Justin Cole demonstrates an electric motorcycle, which he and other engineering students built at West Virginia University Institute of Technology.
The only thing Justin Cole and his group partners left in the hallways of WVU Tech's engineering building while they tested their battery-powered motorcycle were the doubts of completing their senior project.
CHARLESTON, W.VA. -- The only thing Justin Cole and his group partners left in the hallways of WVU Tech's engineering building while they tested their battery-powered motorcycle
were the doubts of completing their senior project.
For a year, Cole and three other West Virginia University Institute of Technology students labored to convert a motorcycle from gas to battery as part of their mechanical engineering capstone.
In a YouTube video of their first test run, the group of students huddled around their recently completed battery-powered motorcycle, propped up in the school's hallways. It was raining outside and there was nowhere else to test the bike and they had no plans of waiting any longer, Cole said.
"Don't do it," a voice on the video is heard.
Seconds later the bike takes off and all caution was thrown to the wind as the bike accelerated down the hall.
Sighs and words of relief are heard as someone says, "Oh my God, we have a motorcycle."
"It was pretty fun," Cole said. "There was one class down the hallway and the teacher asked us to stop honking the horn. It was finals week."
Before the start of his senior year, Cole said he often thought of converting a vehicle from gas to battery.
It wasn't until the fall that he considered a motorcycle.
"I looked at the conversion process, and a car takes anywhere from $6,000 to $9,000," he said. "A bike cost us about $2,000. We know the capabilities of our school and figured it would be a lot easier to get $2,000 than $7,000."
After some trouble finding the funds to build the motorcycle, the interim dean of the engineering school stepped in to help with the project. Then they struck a deal with a machine shop in Mineral Wells who sold them a hollowed-out shell of a 1974 Suzuki GT750 for $200.
CHARLESTON, W.VA. -- The only thing Justin Cole and his group partners left in the hallways of WVU Tech's engineering building while they tested their battery-powered motorcycle
were the doubts of completing their senior project.
For a year, Cole and three other West Virginia University Institute of Technology students labored to convert a motorcycle from gas to battery as part of their mechanical engineering capstone.
In a YouTube video of their first test run, the group of students huddled around their recently completed battery-powered motorcycle, propped up in the school's hallways. It was raining outside and there was nowhere else to test the bike and they had no plans of waiting any longer, Cole said.
"Don't do it," a voice on the video is heard.
Seconds later the bike takes off and all caution was thrown to the wind as the bike accelerated down the hall.
Sighs and words of relief are heard as someone says, "Oh my God, we have a motorcycle."
"It was pretty fun," Cole said. "There was one class down the hallway and the teacher asked us to stop honking the horn. It was finals week."
Before the start of his senior year, Cole said he often thought of converting a vehicle from gas to battery.
It wasn't until the fall that he considered a motorcycle.
"I looked at the conversion process, and a car takes anywhere from $6,000 to $9,000," he said. "A bike cost us about $2,000. We know the capabilities of our school and figured it would be a lot easier to get $2,000 than $7,000."
After some trouble finding the funds to build the motorcycle, the interim dean of the engineering school stepped in to help with the project. Then they struck a deal with a machine shop in Mineral Wells who sold them a hollowed-out shell of a 1974 Suzuki GT750 for $200.
The labor-intensive part was next.
Cole doesn't even remember how many hours he and his friends spent in the labs, airbrushing the motorcycle skeleton and welding various bits together. All he knows is they all got As when it was all over.
"All the teachers like it," Cole said. "They are really interested in it -- they ask how fast and long it can go."
While researching the project, Cole found that the average commute was about 20 minutes. The group based the battery's longevity on that number. Right now it holds a charge for 25 minutes and can reach top speeds of 50 mph.
Mechanical Engineering Department Chairman Govindappa Puttaiah said he shows the bike to prospective students.
"Just this morning [Thursday] I had a visitor from Michigan and I took him around and showed it to him," Puttaiah said. "I wish I could take visitors for a ride, but the vehicle is not licensed for the road yet."
He added that he knew of the project when it began, but never expected it to be as successful as it was.
The other team members will return to do more work on the bike.
Puttaiah said they plan on getting a longer charge and getting the bike licensed for the road.
For now, it's confined to speeding around the parking lots and inside the hallways of WVU Tech.
Reach Jon Offredo at jonoffr...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5189.
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I am also well aware of Tesla motors, Zero Motorcycles, and Brammo Inc. All of these companies have loads of support in the form of investors.
smarbap: The maximum speed we have accomplished is 50 mph, but I am fairly confident we could have made 55 mph but we don't have enough space. The range is calculated to be about 20 miles with the current batteries, we are looking into some NimH or Li ion batteries to improve this range. The recharge time is about 10 hrs. We are not sure about the lifespan of the batteries, they are a deep cycle battery, so they should have a fairly long life, and as far as total weight, we haven't really found a good way to weigh it, but we estimate about 500-600lbs.
Unanswered questions:
Maximum speed, range, time required to recharge, lifespan of battery, and total weight.