Back in 2001, Wolfgang owned a famous European-built show-winning motorcycle, World Is Not Enough, which he classified as a “square” motorcycle. It had square forks, exhausts, headlight, etc. In other words, there was not one curve anywhere on the bike other than the tires, basically. “I was inspired by this bike and decided to build a triangular motorcycle, which is no easy task, especially since many parts have to be circular in order to function,” said Wolfgang. With Triangular, he fused geometric precision with fantasy, modern technology, and engineering rigor with artistic extravagance. Triangular is not only an exceptional motorcycle, but has also raised the bar and established new trends in the custom world.

Triangular came about much like an episode of TV’s The A-Team where Hannibal Smith calls upon buddies B.A. Baracus, Faceman, and Murdock to straighten out other people’s problems. Wolfgang gathered the best German custom builders together to form the K-Force Team. I can almost hear their theme song playing now as these craftsmen from all over Germany are picked up in a Teutonic rendition of Mr. T’s beloved van. Meanwhile, using the latest technology instead of winging it, K-Force worked on computer generated designs to help them solve the seemingly insurmountable problems they faced in making a bike that was truly triangular. The fork alone was probably the most difficult component to fabricate, it being a mono-block design and having to be three-sided. K-Force took a different tack by doing the initial design as a 1:1 scale wooden model in order to visualize all the angles and any potential problems. Bodo Hayen was the lead man on the fork and also contributed to other pieces on Triangular. Building a frame that is not just triangular, but also had an artistic flow to it created its own share of design dilemmas. It also had to be strong, reliable, and rideable. Thomas Habermann stepped up to the plate to handle this aspect and built one beefy design incorporating 40 degrees of rake with twin tri-sided downtubes in the shape of a triangle and a very wide triangle flowing down from the back of the tank with the rear fender seemingly growing out of that piece and balanced it off with a triangulated front fender.

Sitting in the middle of all this artistic chaos is Harley’s counterbalanced Twin Cam, now sporting twin Mikuni 42 HSR’s behind a K-Force air cleaner. This has to be the first time a Twin Cam has exhaled through a set of triangular pipes; it would be interesting to see the dyno-sheet results, which hopefully wouldn’t be in the shape of a triangle. BDL provided the belt drive (I’m surprised K-Force didn’t somehow use a series of v-belts to keep the theme going) and connects to an H-D 5-speed and to the rear wheel via belt. A strong hint that this wild bike can actually be ridden is that it’s a softail design instead of the somewhat expected show-only rigid. Progressive Suspension is used to soften the blows from the K-Force designed wheels while serious braking is courtesy of PM and K-Force. The strange black round things enveloping those wheels are from Avon and no matter how hard K-Force might’ve tried, the old saying, “You can’t re-invent the wheel,” is terribly true.

The brawny, vee-shaped handlebars (which would look right at home on Judge Dredd’s bike) have useful mirrors with turn-indicators and showcase the K-Force headlight and futuristic front end. Seating is courtesy of a Namibia ostrich that should be proud to be the focal point of the seat stitched up by GTS. Simple and clean paint and graphics are by Marcus Pheil of Pheil Design.

Geometry was never one of my favorite subjects. Angles and their dangles just didn’t seem to register with my brain in a classroom. Out here in the real world, I know a good angle when I see one. Wolfgang saw one too and took it to a whole new level.