And Dont forget about this June article about
"Versatileman" Doug Martin and his LiveWire
http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1150471366195240.xml?kzgazette?NEKP&coll=7
Pic of his bike can be found at
http://www.versatileman.com
Forgive me if I already posted this. I don't know if I'm coming or
going this week. Anyway, Mlive doesn't leave stories online very
long so I'm going to post, verbatim, here to the list so it goes
into the archives.
-------------------
When it cost Doug Martin $106 to fill his pickup truck with gasoline
last summer, he drove away miffed but inspired.
The automotive-electronics instructor decided to convert a
gas-powered motorcycle into one that runs on electricity.
Bright orange "LiVe WiRe" takes him round-trip from Paw Paw to his
job at Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Texas Township for a
scant 35 cents.
"Even if it's completely dead, it only takes 35 cents to charge it
completely full," he said.
LiVe WiRe looks like any other motorcycle, but there are two large
batteries inside the housing where the gas tank would be and there
are more elsewhere.
"This motorcycle has been a huge interest-grabber from the students'
perspective," he said.
This fall, KVCC will begin offering its first class in
alternative-fuel and engine technologies to automotive students.
Educators there say that in the not-too-distant future students will
encounter Toyota's, GM's and other manufacturers' alternative-fuel
vehicles in repair shops as professional technicians.
KVCC's first course will be an overview of the various fuels and
technologies -- natural gas, battery-powered electric vehicles,
ethanol, propane and hydrogen-powered vehicles -- the advantages and
disadvantages of each.
Martin is just the latest educator in the college's
automotive-technology program to power a personal vehicle with a
technology that either replaces or accompanies a gasoline-powered
engine.
They're trying to be role models for students and embrace for
themselves the various technologies.
"We're automotive instructors, but we really have a love and desire
for alternative fuels," said Larry Taylor, coordinator of KVCC's
automotive-technology program. Taylor drives a pickup truck that runs
on biodiesel fuel.
More people should begin to embrace "renewable energy, cleaner
energy. It's just the right thing to do," said Charlie Fuller,
automotive-lab manager, who drives a truck powered by "2 fuels," as
his license plate reads -- gasoline and compressed natural gas.
Most of the time it runs on natural gas, which is more than a dollar
per gallon cheaper than gasoline.
As gas prices continue to be a turn-off to motorists and the
government looks into substitutes to foreign energy, alternative
fuels -- such as ethanol -- and alternative technologies -- such as
gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles -- are likely to become more
prevalent, Fuller said.
"That is the future ... and KVCC wants to be proactive rather than
reactive," he said.
Industry is "already predicting we're going to need a lot of hybrid
technicians. Every manufacturer is working some form of a hybrid
system," Fuller said.
Hybrid-electric vehicles on the road in recent years, for instance,
will eventually go off warranty and owners may look to shops other
than the dealerships to service them.
Fuller predicts that in the future consumers won't just see a few
models offering alternative-power technologies. Instead, the choice
of hybrid, alternative-fuel or solely gasoline-powered vehicles will
be as common as choosing between automatic or manual transmissions is
today.
"The skills students are going to need are certainly more electrical
trouble-shooting," Fuller said. "They're going to have to know more
diesel technology."
With a hybrid-electric vehicle, for instance, there are high-voltage
issues that don't exist with the typical vehicle equipped with a
12-volt battery.
"Safety -- I can't stress that enough," he said. "They've got to know
where to put their hands and where not to put their hands."
And emergency responders, he noted, will have to know where they can
cut and where they can't when extricating victims from accidents
involving electric-powered vehicles.
--
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http://www.electricmotorcycles.net/
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