Soybean Powered Motorcycle
2001-09-22 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
archershipsSoybean oil powers motorcycle
High-mileage cycle may travel from
Pacific to Gulf of Mexico with
just 12 gallons of fuel
By DAVE YONKMAN Staff writer
Holland Sentinel
Web posted Wednday, March 21, 2001
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/032101/loc_0321010004.shtml
Hugh Gerhardt is working on a
lightweight, aerodynamic
motorcycle that he hopes will
travel from the Pacific Coast to
the Gulf of Mexico on a single
12-gallon tank -- of soybean oil.
If he can make it work, the Olive
Township resident's limited
production Honda 250cc built for
racing would almost certainly be
the first to make the 1,250-mile
trip from San Diego to Corpus
Christi, Texas, on food oil-based
"biodiesel" fuel, according to the
National Biodiesel Board at
Jefferson City, Mo.
"That would be amazing," said
Jenna Higgins, a spokeswoman for
the Biodiesel Board, a nonprofit
group that promotes biodiesel as a
gasoline alternative.
Gerhardt, a 42-year-old product
manager for Holland Transplanter
Co., has been working in a back
room of the company a few hours a
week for the past five years
developing the project. Using
titanium and carbon fiber to
replace heavier parts on the
Honda, he expects it to average
125 miles per gallon on the
soybean fuel when traveling at 65
mph.
"Even the road-cruising
motorcycles at best are getting 45
miles per gallon," Gerhardt said.
He's working with three types of
engines: a three-cylinder
Volkswagen Lupo, a two-cylinder
Yanmar V-Twin and a three-cylinder
Briggs & Stratton Diahtsu.
The engine's efficiency will be
aided by an aerodynamic design
provided by professional
motorcycle racer Jeff Vos of
Holland. Gerhardt estimates the
total cost so far at $20,000.
"What we're trying to do is
maximize fuel economy," he said
during an interview.
The idea isn't new, according to
Higgins.
Biodiesel -- made in a chemical
process in which glycerin is
removed from food oil -- has been
regularly used in Europe for the
past 10 years and is used in 50
major trucking fleets in the
United States, Higgins said. The
University of Michigan started
using it in trucks beginning this
year. The fuel also is used in New
Jersey on public transportation
buses.
Inventor Rudolph Diesel ran his
first diesel engines on peanut oil
in 1896, but switched to
petroleum-based fuel because it
was cheaper.
That has been changing recently,
with the cost of petroleum
steadily becoming more expensive
and the price of soybeans falling,
according to Gerhardt.
As of last week, diesel fuel cost
$1.39 per gallon at Rock Island
truck stop, compared with $2 per
gallon for soybean oil. The price
falls even farther considering
that the tax on diesel doesn't
apply to fuel from agricultural
byproducts.
The motorcycle crowd might be less
than enthusiastic about switching
to biodiesel, even if it becomes
even becomes cheaper, according to
Gus Hendrixson, the owner of Gus'
Custom Cycles, a Harley-Davidson
motorcycle shop on Lincoln Avenue.
"You'll get the economy and
cost-effectiveness, but not the
performance," Hendrixson
said. "People want performance
right now."
Then there's the smell.
While it might smell better than
diesel oil, the odor is more
reminiscent of a fast food
restaurant than a roaring
Harley-Davidson.
"Most people say it smells like
french fries or popcorn," Higgins
said.
The odor isn't one of Gerhardt's
concerns right now.
He said he always wondered about
the possibilities of food-based
fuel while growing up on a farm in
Indiana, and began to actively
pursue the idea while a
24-year-old working as a service
representative for a tractor
company in Tonganoxie, Kansas.
He said he regularly took trips on
his motorcycle throughout the
Midwest, as well as regular
weekend trips to his hometown of
Chandler, Ind., which was 600
miles away. "I ran out of gas too
many times on the Interstate,"
Gerhardt said.
He said he's currently working on
setting the gears in the
transmission and installing the
preferred engine to maximize
horsepower, and hopes to make the
trip by this autumn.
