84 / CYCLE WORLD
Tuluie was doing postdoctoral
research on gravitation in the early
1990s when he got a meeting with
Polaris in Roseau, Minnesota, which is
closer to Winnipeg than Minneapolis.
“It’s freezing there, and in the
spring it turns to mud,” he explains.
“In the summer there are clouds of
mosquitos, and in the fall the mud
dries and makes this superfine dust
that goes everywhere. There’s dust
on the development workbenches. I
thought, How can you do motorcy-
cle development there?” Still, it was
a remarkable first job in the motor-
cycle industry.
While working at Polaris, a racing
snowmobile engine caught Tuluie’s
eye: a 700cc two-stroke twin that
became the basis for his most outra-
geous racer, the Tul-Aris (CW, March
2001). It was the first motorcycle to
be simulated entirely by computer,
and was finished in 1999.ABOVE: A magical garage, housing every-
thing from Dr. Tuluie’s Norton Commando
racer to more recent acquisitions, like the
badass 1957 Kellison EXP001 prototype,
and a daily-driver 1932 Alvis Speed 20. His
1993 Tul-Da Eccentric 500cc two-stroke
racer is on the bench.