Nemo Gould's Futuristic Junk Scooter

"Junk Scooter" by Nemo Gould

When we last encountered Nemo Gould, he had just staged an outstanding exhibit of artwork created during his term as the artist-in-residence at the San Francisco city dump.  As you may or may not recall, Gould did a wonderful job refashioning objects he found at the dump into beautiful pieces of mechanical sculpture, many of which embrace a Jules Verne-like retrofuturism. (Although, frankly, what would you expect from an artist named Nemo?)

Since completing his work at the dump, Gould has taken on a new project — adapting his metalcraft and scavenging skills to the task of creating one extremely bitchin' motor scooter. He calls it the "Junk Scooter" (naturally), and it's the kind of ride that should cause any sensible gearhead, design freak, or biker gang member to drool with admiration.

Starting with the used chassis of a Honda Elite 125 scooter that first rolled off the assembly line during the Reagan Administration, Gould gave the Junk Scooter a radical re-skin using a variety of discarded household appliances and industrial parts. The front fender is adapted from the housing of a midcentury street lamp. The handlebar faring was created from a matched set of vacuum cleaner housings, the taillight is a vacuum cleaner nozzle, and the speedometer indicates velocity via nixie tubes. You get the idea, and it all looks extra-fab when you buff it down to the bare metal.

The inspiration for the project? Gould says:

Ever since I was a child I have been in love with scooters, but I have never owned one.  I have always been especially fond of the vintage ones, but daunted by both the cost and hassles of maintenance.  I asked my young self: “Why can’t you get a nice old looking scooter with a young efficient motor?”, and for that matter “why not give it the whole hot-rod treatment, and make it really ridiculous?”

By that basic design criteria,the Junk Scooter is certainly a success. But Gould is being humble. There's an insane amount of good, old-fashioned mechanical craftsmanship built into the bike, and that never comes easily. The instrument cluster, for example, started out looking like this:

Gould writes:

I had to throw this image in to prove a point.  People always ask how I figure out these projects.  The answer: I do it wrong first.  This was the initial attempt.  It took about a day and a half, looked wrong and wound up in the scrap bin.  But it got me to where I could come up with a design that worked, so I suppose it was time well spent.

The cluster ended up looking like this:

Time well-spent indeed. Count us among the drooling slobs who'd be mighty pleased to buzz around town on a scooter like this!

LINKS:
Nemomatic (website of Nemo Gould)

Junk Scooter! (October 19, 2007 Junk Scooter progress report by Nemo Gould)

Shiny! (November 18, 2007 Junk Scooter progress report by Nemo Gould)

PREVIOUSLY:
Meet Nemo Gould: Artist-In-Residence at the San Francisco Dump

(All photos by Nemo Gould)

Comments

[dagbrown]

WANT!

Seriously, that is an *awesome* scooter. I would proudly drive that thing around Tokyo.

[nemomatic]

Hey, thanks for the post! Be sure to check back in soon. I expect the scooter to be finished any day now. Lots more little details have been worked out to really help pull it all together.

[John]

My wife nixed the idea of buying an Airstream to turn into gCaptain HQ. Maybe I have a better shot getting an official vehicle!?

Charlies Airstream Office

Passionate' sAirstream Office

[Gas Scooters]

Thanks for sharing...love the scooter!