Craig Vetter and his Honda Helix-based streamliner. (Larry Lawrence photo)

Craig Vetter is a bit disappointed with the direction motorcycles have gone in terms of gas mileage.

“When I started riding cars got 10 miles per gallon and motorcycles got 40,” Vetter says. “Today cars are getting three and four times that mileage, while motorcycles have stayed the same, or in some cases have gotten worse. There should be motorcycles on the market that you can ride all day at 70 miles per hour and get 100 miles per gallon.”

Instead of simply standing on the sidelines lamenting the lack of high-mileage motorcycles, the Motorcycle Hall of Famer is doing something about it. Vetter has been tinkering with putting an aerodynamic shell around a Honda Helix and seeing how it affects the bikes mileage. To inspire potential young designers Vetter rode and displayed the bike at the 2008 AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days at Mid-Ohio. He trailered the bike from California and then rode it to Ohio from his boyhood hometown of Rantoul, Illinois. He was a bit disappointed with the mileage he got on the way over, cruising highways at 70 mph.

“I only got maybe five or six miles per gallon better than the stock Helix,” Vetter explained. “I ran into a heavy crosswind most of the way, plus this bike is very early in its development and isn’t totally enclosed on the sides and I’m getting air turbulence inside the fairing.”

Vetter’s canary yellow streamlined Helix got a lot of looks on the way over to Ohio.

“People would pull alongside and get out their cameras and snap away,” he smiles. “It attracts a crowd at every gas station and let’s be honest, that’s one of the attractions of riding a motorcycle like this. Everyone wants to see it and talk to you about it.”

If you think Vetter is working with high-tech materials to make his streamliner, think again. When asked what materials were used to make the bright yellow shell and camouflage green tail section Vetter smiles and proudly says, “Plastic notebook covers and an inflatable seat.” That’s right, the fairing is fashioned from school notebook covers and the tail section is a lightweight inflatable seat that Vetter proudly says can be deflated and stowed away in the bike’s generous behind seat storage compartment. It’s not a big departure for Vetter. All the way back when he was a teenager he tried to improve his Cushman by building bodywork for the scooter out of papier-mâché. “It didn’t do to well in the rain,” Vetter laughs.

Vetter claims the lightweight and flexibility of the tail on his bike is a reason it is stable in crosswinds.

“The old tails on streamliners, like the one Harley used in the 1930s on its land-speed record bikes were heavy steel and even had lead in them,” Vetter says. “Over the years we’ve found that for stable streamlined designs most of the weight should be in the front of the bike and the tail section should be very light.”

Vetter’s quest for a 100 mpg motorcycle is timely with gas surging to over four dollars a gallon, but Craig says that the price of gas wasn’t his inspiration.

“I think we need to try to conserve our resources,” Vetter says. “Motorcycles could be a big part of that equation, but the manufacturers have focused on adding horsepower instead of fuel efficiency. The beauty of a streamline shaped motorcycle is that it needs less power to reach the same speed over a conventional bike.”

Vetter is no late-comer to motorcycle fuel efficiency. During the 1980 he sponsored famous fuel economy contests. Using streamlined fairings, some of the entrants were able to squeeze more than 400 miles out of a gallon of gas.

“The riders were often in cramped positions and some of the designs were not at all practical,” Vetter said. “My idea is to design a motorcycle that will get 100 miles per gallon at real world speeds and do it in comfort.”

He explains that designing a bike that gets 100 miles per gallon going 55 mph is not all that difficult. It’s when you start moving up to interstate speeds of 70 mph when fuel efficiency becomes much more challenging. “I don’t know if we’ll ever see that type of efficiency in my lifetime,” Vetter admits.

Ultimately Vetter would love to see a zero greenhouse gas motorcycle – a battery-powered machine that you’d plug in to electrical outlets powered by solar panels.

“Motorcycles, or at least a segment of the market, should feature these ultra-high mileage machines,” Vetter said. “That’s why some of use got into the sport in the first place. It was a cheap way to get around. The challenge is to make it cool, make it a fashionable thing to do. We already know it’s the right thing to do.”