Beach-area dwellers tend to exhibit a distinctly jaded attitude toward the odd, the strange and the weird. Fire-breathing jugglers perform weekly on the beach; armor-plated, tornado-chasing vehicles park in the neighborhood; and kite-propelled surfers hurl themselves 30 feet skyward above the surf. And yet The Final Ride – a Victorian-style black hearse pulled by a chrome-detailed Harley-Davidson parked outside the Pacific Beach Chapel recently – managed to stop passersby in their tracks on the corner of Cass and Diamond streets. “I can tell you anything you want to know about it except the price,” quipped funeral director Douglas Trobaugh, driver of Pacific Beach Chapel’s most unusual hearse. “I will tell you this, though: I could have bought a couple of nice Cadillacs instead.” The hearse is more a cross between a Victorian-style coach – with gilded carriage lamps, crushed velvet interior and six-spoke, chrome wheels – and Cinderella’s glass-walled carriage. The hearse and the three-wheeled motorcycle were built by Tombstone Hearses in Bedford, Pa., where owner Jack Feather says he is working on the 27th one at a cost of roughly $80,000. While most of the 26 previous motorcycle-pulled hearses were built for funeral homes within the U.S., Tombstone has sent two to England, one to the Caribbean and one to Australia. With an estimated 10 million bikers in the U.S. (1.3 million in California), the demand for the unique hearse is steady, especially in the Midwest, according to Feather. “This one is the only one [of the Final Ride hearses] in Southern California,” said Trobaugh, who has been riding bikes since his father bought him his first one – a Harley Davidson dirt bike – when he was 9 years old. Trobaugh’s father, John, is still riding a Harley at age 75. Demand for the Final Ride has been steady, with about 30 services performed since the funeral home purchased it two years ago. In mid-April the funeral procession of a Vietnam vet created a spectacle when more than 200 bikers followed the distinctive hearse from the La Mesa Chapel out to Jamul and back for the deceased man’s last ride. However, it’s not just bikers who choose this unique last procession. “More than 25 percent of them have never ridden a bike,” said Feather at the factory in Pennsylvania. “Lots of little old ladies choose it.” Trobaugh said the very first service he performed in San Diego was for a 94-year-old woman whose family picked the coach for the old-fashioned style that harked to the turn of the last century when she was born. Of the 30 funerals Trobaugh has driven the Final Ride, only six were for bikers. On Cass Street a man approaches Trobaugh, who is dressed in a black suit and a black leather jacket inscribed with the El Camino Memorial logo, to ask if he can photograph the hearse. He told his wife about the Final Ride last night and wants a picture. Trobaugh said the public is welcome to photograph The Final Ride but forbidden to climb upon it. The Pacific Beach Chapel is located on the corner of Cass and Diamond streets. “I’ve had people asking me if they can climb inside the coach to pose for pictures,” said Ray Rios, funeral arranger at the Pacific Beach Chapel, with a hint of incredulity in his voice.
