or not the ‘Shat kicks it into warp speed.
The eight-day journey will begin on June 23 outside Chicago and will make stops in St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri; Oklahoma City, Oaklahoma; Amarillo, Texas; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Flagstaff, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada before it all wraps up in Los Angeles, California on June 30.
But here’s the best news of all: American Wrench is planning to sell limited quantities of the batty trike.
So, while you may not be able be able to take the captain’s seat in the Starship Enterprise, you could still teleport yourself into his awesomesphere with a Rivet all your own. Prices have yet to be announced but this kind of customized creation is sure to cost more than most houses.
Comments
Shatner, who has coined much of his career on the “future”, sells out with a futuristic tricycle powered with the dinosaur of a gas combustion engine. I wouldn’t want, nor expect, dilithium crystals with anti matter either. But accelerated clime change from an asteroid impact killed off the dinosaurs – not right away – but after playing out years after. Our industrial sized fossil fueled expansion has begun taking out species at record rates with our comfy civilization for our children’s children, mathematically unsustainable at best, slated to go the way of the T Rex as we cynically deny Accelerating Climate Change. Couldn’t “Kirk” promote something more useful than the world fossil fuels is creating? Remember the Oil Wars of WW2 to Iraq? Japan hit the U.S. largely because America, (after the west taught an isolated Japan modern Imperialism), cut off much of Japan’s imported oil months before Pearl Harbor. Anyone believe without oil, the U.S. would “have to have” wasted trillion$ on Iraq and Afghanistan and doing BIG biz with suppressive oil regimes? Bin Laden’s family construction fortune and the resentment he cynically channeled ULTIMATELY originated from the oil imperialistic west’s cynical influence for oil profits instead of us moving onto cleaner/hybrid energy combined with non-despot country’s and domestic oil that would have been enough to BEGIN our clean energy road to power our “V8 tricycles of the future”. Oil leadership has so far hijacked our Republic economically and politically. I don’t blame an actor and self promoter like Shatner for the Fossil Fuel Cartel Hell our corporate and political leaders have led us to. But couldn’t Shatner have gone electric and make the case of a more interesting trip challenged by A New Frontier where No One Has Gone Before like cross country on the Frontier fraught not with Klingons, but our inadequate but hopeful Electric Recharge/Battery Reloadable Infrastructure? Big fail on the metaphor, Bill, especially if you have kids or grandkids. But nice promotion for a destructive past/present wrapped in a futuristic fossil fueled wrapping. Don’t you have enough $ to spend time on a better project and not shill for a Cadillac engine? We’re already past the point of no return scientifically with an accelerating morphing environment with what fossil fuel consumption has already released – to be molecularly broken down like a slow crash atmospheric disaster movie in the coming decades and centuries. But we can still prevent the worst scenarios. Why not dig a little deeper, Bill, with your new toys? Your in a Metaphor Leader Position. Average people like me aren’t. An electric turbo trike that can out ” 0 to 100″ any combustion engine woulda been pretty cool. I’d want one.
As a side, “the west” isn’t the only place where imperialism is in fashion. After all, you don’t need a thirst for oil to make imperialism work for your dictatorship…..just a really good narrative.