Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Greatest Of All Time: 1963 Tote Gote

I'm all for the decentralization of information, but sometimes I have to wonder.  I went looking Wikipedia for some info about the Tote Gote.  The intro for the Tote Gote entry is "The Tote Gote is an off-road motorcycle that was produced from 1958 to 1970. It was developed by Ralph Bonham, who is credited with inventing the off-road motorcycle."  I had no idea that off-road bikes didn't exist until the late 50's.  Here's your chance to own a chunk of history.  Find this 1963 Tote Gote for sale in Lancaster, CA for $850 via craigslist.


As the story goes, Ralph Bonham got tired of walking up and down the mountains of Utah hunting goats, and invented the off-road motorcycle.  I guess so, if you discount scrambles happening in Europe 30 years prior.  Anyway, Ralph designed the mini bike to be able to "Tote" a dead animal out of the wilderness with the agility of a "Gote".  This Gote is a model 600, which originally would have come with a 6hp Briggs & Stratton, but in this example has been replaced with an 8hp B&S.  The bike would have also come with a lighting system, but maybe the elk wasn't quite dead and kicked it off.


I think today this would be a fun little thing to ride around private land, if you had access, but the fact it is unlicensed, probably precludes its intended use in the woods.

See a better bike to strap to the front of your RV? email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com

Gianni is Daily Turismo's Pacific Northwest correspondent.
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2 comments:

  1. OwenDRUMNovember 16, 2016 at 7:17 AM

    So is the Tote Goat a Goat-Tote? Looks like fun for any kid under 12 years of age!

    ReplyDelete
  2. CFloNovember 18, 2016 at 8:34 AM

    Totes McGoats!

    ReplyDelete

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