Custom motorcycles have come a very long way from the days of TV’s American Chopper, and, unfortunately to many, West Coast Choppers is no longer in business. The one word those two share is a good illustration of the industry’s current progress; the high-dollar custom chopper is losing its popularity in the marketplace for one reason or another.
Some in the industry have welcomed this development since they have been waiting for more creativity to emerge from the numerous design shops instead of the same raked-out, hard-tail, chopper clone. Let’s move on.
Enter the incredibly diverse talent known as Eddie Meeks, the North Carolina-based guitar-maker, architect, sculptor, engineer, painter, and custom bike builder. After dropping out of the custom bike market many years before due to Meeks getting tired of watching the industry succumb boring repetition, he decided to help his friend Kendall Johnson produce a machine for a Biker Build-Off project. It was in this way that his mind began stirring again, looking for a new project. It was time for him to get back to work.
In order to see just how much of a departure from the norm that Meeks’ latest creation has brought us, let’s look at the specifications. First of all, the Quantum
Leap, as Meeks has aptly named it, is a front-wheel drive motorcycle; a huge 360mm tire is driven on the left side by a custom-machined and built shaft-drive setup. This is powered by a right-side drive Baker transmission which he has custom built to take power from the back of the engine, up to under the seat, straight over the engine, into a shaft which runs vertically into the front swingarm where it turns again to go into the front wheel.
Next on the list of odd features, the Leap steers using its rear wheel via a hydraulic system connected to the handlebars. Meeks put two hydraulic cylinders at the front, covertly ran cables down to the rear, and then placed two more cylinders there to control the wheel’s, thus the vehicle’s, direction. It is designed so that it can have Custom Cycles Controls’ air suspension at both ends – as opposed to being a rigid - and to make it a slightly less radical adjustment from a standard motorcycle control layout.
And, speaking of the controls, Meeks gifted the Quantum Leap with 360 Brakes hidden in the hubs of the RMD Billet Wheels, which shine lustrously. He then gave it an internal, twist-grip clutch, an internal throttle, hid all the associated cables, and flush-mounted the bare minimum of switches, so that the handlebar is almost perfectly smooth. A tubular frame connected to some flat steel hold up a 101 cubic-inch (1655cc) Patrick Racing V-twin fed by a single Mikuni carburetor.
The extensive attention to detail Meeks put into the bodywork and exposed mechanical components quickly catches the eye. He nickel-plated all of it in either shiny, black or copper; there is no chrome.. The lines are reminiscent of the Tron lightcycles from newer of the two films, Tron: Legacy, except that reality has forced some basic compromises.
Even Meeks believes that the Quantum Leap might be engineering in the extreme. But, just being able to create this bike the way he did, with all of his innovative solutions to the problems the design created, and pursuing such a novel concept in the first place, will give Meeks a certain confidence and ability which he can use for future ideas.
Other brilliant designers and builders will hopefully see it for an inspiration and see beyond its novelty and focus on the overall theme - departure from the accepted, an exercise in the ‘what can a motorcycle be’ vein.
The owner of the Quantum Leap is Simon Solomon, and he has yet to take a ride on the machine; it has been on a show tour of sorts since being completed. For Solomon, the bike is to be a showpiece and will eventually end up in a private collection (anyone say “Leno?”).
There are probably many opinions out there on this bike, some will like it and some won’t. However, the Quantum Leap is very much its namesake in the thought, engineering and skill required to make it a real, functioning motorcycle. That aspect of this creation - its ingenuity - will go much further than the bike ever will. Eddie Meeks is a modern renaissance man in the truest sense of the word, enjoy his work.
