An actual motorcycle.

It looked like this before I tore it down for its steam transformation:



and now it looks like this:



The old "boardtracker" style bikes aren't a million miles from what I want, but I want something unique, something that can't be too well fit into any category.

Thanks for the link, there's some ideas there, definitely for the wheels. Long individual spokes seem to be the way to go. I had some on my car, too, being a secret steamfag I had alloy wheels put on that were roughly the same as the old LNER Peppercorn A1 steam locomotives, though they were very post-Victorian, late 1940s I think. Last of the herculean steam monsters before diesel got going.

With the bike, I'd like to go for a bit more of a fantasy thing (partly thanks to Shadowbinders) rather than a reference to anything in particular, and it's that which has got me at a loss for ideas. But some are coming together. I'm gonna read Chapter 1 again as that has lots of True North in it.

I went to a "curios shoppe" for inspiration.

This is one shelf out of... lots.



The thing right at the bottom with two wheels, not that it can be seen at all, is a miniature steam locomotive. It's bigger than the one I had when I was very young, mine was about the size of a toilet roll tube, and the steam piston was driven in both directions (constantly on the power) so it would go twice the speed/power for half the duration. Nifty. I didn't buy anything there, but it's good to know that there's a shop full of things I could use.