After checking out their website, Wikked Steel’s St. Petersburg, Florida, shop appears to be the equivalent of Lockheed’s famous California Skunk Works known for little ditties of the air like the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-22 Raptor to name just a few. As far as flying, if it’s strictly unconventional and unheard of, Lockheed’s your go- to guy (so to speak) and so is Wikked Steel when it comes to strictly unconventional and unheard of two-wheel (or more as you might have noticed) earthbound vehicles. Nobody could ever say Stephen is afraid to push the limits a bit and then shove them a hell of a lot more until there are no limits.

Like a lot of government projects, Battlestar was built under strict time limits because of a bike build-off deadline. Unlike most government projects, they met that deadline although I’m not sure what cost overruns Wikked Steel ran into with something this different. Stephen explained how he did this saying, “This bike is a Wikked Steel concept, but because of the deadline for the bike build-off we had a lot of local talent assisting with the build. Will Robertson designed the bike while Robert Hitch from Aztec Welding Design and Fabrication in Largo, Florida, fabricated the frame, gas tank, and one-off front end. The bike is totally powder coated, there’s no paint anywhere, by Joe and Jerry from ProFab Customs Powder Coating in Clearwater, Florida.”

Stephen started with a 2001 Yamaha Road Star engine which is about as spiritually close as you can get to an air-cooled Harley without having S&S stamped on it somewhere. For reasons unbeknownst to me, he’s hopped up the engine considerably opening it up from 1600cc to 1800cc while chucking in some high-compression pistons and doing extensive headwork. All of this high-performance engine combustion gets shot out of what looks like my buddy Charlie’s Tailgunner exhaust system. Yup, that’s a lot of work for what’s surely a strictly-showbike bike, but I don’t think Stephen can help himself once he gets started on a project.

The Softail-style frame and girder fork are definitely in a world of their own. Especially when you just happen to notice that there are two wheels stuffed between the swingarm’s arms. Just to make it a little more interesting and a bit zanier, Stephen covered all three wheels of this (is this actually a trike then?) in aggressive knobby tires. I’m going to have to check out the F-117 to see if the landing gear is correspondingly covered in knobby rubber too, although I think somebody from Wikked Steel took a little artistic liberty on this item. There doesn’t appear to be a brake in sight, but from the tell tale scaring on the rear sprocket, I’ll just have to assume there’s a single hidden sprotor setup behind the swingarm.

Just like Lockheed’s Skunkworks, Stephen’s quite tight with info and that includes what it’s like to ride this bike with dual rear wheels. I’ll have to assume it’s quite stable in a straight line, but turning is another matter. Hey, I’ve been to Florida and there aren’t a hell of a lot of things we call curves elsewhere so maybe this is no big deal. Actually it’s not a big deal in my view as this is what we call a show bike and you gotta admit it’s putting on quite a show just sitting there. And, that’s why I said this bike is far from a stealth vehicle although I don’t think Stephen really intended it not to be able to be seen. Maybe it’s just a whole new contradictory concept of “In your face stealth” and that’s what I’m going with.