Custom Trike Keeps Flammia On Road

WATERTOWN, CT – Remember the old line about going to a fight and a hockey game broke out? Well, that’s kind of what happened Sunday at the Harvest Cruze car show here: a motorcycle showed up. Actually, it was a highly-customized, hot rod trike owned by Domenic Flammia of Waterbury, CT.

Decorated with dragons and stretched so much that it was as long as the 1972 Mercedes Benz C250 that was parked beside it, the one-off trike garnered much attention. Flammia started building it a little more than five years ago and it’s still a work in progress.

“I’m old, got fake hips on me, and two wheels don’t get along anymore,” said the 65-year-old Flammia, who reported finding a Big Bear Choppers frame in California. He then added an engine from a 1973 Volkswagen Beetle.

The transmission is a four-speed and the shifter is on the left. Atop the shifter is a skull with lizard eyes that were obtained from a taxidermist.

Beneath the gas tank is a sculpture of dragon that cost only $20 on eBay. The fenders are painted with dragons as well, the artwork done by Robin Church of Robin Graphics in Winsted, CT.

“These fenders are off a tractor,” Flammia said, explaining that that they cost $40, compared to the likely $800 that actual car fenders might have set him back.

“It drives just like a car. It’s awesome,” he said, noting that the lone glitch to the trike are the brakes. “They work but after a while they get soft.”

Flammia estimated that he has “probably $10,000 into it,” and it shows. The only times he worries when riding it is when he’s on the highway and 18-wheelers come alongside. “You’re eye level to the hub,” he said.

While the trike has a tachometer, it does lack a speedometer. Said Flammia, “Why would you want to know how fast you’re going?”

Why indeed?