Rebirth of the Terraplane

REBIRTH OF THE TERRAPLANE

For several years now Craig Vetter has stored a stylish sidecar he named the Terrapiane when he built the device and thought about selling sidecars. Only he figured the market wasn't ready for an-other sidecar and the Terraplane gathered dust.

Now the company he sold, Vetter Corp., has announced it will sell a new TerraThis is not the same Terraplane 1. It’s also not styled like« 1er sidecars on the market, which is it’s highly styled. And it’s a is piece of work.

steel tube frame wraps around the ;ce molded body, providing a sort of Another piece of steel tube wraps up behind the seat, forming a roll bar. T body is made, of either vacuumABS plastic or fiberglass, whichever customer chooses. The sidecar wheel is sprung and it has a disc brake, independently controlled by the motorcyclist.

To make ingress and egress easier, the body is a daitishell, with the top canopy. opening fully. Making the Terraplane as easy to handle as it is to get into, there’s an adjustable trim control that allows the rider to adjust the lean of the motorcycle and sidecar. Quick disconnect electrical connections and hardware enable the rider to disconnect the sidecar in 10 min.

Obviously there's a lot of work in this sidecar. It shows the same careful develop ment that has led to Vetter's successful line of fairings and saddlebags and tank bags, in that the product is beautifully styled and offers quite a few unusual features.

This doesn’t mean the Vetter Corp. expects the Terraplane to replace the automobile as a basic source of transportation. The people who make decisions at the Vetter Corp. ride motorcycles and at least one we can think of now has a family that can’t fit on a motorcycle. So they know there is a small market for a sidecar and Vetter is big enough to build one and small enough to build a low-volume item like a sidecar.

Production of the Terraplane should have begun by the time this is in print. No price was announced for the Terraplane, but it should be available in limited numbers through Vetter dealers.