Wiliam Shatner tried and tried, but he just couldn’t get arrested during his 2,500-mile motorcycle trip across the country.

“I was wearing this hat all the way, even in states that had helmet laws,” said the 84-year-old actor, referring to the billed cap that served as his only head protection during an eight-day trip from Chicago to Los Angeles onboard a three-wheeled motorcycle.

“When an actor says, ‘I can’t get arrested,’ he doesn’t mean ‘arrested,’” said Shatner, who arrived in L.A. Tuesday afternoon. “I couldn’t.”

The hat in question was from Rivet Motors – the Aurora, Ill., company with whom Shatner partnered to build a 2,400-pound, 14-foot-long, sheet-metal behemoth powered with a 500-horsepower Cadillac engine and 26-inch rear wheels. The Rivet One, as it’s called, was the bike Shatner was supposed to ride on a trip that began June 23 as the promotional vehicle for the bike’s builder, a fundraising vehicle for the American Legion Armed Forces veterans group and as the vehicular star of an upcoming documentary called “The Ride.”

But after discovering, on the first day, that the Rivet One could only ride in a straight line, Shatner switched to a Harley-Davidson trike, and instead trailered the Rivet for show.

For the next week, the legendary “Star Trek” actor endured various travails common to the American road trip. He ran out of gas. He burned his thighs during an especially grueling 115-degree stint through the Mojave Desert. He witnessed a car crash in to his team’s chase bus. But he was never, ever arrested or ticketed by the police, despite multiple calls to do so from those traveling with him.

Finally, on Tuesday, during the last day of the trip through Victorville, Shatner himself phoned in.

“I called the police department and said, ‘We’re coming through and Shatner doesn’t have a helmet,’” the star explained. “And the guy on the phone said, ‘Should we get our movie unit out?’”

The cameras turned out to be unnecessary. Shatner’s crew was already filming the journey. A support team of 24 had been traveling with Shatner, including his wife Elizabeth (who rode pillion in the Rivet’s second seat), two mechanics, three Rivet Motors staffers, four American Legion members and multiple cameramen. The group traveled to St. Louis, Kansas City, Las Vegas and four other cities.

“It was the most physically taxing thing I’ve ever done,” Shatner told a crowd of about 200 at a private party for the American Legion and its scholarship fund in Burbank Tuesday evening.

Before embarking on the journey, Shatner had never ridden a three-wheeler. Despite being a lifelong motorcyclist, the longest motorcycle trip he had taken was 100 miles, he said.

Shatner was signing autographs at a Chicago “Star Trek” event in 2013 when an employee of the Chicago-area custom motorcycle shop, American Wrench, asked him to co-design a motorcycle. Shatner not only agreed, he is now co-owner of the spin-off company that built the Rivet One – Rivet Motors.

According to Rivet Motors co-owner Kevin Sirotek, the prototype Shatner was supposed to ride is the basis for a version that could go into production as early as next year. Smaller, more nimble versions powered with a motorcycle engine and electric motor will follow, he said.

Shatner’s requests for the original Rivet One were modest. He asked that it have two wheels in the back, since he had recently fallen off his own motorcycle, and he asked that it have a second seat for his wife.

An avid pilot, Shatner also suggested the bike emulate the wing of a Bombardier airplane, which is why the Rivet One is built from riveted sheet metal, similar to commercial aircraft.

“Riding a bike, you’re focused on the road, but you have time to dream and think and wonder about everything that we’ve seen,” said Shatner, who acquired the nickname “Tank” on the road. “I’ve heard the phrase For God and Country all my life, and so what do you fight for? You fight for the country. We saw the country. We saw it from Chicago to Los Angeles, the country and all its magnificence.”

Contact the writer: scarpenter@ocregister.com On Twitter: @OCRegCarpenter