Bill Van Tichelt (VanTech Motorcycles)

Bill VanTichelt (William VanTichelt or Bill VanTech) born February 17, 1935, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is the creator of VanTech Motorcycles (Van Tech Motorcycles).

Moving with his family to Southern California, Bill attended South Pasadena High School, where he graduated in 1952. In 1953, Bill attended Northrop Aero Institute, and graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. After graduation, Bill accepted a position in the research and development department of Frebank Co., based in Glendale, California. During Bill's tenure in this position, he led the design and development of a snap action mechanism for a pressure switch that was utilized by NASA in the production of the Saturn V launch vehicle.

In 1960, Bill along with his father, Bill VanTichelt, Sr., formed VanTech Engineering, located in Visalia, California. VanTech initially began as a design and production shop of specialized hardware for the missile industry. However, in the early sixties, Bill became interested in karting and began applying his engineering background to build a faster kart.

Bill then developed and VanTech produced speed equipment for kart engines. Particularly, Bill developed a reed valve intake manifold for the McCulloch kart engines in 1961.

In 1962, Bill and his father spontaneously decided to build a small pseudo-dirt bike. Their self-designed VanTech frame was paired with bicycle wheels and one of the McCulloch kart engines with the souped-up VanTech manifold. This little prototype however, was the start of bigger things. In early 1963, Ray Hook, the creator of Blendzall Racing Oil, hired VanTech to create a special bike for one of Blendzall's sponsored riders, which bike went on to win every 100cc race it was entered into. With that success, Bill went on to design, fabricate and build two production bikes.

The first model was "The Scrambler" and was developed as an out-and-out racing machine powered by a McCulloch MAC7 kart engine (99cc to 125cc models fit the VanTech mounts). The second model was the "Trials 80". This bike was identical to the Scrambler but was powered by a Yamaguchi (now known as Hodaka) motorcycle engine (originally 80cc). The Scrambler and the Trials 80 gained VanTech a reputation as a builder of sturdy, light and well-machined frames. Bill was a stickler for detail - all of the frames were hand-crafted and jig-built, for precise alignment, and the joints where the tubes meet were all milled to fit. The rear suspension was a conventional swing arm set-up and the front was leading link. Bill in an interview with Cycle World in 1963, stated that he was uncertain what combination of rake and trail would produce the handling characteristics he wanted, so he reviewed all the Cycle World road tests of scramble style bikes to identify those with the desired handling combination and went from there - not exactly the most scientific process, but it produced the desired results - excellent handling.

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