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Thread: Harley motorcycle pulls a hearse for special funerals

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    Senior Member A Midnight Dreary's Avatar
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    Harley motorcycle pulls a hearse for special funerals



    Rising over the gentle hills in Kansas, it looked like a horseless caisson pulled by … something.

    And then it grew larger.

    No horses. But there was a 2002 three-wheeled Harley-Davidson with a 100-horsepower engine, pulling a black hearse.

    A farmer nearby stopped his work to give a thumbs-up. Motorcycle driver Ty Conklin swallowed hard as he passed.

    “It always gets me,” he said, even though this is his 16th time chauffeuring someone to their final resting place.

    Conklin’s black hearse gleamed like a mirror under the spring sunshine. White-walled tires. Silver spokes. Leather carriage roof. Gas lamp replicas adorned with United States flags.

    But the gawking moment that grabs most (besides seeing a motorcycle pulling a hearse) is a special feature on this hearse: seven-foot windows on each side displaying the casket. On this day, it was a flag-draped casket carrying veteran Donald Ray Landreth, 65, of Ozawkie, Kan.

    “I wanted people to see inside,” said Conklin, 40, from Springfield. “This is the way to go. A last ride that’s classy.”

    Conklin is the owner, inventor and driver of the Last Ride Motorcycle Hearse Co., found at www.lastridemotorcycle hearse.com, a unique way for human remains to journey to the cemetery.

    “I had a friend pass away, and it just didn’t seem right to put him in the back of a station wagon. … Motorcycle riders are the most non-traditional people on the planet.”

    The idea came to Conklin last year at a bar. Over beers, he and his best buddy, Curtis Weatherman, sketched out a design on a napkin: a bike strong enough to haul a human body in a casket and a hearse worthy of that mission.

    Weatherman, owner of a bike shop, Increased Throttle Response, knew how to pump up an engine to carry more weight. “And I knew exactly how I wanted that hearse to look,” Conklin said.

    For months, every Wednesday night was “Hearse Night,” as the men, along with friends, worked long in the evening welding and wrenching, buffing and drilling, bolting together the idea piece by piece.

    In May, Conklin drove his first “customer.” Since then, he’s circled Table Rock Lake. Driven miles along rural roads retracing past rides. He’s watched as biker families hold Dean Martin-like roasts of the deceased, standing over their graves. Laughing and crying, remembering them.

    “It’s such an honor to do this,” said Conklin, a bail bondsman in Springfield. “I had no idea this would grab me the way it has.”

    He offers his service for free to any police officer, fireman, EMT or service member killed in the line of duty, he said. For a Kansas City funeral, the cost would run about $500.

    But he warns that his tricked-out engine only gets 100 miles to a tank. “If I go too far, I’ll have to pull into a gas station,” he said.

    Hasn’t happened yet.

    “This is all about having a good time. People either get it or not. Bikers, they get it.

    “These are celebrations of life.”

    http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/1123771.html

  2. #2
    Senior Member blu's Avatar
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    Re: Harley motorcycle pulls a hearse for special funerals

    I have seen this thing in real life.  It's really cool.

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