For a New Golden Age, Go Back to First Principles
The “Ex”-man, Virgil Exner, head of Chrysler design in the halcyon days of American Industrial Design, always noted that “she’s got to drive like she looks”. Replace drive with ride and you frame the magnitude of my emotions as I mounted the One for my first ride at 10:32 p.m. on January 7, one hour and 28 minutes from my
This Week Brought Me My First Ride Upon a Curtiss 1
Many may be surprised to learn that I have very little riding experience. After about two seconds on the saddle of The 1, however, I knew this was going to change. The scale of our machine is so un-intimidating – the seat height a dream. The ergonomics, which JT stressed the importance of throughout the entire design and development process, …
Context 1.0
I treasure the wisdom of Ray Dalio’s recent book, Principles, particularly his concise children’s edition, which I have mandated my wonderful grandchildren read, consider and fully digest, mentally. Mr. Dalio deals with the context of your life; the synchronicity of what you love and what you actually are, i.e., the truth concerning purpose. Curtiss believes your motorcycle makes you. Silly …
Why Is It So Expensive?
The BOM; Best & Finest! My fantasy is I’m making this motorcycle for my grandfather who loves motorcycles more than anything else and whom I love with all of my heart. Additive to this dream is that I have all the necessary time, money, experience, talent, bandwidth, and teammate access to do the job to perfection. From this vantage point, …
Proportion – Part 2
Oh, the 19’s! We are so happy to have these big, effective, sticky, skinny wheels and tires. It is so lucky that they both were made available for Curtiss by Dunlop at such a critical creative time for our team. Our old-tech stuff was typical in terms of peg to peg width. All the moving bits and bobs have to …
Proportion – Part 1
At the highest level, Curtiss exists to make the best and finest LEV’s of all. My real contribution to the Curtiss One, other than sharing this aligned vision, was my mandate that the proportion of every Curtiss be ideal. Unique types and styles for varying tastes are envisioned; every Curtiss must have perfect proportion. When I was a kid in the …
True Luxury, Because Luxury Loves Electrification
Matt was the first to offer exclusive luxury motorcycles. In the 90’s, he created the only luxury alternative to a Harley-Davidson; better performance, tighter packaging (and therefore, optimized proportions) and highest-level component and material specifications. Six years ago, when I first began working with Matt, we spent several months exploring how to take luxury two-wheeled motoring further, conceptualizing motorcycles based …