Visitors to this evening’s Bike Nite in Science Hill will have the opportunity to view a special motorcycle designed by local resident Jerry Wayne Dixon — one that took 40 years to become a reality.
The “Last Ride” motorcycle, also known as the “Bones Bike,” will be on display from 4 to 8 p.m. today in downtown Science Hill.
You won’t be able to miss it — just look for the grinning skeleton with headlights for eyes.
Dixon is a retired teacher whose uninspired biology students in the late 1960s inadvertently helped inspire the design.
“In the school term of 1967, I was a fledgling teacher at Nancy High School,” Dixon recalled.
“Having a major degree in art, I was allowed to teach the subject to some students during my personal work hour. My primary assignment, however, was the teaching of biology on my minor degree.”
Dixon says some students in his biology class were “quite burned out on the entire school situation, and showed little interest in anything beyond their leather jackets, which they insisted on wearing through both winter and summer. The sum total of the little group’s interests included hot rods and motorcycles.”
Dixon tried to no avail to get the students interested in his course, and he soon realized he would have to somehow build on their love of fast machines to reach them. Since the students seemed to enjoy drawing sketches of motorcycles, Dixon believed that art could be the key to developing a relationship with them.
As the students studied in his room, Dixon would take a seat near the uninvolved “sketchers” and begin drawing what he called an “anthropomorphic blending of human skeleton and motorcycle.”
Suddenly, the study of human anatomy became appealing to the students who’d strictly had motorcycles on their minds.
“The initial sketches sparked a strong interest in one — and on to another — member of the group,” Dixon said.
“The door was opened! This ... established my primary method of teaching for all those years. Through ensuing years, I employed my ability with art and the image to reach many reluctant students as well as to encourage deeper study from my advanced students.”
Over the years, Dixon gave hundreds of his sketches to his biology and art students — many of which were images of a blended skeleton and motorcycle.
In the early 1980s, Dixon began sketching the concept, which had by then become known as “Last Ride,” in a more serious manner.
“This sketching began in art class on a single sheet of typing paper,” he said.
“The skull area took up much of the first sheet, so I began to tape additional sheets, one to another, until the first large sketch of ‘Last Ride’ was completed. Over these multiple sheets, I taped a large 24”x36” single sheet of paper and traced the work. Later, this was transferred onto a more permanent material.”
Even after such an elaborate undertaking, however, Dixon’s concept was put aside for years. The large tracing remained rolled up under his bed for about 20 years until his daughter, Carrie Dixon Weise, obtained it, framed it, and mounted it on a wall in her home.
“In 2005, my friend, Rok (Miremami), and I were visiting (my daughter’s) home,” Dixon said.
“It was then we came upon the framed ‘Last Ride.’ After a long hesitation in front of the work, little was said, even though my friend was visibly taken by what he had seen. It wasn’t, however, until early the following morning that he expressed himself. At 4 a.m. my phone rang. It was Rok saying he had paced the floor and hadn’t slept all night.”
Miremami told Dixon that every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was the image of the motorcycle.
The two men immediately began discussing ways to turn the drawing into a real machine.
A visit to Orange County, N.Y., proved both short and fruitless,” Dixon recalled.
“After no more than five minutes and OCC’s refusal to sign a non-disclosure agreement, we excused ourselves and bade them goodbye. From there, we visited a model company in New Jersey with hopes the company could handle the fabrication of the skeleton while a neighboring motorcycle builder could possibly do the build. After a couple of return visits, things failed to gel.”
Finally, Dixon and Miremami learned of a builder in Michigan who might agree to consider working with them on the concept.
“’Dozer’ of Dozer Cycle was contacted, and we met with him the following morning,” Dixon said.
“Even though he was loading his work for a show, he courteously delayed his departure to meet with us. With non-disclosure forms signed, Dozer was shown sketches and preliminary plans for ‘Last Ride.’ Our fates were sealed. Agreements were signed and details were ironed out, and handshakes signaled the onset of the build.”
It took Dozer nearly two years to build the elaborate bike.
“It is difficult to put into words the coming together of hearts and minds through the creative process involved in such a labor of love,” Dixon said.
Forty years after Dixon sketched his first version of a “Bones Bike,” the real deal was introduced to the public at the 2007 Detroit AutoRama. Since then, it’s been displayed at numerous motorcycle and automobile exhibits — even in art museums — across the United States.
And today, the dream-come-true will make its debut in the very county in which it was conceived.
Dixon says his invention represents both the bright side and the dark side of motorcycling.
“The work carries with it a dual personality,” he said.
“For the devout motorcyclist, it represents a refusal to relinquish a love for the motorcycle and for the ride, a bonding love from the human for his machine. On the polar end of this position, ‘Last Ride’ represents the morbid potential of impending death for anyone who should venture to ride one of the infernal machines.”
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Local 'Bones Bike' creation on display at Bike Night
Dixon took nearly 40 years to finish ‘Last Ride’
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