William Shatner set to ride across the US in hi-tech custom tricycle
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It is a very different vehicle from the starships he captained in Star Trek.
William Shatner has revealed plans to drive across America in a unique vehicle.
The 83 year-old actor, who usually drives a 2002 Aston Martin DB7 Vantage, will ride from Chicago to Los Angeles this summer on the Rivet, a custom made tricycle he helped design.
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The finished trike will be a two seater powered by a V8 engine, and will transport Shatner across America this summer
Shatner helped design the trike, which will go on sale later this year
Shatner says the design is inspired by an aircraft wing from the B-17 bomber.
'The finest line I can ever remember seeing was on a wing,' he said.
'Bombardier had lend me an aeroplane, and I remember the sweeping stainless steel part of the wing.
'If design can move you emotionally, that did - and I want to see that in the bike'
To make the trike a reality, Shatner is working with Illinois company American Wrench, a motorcycle fabrication firm that's provided frames to Orange County Choppers among others.
He has worked with the firm on the design, requesting many of the features - and rejecting a few others.
'To me, flame throwers are a little excessive,' he tells them in one meeting.
The two seater trike will have a canopy to protect riders, and, crucially for shatner, will also be able to wheelie.
'This will do a wheelie in 4th gear,' he says.
'I've been across this country in sport cars, in trucks, with a dog, with a my family, and I want to do it on a motorcycle - and I'm going to do it on the rivet.'
The bike is covered in rivets to keep with the aircraft wing design
Although thse mockups show a one seater, the finished trike will have two
The firm says: 'Rivet is a type of vehicle we call 'Landjet'.
Designed from the ground up as a 3 wheeled vehicle, with its exposed cockpit and command centre, seating fit only for a captain and the harmonious roar of its brute V8, piloting it gives you the feeling of flying on the open road.
Rivet's intent is not only to draw attention to the pilot or the vehicle itself, but to the art and craft of hand built machines, done in the spirit of keeping America's 'routes' alive.
The B-17 was primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets
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