Philadelphia – Like the off-road motorcycles his company wants to improve, Steve Christini has been scrambling for years to gain traction for his small Philadelphia firm, Christini Technologies Inc.
The company got some recently in the form of a $3 million equity-financing commitment from Tradewise L.L.C. of Ridgewood, N.J.
Christini, 34, plans to use the staged investment to kick-start production of his firm’s “all- wheel-drive” system for off- road motorcycles. Today, almost all mass-produced motorcycles are rear-wheel drive.
“I truly believe you are going to witness a revolution in motorcycling,” said Tradewise president Matthew Trattner, who became interested in helping to bankroll the Christini bike after reading a 2005 review of it in Trail Rider magazine, which is published in Medford, N.J.
Trattner rides off-road for recreation but earns his living as a commodities trader. Among other investing partners, he enlisted Vincent Viola, a former New York Mercantile Exchange chairman and part owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team.
Viola’s participation was a magnet for subsequent deep- pocketed investors, Trattner said.
“We’re not in here to make a couple million,” Trattner said, scoffing at the notion of such a meager return. “We’re here to make big bucks. It’s something that’s changing the rules.”
Christini’s system can be fitted onto certain existing motorcycles, or become the basis for a new line of bikes. Its advantage, say riders who have tried it, is that having two drive wheels gives the motorcycle better traction on loose or steep surfaces, improves handling and makes the machine safer and easier to operate.
Yamaha, the Japanese conglomerate that makes pianos, music equipment, golf carts – and motorcycles – has been working on the two-wheel drive concept for many years but is not marketing the innovation to consumers. On its corporate website, the company says that its “2Trac” technology is for competition only and that it will “further study” using it in other products.
