Actor William Shatner, best known to many as Star Trek’s original Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, has boldly declared his intention to take a cross-country motorcycle ride. During a Q&A session at Fandomfest in Louisville, Kentucky, at the end of July, the beloved actor announced his upcoming road trip. Kentucky sculptor Douwe Blumberg will design the motorcycle in Art Deco style, and American Wrench of Chicago will build not one, but three custom motorcycles. Shatner was quoted as saying, “One I’ll take and I’ll drive it from Chicago to L.A. And these other two will be for sale. What a thrill to drive a motorcycle cross country!”
Blumberg and Shatner have collaborated on artwork before, with the artist designing a large piece for the actor’s L.A. home. Blumberg also created the Las Vegas Veterans Memorial as well as the “America’s Response” special operations monument to be placed at Ground Zero in New York City. As far as we can tell, this is the artist’s first motorcycle project, and we are curious to see the result.
At Fandomfest Shatner reminisced about motoring from Philadelphia to Indianapolis a few years ago. He said about driving through the Allegheny Mountains, “I opened the car up to 155 mph, so I’m going along the empty highway, nobody’s around, and I realize 155 is a felony.”
After the 82-year-old actor completes his road trip, the motorcycle he rides will be placed in a museum. We Trekkies can hardly wait until the captain goes boldly where no man (well, at least this man) has gone before.
