Can a Motorcycle Tow a Car?

By Vicken Y. Totten

May 16 – It's been a long, aggravating day. Now, on the way home, traffic on the freeway is gridlocked thanks to a wreck up ahead. How's a tow truck going to get through this mess?

But then a flashing yellow light approaches in your rear view mirror as a big motorcycle comes white-lining through the traffic, a rotating yellow light on the top of a very large tail trunk.

Arriving at the accident, the rider unfolds some amazing contraption from that humongous tail trunk, and shortly tows away the offending vehicle. What on earth? A tow motorcycle? Or should we call it, a "Towbike?"

That's indeed what it is. A company in Sweden calling itself Coming Through has developed a motorcycle capable of towing disabled cars. This patented invention, sparked by a youngster's frustration in the back seat of his father's car, has become reality. The young Mattias Liljeberg watched as a motorcycle wended its way through traffic that blocked the tow truck. His father informed him that motorcycles didn't tow cars. Instead of accepting adult wisdom, he simply asked, "Why not?"

Mattias never forgot that day, and now, a decade later, with help from brothers and family, plus a couple of engineering degrees, he's made his adolescent fantasy a reality. His prototype towbike won a student business award, the Venture Cup, in 1999. The 15,000 crowns they won (about $160) didn't allow them to work on the idea full-time, but it did help them to solicit development funds. And by April 2003, a proud red modified Honda Gold Wing, equipped with a complete, hydraulically active tow set-up sat at the Stockholm Automobile Conference. Liljeberg named his company Coming Through, and the Gold Wing is officially the "Retriever."

Coming Through is finally ready and eager to increase their customer base. Already, one tow company in Sweden has ordered tow-bikes to complete their towing fleet. The company's dual-language web-site: www.comingthrough.se has a picture archive and a movie of a prototype hauling away a car.

So next time you are stuck in traffic because an accident up ahead is blocking your personal return home, remember that if your local towing company had a Retriever, you might not still be sitting there.