Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125988
...... • raJ By Gary Van Voorh is "Nobody wanted fairings in 1967, but today fairings are a part of American motorcycling. 'I believe the Windjammer made the fairing market in th is country ; it m ad e fairings accep tab le." . . . . If Craig Wilham Vetter IS 32 , se assur. ed , d dextremelydtalented fi ndI an . a f h ' h 36 oresl~ te esigner, an '. In . t e . I.na analysl~ , probably con:ect. In hIS opInIon of the. •mpac.t .o f the Wm dJammer on th e A~en~an fa.mn~ .mar~c;:; th e as, In IS elg years .o n e motorcycl.e-scene : b een re~p onslb le for e nough m novative practices (among he ni . f h f h eavy t h em t e plOnee':Ing 0 t e use 0 gaul«' . ~BS plastic for t he manufacture of fairings and other co m ponents) to clai m, wit ho ut b o as t f u ln e s s. a significant "place in th e history of · t I'" A m e rrcan rno o rcyc mg . T he driving fo rce b ehind Velte r is th e hi tt nee d t 0 b e , as I S co m pany rno 0 states , "the first t o do it righ t ." In this respect everything t hat is built by the Vetter Fairing Company (wh ic h with Vetter Design , Vetter In t ernat io nal , and Vetter Plastics make up th e Vetter Corp oration) is looked up on as a constant series o f imp ro vemen t s ov er the previous product . It is th is emphasis on be ing ~h e b est , o n pro vid ing quali t y and the httle extra to uc he s , that. has earn ed Vetter the top spot In a competitive a nd growing market. I rd t d t d littl n 0 er 0 un ers an a I e more about the man from whose mind came the Windj ammer fairing seri es (a nd th e Series 1000 and Phantom b efo re it) , little niceties like Hippo Hands a nd the Rainy Day Fender, the all new (and innovative) Terraplane sideca r . the Blue M Ia i . f BMW d 1\" a x a irm g or owners an outside design products t hat produced t he Ha rley -D avidson 74 Liberat or f . . d th T ' h H . airing ,an e nurnp. urn cane, Cycle Ne,,:s ~ornered Craig for sever.a! ho urs of h is lime. Actually what we d id . . f was , . offer him a respite rom th.e q uestio n a nd answer atmo sphere of his di I . h H T d Sh ' ISP a y In t e. o usto n . ra e ow In return fo r a q U1 7ter q uesti o n a nd an swe r atmospher e In th e Cy cl e News motorhom e. Vetter ' s entry into th e mot orcycling scen e to ok place 1967, although it was a trip to Aspen, Col orad o for a d esign conference, aft er hi s graduatio n from the University of Illinois' School o f Design in 1965 , th at set th e co urse. It was his fi rst long trip, although he had be en a b ike rider fo r many y ears. It opened his ey es t o t he problems o f th e long d istan ce rider a nd th e person wh o uses a mo torcycle as his main mode o f transportat ion. " I q ui ckly re a lized th e need for a fairin g. I also real ized th at t here wasn 't a nyt hing on the market th at I fel t worth having. So I sp ent th e winter o f 1966·67 d esigning the Series 1000 fairing ." With an $8 0 lo an from a gir lfriend Craig Vetter wa s in business. Or so he figured . "The Se ries 1000 was wh at I th ought a fair ing sho uld be; unfo rtunatel y the cus to m ers had o t he r id eas. I was a little off o n th e m arket." It was also h is bap t ism in t o th e w orld o f big business-or a n y business for th at matter . "I got into t ro ub le fast bec a use I'd never been in bus iness before and didn't really know th e procedures fo r man ufacturing and marketing a product. It t ook ab o ut th ree yea rs t o get th e ball reall y rolling." "it wa s d u ri ng this interim period t hat he took on a n outs ide d esig n proj ect t hat led to th e Tri umph Hurrican e, a n exe r cis e in th e c re a t i o n o f a st ree t! ca fe! ch op pe r!individ ualized bik e b ased o n the BSA Rocket -S, "The Hurricane was a co mme rcia l choppe r th at m ad e the cho pp er resp ectabl e. It was th e right bik e for th e right t im e (wh en it was d esigned in 1969 ) , but it wa s to o late for th e ma rket b y th e time t he British built it ( 19 72) ." There was also a Triumph Bonneville project ( 1 9 7 2) that was t o be called th e Bonneville TT and incorporated, a c co rding to Vetter , man y unique fe atures which he was reluctant to di scuss. The proj ect n ever made it to the 'm a r k e t p l ac e b ec au se of financi al problems that th e British co mpa ny began to experience . In 19 70 he was ch os en b y a panel of d ist inguished d esign ed ncators as the recipient o f th e seve nth co mmi ssio n in · A L C O A ' s ( Alu m in u m Company of Am eri ca ) "Ventures In Design" program . The program was a concept created to re cognize th e work of yo u ng professional designe rs of ability and promise. His award winning p roj ect was a still water aerator, a device designed as a temporary method of preventing t he destructio n of slow moving streams and ponds through m an made pollutants by re p lenishi ng th e oxygen supply so that it will sus tain the a nimal life needed to keep t he water fresh . . Als o during this pe r iod Vetter began t o pl an f o r a c hange from the c o n v e n t i o n a l fair i ng m a t e rial to some t hi ng be tte r suit ed . In the beginning a ll Vetter fairings were m ad e from fib ergl ass lik e every o ne else's. The tooling was d one b y Vetter , but the work was j obbed o ut t o loc al fib e rglass bo at manufacturers. As th e business grew he b egan wh at he ca lls "vertical i n t e gr a t io n or the pr o cess of inco rpora ti ng th os e functions j obbed H