Gerhardt's Web site:
http://www.maxmpg.8k.com
National Biodiesel Board:
http://www.biodiesel.org
High-mileage cycle may travel from
Pacific to Gulf of Mexico with
just 12 gallons of fuel
By DAVE YONKMAN Staff writer
Holland Sentinel
Web posted Wednday, March 21, 2001
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/032101/loc_0321010004.shtml
Hugh Gerhardt is working on a
lightweight, aerodynamic
motorcycle that he hopes will
travel from the Pacific Coast to
the Gulf of Mexico on a single
12-gallon tank -- of soybean oil.
If he can make it work, the Olive
Township resident's limited
production Honda 250cc built for
racing would almost certainly be
the first to make the 1,250-mile
trip from San Diego to Corpus
Christi, Texas, on food oil-based
"biodiesel" fuel, according to the
National Biodiesel Board at
Jefferson City, Mo.
"That would be amazing," said
Jenna Higgins, a spokeswoman for
the Biodiesel Board, a nonprofit
group that promotes biodiesel as a
gasoline alternative.
Gerhardt, a 42-year-old product
manager for Holland Transplanter
Co., has been working in a back
room of the company a few hours a
week for the past five years
developing the project. Using
titanium and carbon fiber to
replace heavier parts on the
Honda, he expects it to average
125 miles per gallon on the
soybean fuel when traveling at 65
mph.
"Even the road-cruising
motorcycles at best are getting 45
miles per gallon," Gerhardt said.
He's working with three types of
engines: a three-cylinder
Volkswagen Lupo, a two-cylinder
Yanmar V-Twin and a three-cylinder
Briggs & Stratton Diahtsu.
The engine's efficiency will be
aided by an aerodynamic design
provided by professional
motorcycle racer Jeff Vos of
Holland. Gerhardt estimates the
total cost so far at $20,000.
"What we're trying to do is
maximize fuel economy," he said
during an interview.
The idea isn't new, according to
Higgins.
Biodiesel -- made in a chemical
process in which glycerin is
removed from food oil -- has been
regularly used in Europe for the
past 10 years and is used in 50
major trucking fleets in the
United States, Higgins said. The
University of Michigan started
using it in trucks beginning this
year. The fuel also is used in New
Jersey on public transportation
buses.
Inventor Rudolph Diesel ran his
first diesel engines on peanut oil
in 1896, but switched to
petroleum-based fuel because it
was cheaper.
That has been changing recently,
with the cost of petroleum
steadily becoming more expensive
and the price of soybeans falling,
according to Gerhardt.
As of last week, diesel fuel cost
$1.39 per gallon at Rock Island
truck stop, compared with $2 per
gallon for soybean oil. The price
falls even farther considering
that the tax on diesel doesn't
apply to fuel from agricultural
byproducts.
The motorcycle crowd might be less
than enthusiastic about switching
to biodiesel, even if it becomes
even becomes cheaper, according to
Gus Hendrixson, the owner of Gus'
Custom Cycles, a Harley-Davidson
motorcycle shop on Lincoln Avenue.
"You'll get the economy and
cost-effectiveness, but not the
performance," Hendrixson
said. "People want performance
right now."
Then there's the smell.
While it might smell better than
diesel oil, the odor is more
reminiscent of a fast food
restaurant than a roaring
Harley-Davidson.
"Most people say it smells like
french fries or popcorn," Higgins
said.
The odor isn't one of Gerhardt's
concerns right now.
He said he always wondered about
the possibilities of food-based
fuel while growing up on a farm in
Indiana, and began to actively
pursue the idea while a
24-year-old working as a service
representative for a tractor
company in Tonganoxie, Kansas.
He said he regularly took trips on
his motorcycle throughout the
Midwest, as well as regular
weekend trips to his hometown of
Chandler, Ind., which was 600
miles away. "I ran out of gas too
many times on the Interstate,"
Gerhardt said.
He said he's currently working on
setting the gears in the
transmission and installing the
preferred engine to maximize
horsepower, and hopes to make the
trip by this autumn.
Gerhardt's Web site:
http://www.maxmpg.8k.com
National Biodiesel Board:
http://www.biodiesel.org