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Peter Kaspar aka 'The Torch Meister' does everything fast - with due care and consideration of course.
"I LIKE TO GO FAST. I LIKE TO RACE. Touring's too slow. Don't quote me on that".
Thus spoke Peter Kaspar, welder, paint booth guru and veteran of 5 years in production at Bike Friday. His land record: 57mph, on his first Air Friday.
To loiter in Peter's garage is to discover an obsession with machines, testaments to "human ingenuity". He likes the kind that get him from A to B in the fastest possible manner - and that he's built with his own hands.
Born in New Jersey, he was home schooled in Asia then followed his chemical engineer dad through Germany, Japan, and the Philippines. No wonder he doesn't feel the need to tour anymore.
"I make a great travel bike, but myself - I hate to travel."
His first invention as a schoolboy was "Kaspar Kannon Mk I", a device that shot beer cans - empty or full, depending on the target - as ammunition. Mk II, thirty years later, shot golf balls. His current projects include a working hovercraft in conjunction with his nine-year old son Max ("he's by far the best thing I've ever helped build") an electric car, and a small single engine airplane which is an ongoing project that gets shelved when things like "relationship-building" with his fiancé take precedence. "Gotta know your priorities."
He loves airplanes, ("neat machines"), and holds a private pilot's license, a commercial helicopter license and "almost" a glider license. And, he's actually owned all three machines.
"I can close my eyes and fly" he says, shutting his eyes and making sweeping gestures with prayer-hands.
When not in the air he's at ground level, having built thirty (30) bicycles in his life. He doesn't stand around smelling the oxyacetylene either, having come first in the Oregon 2000 State Team Time Trial, second in State Criterion Championship, and second in the 1999 Burley Tandem Classic on his Bike Friday tandem, beaten only by co-founder Alan Scholz and partner Jeff Linder on the TwinAir tandem.
"Bike Friday sold a lot of tandems that year," he said.
Is there anything he hasn't ridden?
"Nope. I was the #3 motocross champion in the Philippines, and a dressage student at the Royal Equestrian Academy in Bangkok. Right now I am concentrating on showjumping".
We left Peter devising a way to heat a tortilla faster, "because there's nothing worse than a cold tortilla. Well, maybe liver". Here's what he came up with:
Kaspar's Toaster Tortilla: Fold dinner-plate sized tortilla in half. Place the ends of it into the two slots of a standard toaster and slam down handle. Fill with refried beans or what-have-you. Eat fast.
Take a look at a Bike Friday in Peter's Miata
Take a glimpse behind the plastic curtain at Peter and the Production Team in full swing ...
Peter (center) is one of the fast guys on the lunchtime ride - seen here on his personal 'Airless' Friday.
For more information, follow this link http://www.bikefriday.com/bf/production.