Eden man takes on pricey gas by making electric cycle

EDEN - Burr McLawhorn is not going to let tight times get him down.

When he lost his job, his home and his life's direction to companies crumpling under dwindling profits, McLawhorn faced the future with an arc welder and some big, salvaged batteries.

He recently finished modifying a motorcycle to run off electric power, but that hardly covers the breadth of his story.

"I wanted to see if I could build it to prove a point, and now that I have, I want to make it a business," McLawhorn said.

What started as a simple plan to fix up an old motorcycle, turned into a modified 1985 Yamaha FJ1100 with a top speed of 65 mph that seats two and goes 15 miles on less than 25 cents. The bike is a small way of fighting gas prices, but converting vehicles to run on electricity and alternative fuels has the potential to strike a big blow to the bad economy.

"This whole project was completed within a budget of about $900," McLawhorn said. "To buy it retail would have cost much more, but if you're thrifty, you can make a dollar stretch pretty far."

McLawhorn removed the bike's gas-powered motor and replaced it with a used hydraulic forklift motor. The most expensive parts were the controller and batteries, of which there are 12, totaling 1,400 available amps.

The bike is silent. McLawhorn gets on it and switches it on, and it goes whispering down the road at about 45 mph. Not surprisingly, the bike is now used for 90 percent of his transportation, saving him the pain on rising gas prices.

It's also efficient. McLawhorn said the simple design means it requires little to no maintenance.

"If something happens to it, the most it'll cost me is about $50," he said.

In 2004, McLawhorn was working as a computer administrator in a mortgage company in St. Petersburg, Fla., when the company laid him off. Though he found employment later, he eventually lost a car, a boat and his home.

When all looked bleak, he moved to be closer to his family. While hunting for a job comparable to the one he lost just a few years ago, McLawhorn had the idea for modifying the Yamaha.

Approaching the project, McLawhorn had no instruction manual to follow, not that he needed one.

"I've worked on pretty much every kind of machine, computers, cars, boats," he said. "I figured with this, I'd just use what I know."

Once the Yamaha was finished, McLawhorn was planning his next project - fitting a 1970 Cadillac DeVille with an electric motor, turning a cream-white, chrome-finned road boat into a hybrid automobile that will get 40 miles to the gallon.

"I'll probably have that done within six months. I want to take my time on it," McLawhorn said. "It's a Cadillac. I got to do it right. You can't rush an American icon."

Though before he can start on the Cadillac, he has his first commission - convert a local businessman's BMW 528 five-speed into an all-electric vehicle. After that, a neighbor has asked that he convert her son's Honda Civic into an all-electric vehicle.

McLawhorn hopes can now start his own business, especially if gas prices climb higher.

"At one point in my life, I realized that I've made it possible for a lot of people to get very rich," he said. "I'm tired of that."

McLawhorn said he saw the potential for local residents to turn their defiance of buying themselves in an economic hole into economic stimulus. All it would take is some like-minded individuals to help, and a few to invest, in kicking America's oil addiction.

"I'd love to see a factory going right here in Eden, with 100 or 150 people making electric vehicles," McLawhorn said. "We have these empty mill buildings. There should be people inside them, working."

Staff writer Heather J. Smith can be reached at hsmith@reidsvillereview.com or 623-2155, ext. 15.