SPENCER — If you plan to go biking with Tim Wolcott, you had better wear a life jacket.
You won't see Tim on a Harley or some old Indian motorcycle racing down the highway on a hot summer day. He'll be on a Wetbike flying across some lake at 40 mph.
The 25-year-old Charlton resident works at Spencer Auto Body in Spencer repairing cars damaged in collisions, but when he goes home, he tinkers with contraptions most people have never seen before, including Wetbikes.
"It's like a motorcycle on the water," he said. "It's pretty neat."
It is not a Jet Ski-style personal watercraft. It is similar, but more challenging to run. Jet Skis run over the waves. Wetbikes rise up in the water on runners. While Jet Skis steer much like a boat from the rear, the steering of a Wetbike is much more like that of a motorcycle. It has a ski on the front that turns with the handlebars, and the rider leans to help with turning.
Wetbikes are old school. They were first produced in 1978 and last produced in 1992. The version Mr. Wolcott uses now is a 1988 one with an 800cc two-stroke engine. The key detail is they go about 44 mph — much slower than Jet Skis, but a wilder ride.
Wetbikes also have a movie connection. James Bond rode one in the 1977 film "The Spy Who Loved Me." Wetbikes were also used in a water chase scene in the 1986 movie "Police Academy 3: Back in Training."
Tim said he got involved with Wetbikes after buying a stand-up Jet Ski in 2007. The stand-up Jet Skis are like the traditional model, but the rider stands or crouches and the handlebars rise up.
"It was kind of cool," he said "I had one of those, got kind of bored with it. I found a YouTube video of the Wetbike and said, 'I've got to have one.' I tracked it down and bought the first one I found."
He didn't just find a new machine and take it out on the lake. He completely restored it. It had been sitting for about three years. He spent a year working out bugs.
"The second season I took it out," he said.
Since then he has become addicted to using the water motorcycle and has bought other Wetbikes, restored them and resold them. He makes a little money when he resells the craft, but it is mainly a hobby born from his love of tinkering with things and of being in the water. His family has a house at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire and he has always been a swimmer and boater.
"I'm a fish," he said. "If I lived on a lake, I'd swim every night."
The Wetbike he owns is considered an antique. There are fewer and fewer of the machines available.
Read more at telegram.com
http://www.telegram.com/article/20130611/NEWS/106119931/1101/local
Video by Christine Peterson
