As spring approaches, motorcycle enthusiasts will hit the road with a familiar rumbling thunder. If you find yourself in Highland County, Va., however, do not be surprised if you notice a soundless, silver motorbike whizzing by you. As Americans search for ways to conserve resources, lawyer and motorcycle enthusiast Brian Richardson has built an electric motorcycle in his kitchen.
A longtime lover of motorcycles, Richardson said he annually hosts a large motorcycle rally on his sheep farm, on which visitors can camp and hear live music during the event.
“The main point ... is to allow people to come out to Highland County and camp on a working sheep farm,” he explained.
His idea to build an electric motorcycle came about in September 2008, after Richardson viewed the documentary, “Who Killed the Electric Car?” which follows the 1990s creation and then discontinuation of electric cars in California.
Richardson said the movie angered him and made him want to build an electric motorcycle in his kitchen, “just to show how easy it is.”
With no formal training in engineering, Richardson is learning as he goes. “I’m an attorney,” he said. “Most of this stuff is kind of foreign to me.” The most experience that he can claim is a general interest in tinkering with machinery and skills, like welding and working with electricity, from running his sheep farm.
Richardson said with the motorcycle, he is “trying to marry the newest technology that [I] could get [my] hands on with some old technology.”
The old technology includes the motorcycle’s frame, a Norton Featherbed, which was famous for racing during the 1950s and 1960s. The motorcycle itself, which Richardson refers to as a Norton Electra, is named after a 1960s Norton model.
Richardson explained that the Britain-based Norton Motorcycle Company, which was shut down in the late 20th century, has recently reopened with new leadership, and Richardson said he has been in communication with the company’s new owner and hopes he will come take a look at the bike later this year.
Some of the newer technology Richardson used to build the bike includes lithium ion batteries from China and a motor that allows for power regeneration.
“Rather than all the breaking just being wasted in heat in the breaks, we do get regenerative breaking with this design,” he said.
Although Richardson is still making modifications to the bike, he said he completed its first test drive a few weeks ago. “It did beautifully,” he said. The bike accelerated fast, Richardson said, and was exciting to ride.
“This is a quick bike,” he said. “You couldn’t compare it to a modern sport bike, [but] it’s a starting point.”
The motorcycle is not only fast, but silent. Other than the benefits of not using gas, one of the positive features Richardson pointed out is its quiet ride. Gas-powered motorcycles allows one to ride in a natural environment, but the noise generated is a drawback.
“You are part of your environment,” he said, “but you can’t hear anything.”
One time cutting the engine off while going down a mountain, Richardson said he realized he could hear the birds and the tires on the gravel. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a motorcycle that didn’t make any noise?’” he said.
Richardson’s bike moves with a silence he called, “eerie” — thoroughly different from the grumble of the Norton motorcycle, which has earned the nickname, “Snortin’ Norton.”
To help take the motorcycle to the next level, Richardson turned to Asst. Engineering Prof. Robert Prins at James Madison University.
“I built the bike,” Richardson said. “Now we need to test the bike.”
Prins not only has a research-related interest in the project, but he is also a motorcyclist. Getting involved “seemed like a no-brainer,” he said. He plans to aid the project by helping with testing and data collection, specifically for the speed of the bike and its range.
Richardson also said Prins will help him with his goal to create an educational program about the bike and share it with Virginia’s schools and communities.
“One of our intentions is to use the bike to develop and raise interest and understanding of electric vehicles locally,” Prins said.
Fourth-year Engineering student Nick Lumsden, who is part of the RideForward program,, in which students convert a gas-powered car to an electric-powered one, said he thinks the goal of raising awareness is important in projects like RideForward and Richardon’s.
It is hard to convince people that electric vehicles are competitive with those powered by gas, and having a physical product they can see helps, Lumsden explained.
“Any type of attention that projects like these can gather, I think is great,” Lumsden said.
James Durand, a research associate in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department and teacher of RideForward, also said projects like these are important because they illustrate alternatives.
“I think that a lot of people feel sort of helpless,” Durand said. Projects like RideForward and Norton Electra show people that there is an option other than oil, he said.
These projects are also important as interdisciplinary learning tools, Durand added.
“You have a vehicle here where you can teach the whole gamut of things, and at the end, you have something that’s really neat and could be useful,” Durand said.
While visiting Virginia schools is only a goal for the electric motorcycle project, Richardson noted that the University would be on his list of stops.
“If U.Va. will have me, I’d like to be there,” he said.
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