less” begins with streamlining. Although my area of expertise is two-wheelers, the number of wheels is not important. The lessons apply to all vehicles that move through the air. Streamlining allows less power to do more. Less power means our vehicles can be charged from home solar harvesters. This is the basis of the Freedom Machine concept. As important as streamlining is, there are no really streamlined vehicles on the road. Incredibly, hardly anybody knows about or cares what streamlining is. Fifty years ago, the FIM banned streamlining from motorcycles in competition and ushered in an age that favored style over reducing fuel consumption. Saving fuel was not important. Things have changed. Streamlining is easy to talk about but hard to do. When he made his Dymaxion three wheelers (technically motorcycles) Bucky was stuck with Starling Burgess’ wooden boat building technology. Today we have plastics, foam and inflatables. Contests are a great way to develop and advance the state of the art. “Freedom Machine” manufacturers will compete in annual competitions to be certified. Freedom Machine manufacturers and operators will be rewarded with special freedoms. Political, regulatory and manufacturing bodies will have to work in cooperation. Personal transportation operating on local, home-generated energy will make us more prosperous and more secure than mass transportation powered by giant, centralized power plants. Unimagined new industries established in new locations will result. Culture must change to want to “Do more with less”. The Freedom Machine is designed to make fuel-efficiency “cool.” Being “cool” is the easiest way to change culture.

Describe the critical need your solution addresses.

I have been designing a real, running “Freedom Machine” to demonstrate what is possible. My goal is to get at least 100 mpg (or less than 4¢ per mile) at 70 mph, into a 20 mph headwind, while carrying 4 bags of groceries. In a garage full of vehicles, I want my Freedom Machine to be my first choice. There is no such thing today.

I am working with the FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) to allow real streamlining on racetracks. The simple truth is, when racers are streamlined, riders on the street will want to be streamlined too because they will think it is cool. Fuel consumption will be reduced.

I am working with the AMA (American Motorcyclist Association) to create a new class of vehicles based upon the Freedom Machine. Because operators of Freedom Machine will, by any account, be responsible citizens, they will be rewarded with special freedoms. To encourage production of Freedom Machine, manufacturers, will be rewarded with special freedoms, too.

I ride my Freedom Machine around the US demonstrating how to “Do more with Less.” People love it.

After determining which sustainable materials will do the job, I will tool up to offer the streamlined body parts in kit form. This will make it easy for the experimenters of America to build their own vehicles. After all, the streamlined shape is only one shape. Why waste time solving problems already solved?

My next Freedom Machines will be powered directly by solar energy.
I will use them to inspire another series of Fuel Economy contests. This time, in addition to developing their vehicle, contestants will be expected to generate their energy on the day of the race. Three major American tracks have expressed interest. Consider this to be “Racing for the right reasons.”

Explain your initiative in more depth and its stage of development.

Freedom Machines will employ lightweight materials and techniques developed for home-built airplanes, model airplanes, HPVs and solar racers. They will have little in common with existing vehicles. New industries, unrelated to the status quo, will establish themselves in new regions of the country.

If we don’t manufacture them in America, it won’t help our economy much. Therefore, to jump-start production, American manufactures will be free from certain DOT requirements and be indemnified from frivolous lawsuits.

Popular culture needs to change. But, we should not be forced to change. Those who embrace Freedom Machines will have freedoms the rest of us won’t have - freedoms that money cannot buy. This will make culture want to change. None of this will cost our government anything.

The best part of the Freedom Machine plan is that nobody will force you to have one. You will always be free to drive whatever you want.

How does your strategy and approach respond creatively and comprehensively to key issues?

I have been inventing and designing things that “do more with less” since Buckminster Fuller inspired me in the 1960s. Motorcycles did “more with less” so I worked to make motorcycles better transportation. Ed Youngblood, writer and historian wrote:

“Craig Vetter went on to become arguably the most influential American motorcycle designer of our era”.

In 1971, I invented and produced the Windjammer fairing, which led to the modern touring motorcycle. My design for the 1973 Triumph Hurricane was selected to be in the Guggenheim’s “Art of the Motorcycle.”

By the late 70s, motorcycles were no longer getting better fuel economy than cars. I sold my manufacturing company, Vetter Corporation, and created the Craig Vetter Fuel Economy Contests of the 1980s, to learn what it takes to push a person down the road at real, posted speeds. In 5 years, mileage went from 98 mpg to 470 mpg.

In 1999, I was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

Author Bill Stermer wrote:

“His legacy reached into nearly every segment of motorcycling"

I work alone in my studio in Carmel, California. I lecture on “Doing More with Less“ and contribute articles to such publications as IDSA’s Innovation, Cycle World, and Plastics Journal. www.craigvetter.com.