For several years I had been conceptualizing an entirely new motorcycle suspension based on a single composite leaf spring that would suspend front and rear.
When Jim Jacoby wandered into my shop, I was grateful to be asked about what had been rattling around in my mind motorcycle-wise. After looking at the sketches, Jim offered to fund a build. It was one of the happiest moments of my life, I was back in the game and had a great partner that would inspire me to do the impossible.
Meanwhile in Birmingham Alabama, Brian Case and Lee Conn had been working on an all-new engine for a start-up motorcycle company – Motus. The V-4 engine was designed with the help of a fellow named Jeff Sperry. An aspiring young engineer, David McMahon volunteered to help with digital work and pioneered an entirely new process for constructing the complex perimeter chassis. All the pieces of the puzzle came together – Motus engine and Bienville chassis. Three prototypes were built.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an event that I had been dreaming of attending for years, and when the invitation by Lord March to actually participate in the 2015 hillclimb was offered, I was stunned. Watching the Legacy race up the hill in front of 80,000 gawking gearheads was a lifetime achievement realized, and the ultimate in Performance Art. My old friend Alan Cathcart had been working behind the scenes to make it happen.
Three U.S. patents were awarded for the unique composite leaf spring suspension, worm gear trail adjusters, and bilaterally symmetrical composite suspension members.
This would be the third motorcycle platform prototyped in New Orleans and the final work done at the 427 Esplanade Avenue studio.
