* * Virginia Tech engineering students build an electric racing bike

I wrote this article for the Roanoke Business magazine.  Hope you enjoy it!

Racing vehicles always exude a raw, edgy, purposeful look, even when they’re sitting still. Even ones that plug into a wall socket.

Thus it is with the BOLT, an electric racing motorcycle built by 25 Virginia Tech undergraduate students headed by John Marshall, a senior in mechanical engineering from Loudon County. A series of sub-teams is working on different aspects of the motorcycle’s design: the suspension, the battery pack, the cooling system. Most of the participants are mechanical engineering students, but there are also electrical engineering and computer science people. BOLT stands for Battery Operated Land Transportation.

Marshall started with the project as a junior, the sole volunteer. The year before, another team did some work on a bike but ran out of money. This bike has been raced successfully.

“It is a senior design project, but it goes well beyond just a class,” Marshall beams. “It becomes an obsession. When things start coming together, it really gets rewarding.”

Tech has contributed working space for the group in a building called the Joseph F. Ware, Jr. Advanced Engineering Lab. It has housed a number of similar projects, including Indy race cars, radio-controlled airplanes, even a miniature human-powered submarine. But most of the money for the BOLT has been provided by sponsors including Kollmorgen, Dunlop, Boeing, Ariva, and Go Race, whose decals adorn the burnt orange and white plastic cowlings. 

“On this bike, we’ve spent $70,000,” Marshall says. “It is a highly capitol-intensive project.”

The bike’s chassis is a 2009 Honda CBR 600RR. Conventional motorcycles have a gas tank, carburetors or fuel injectors, an internal combustion engine, a transmission, a chain and sprockets. An electric vehicle is much simpler, with just a battery pack, a controller, a motor, a chain and sprockets. The batteries act as the fuel. The controller monitors the discharge energy from the batteries to the motor, which transfers the electricity to a rotating shaft. The bike has no transmission or clutch. The rider twists the “throttle” on the right handgrip and away he goes.

“We run in the TTX-GP Grand Prix Series, which is the first all electric circuit in the world. It is international in scope,” Marshall says. “This year, we’re the only team that isn’t comprised of professionals. Everyone on our team except the rider – who is a professional racer – is a student here at Tech.”

The battery pack is comprised of separate units that resemble an iPad in size, shape, and weight. It has two metallic foil strips that protrude from one end that are the terminals. There are 23 of these units in the BOLT. The battery type is lithium polymer, chosen because it has a high ratio of stored energy to weight and the ability to discharge rapidly. Each battery costs about $315 – that’s $7250 worth of batteries. Marshall says they “last between 500 and 1000 re-charge cycles, probably at the lower end since we push them so hard.”

The batteries that move the bike around the track are also what hold electric bikes back from really competing with the fossil fuel driven two-wheelers. TTXGP races cover about 20 miles. Gasoline powered bikes race for 200 miles. Tech’s BOLT can hit 100 mph. Next year, the team hope to hit 150 mph, which will still be 20 mph behind gas racers.

“What holds electric motorcycles back from being competitive with conventional gasoline powered bikes is the batteries,” Marshall says. “In the grander scheme of things, battery technology holds the world back. There’s plenty of energy on earth, but the ability to store and use it whenever and wherever we need it is a challenge.

“Potentially the goal of this project is to develop electric technologies that will transfer over to commercial use in much the same way that everyday cars benefit from racing technologies from a few years ago. We’re on the forefront of electric motor technology and battery technology.”

Electric motorcycles are already on the market, but they are limited in range and overall speed. The benefit is effortless driving, quiet operation, and low “fueling” and maintenance costs.

Kollmorgen, the lead sponsor, has devoted several engineers to help Marshall’s team, which maintains close contact with the local division of the company in Radford.

The engineering faculty advisor for the team, Saied Taheri, said, “The BOLT Project has evolved in a university-based race team that has competed with professional race teams all over the States. This shows the dedication of the students and their willingness to work long hours, apply what they have learned in the classroom and to learn what is necessary to complete their tasks. They have learned how to work in a team and help one another for the same goal. They have learned that engineering ethics is the key to a successful outcome. And they have become excellent engineers that can go out today and take on the most complex project and feel good about themselves and the fact that they are able to deliver what is needed.

“The Mechanical Engineering Department, the College of Engineering, and Virginia Tech, are proud of them and their accomplishments and hope that they continue this road to success when they graduate. This has also brought recognition to Virginia Tech as one of the best engineering universities in the nation and worldwide.”

The professional rider Marshall mentioned is Matt Kent, a Senior Engineer with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. He said, “The electric bike has similar handling characteristics to a gas powered bike, but at the same time different power delivery characteristics. In fact, after the development that we conducted during our last race weekend, we discovered a programming change that makes the bike much similar to a gas powered bike in terms of controlling the power. This is a fundamental change that will drastically improve the handling characteristics of the bike from the rider’s perspective. Another big difference is that the electric bike only has no gearbox and is only a single speed. There is no gear shift lever or clutch.

“An interesting concept is that the electric bike has much less rotating mass than a gas powered bike. Therefore, an electric bike that weighs significantly more than a gas bike can actually feel lighter from the rider's perspective. This is because decreased effort is needed to turn the bike since you are not fighting the rotational forces that are inherent to a crank, rods, pistons and transmission of a gas powered bike.”

Kent piloted the BOLT in three races this summer, winning its class in all three and earning a spot in the series championship at Daytona.

Standing beside the bike, Marshall turned on the controller and twisted the throttle. The back wheel spun frantically, held aloft on a work stand. The bike was nearly noiseless, other than the mechanical chatter of the final drive chain and sprockets.

“Being on a motorcycle is a liberating experience,” Marshall says. “Being on an electric motorcycle takes it to a whole new level.”

* * To the New River with Dad

Somehow it seemed to me that the scene playing out should have had the theme song to the Andy Griffith Show whistling in the background, except I’m older than Opie was and Dad isn’t a sheriff. Oh, and we weren’t going fishing.

What we were doing was going to the New River together. We unloaded his jon-boat, two deep-cycle batteries, and a small electric motor into the flowing waters from a launch site in Belspring on the west shore of the River in Pulaski County. A thick fog blanketed everything, giving the scene a cool, Maine North Woods feel.

Dad is a river rat. His love of nature was nurtured early in life, surprisingly perhaps in that his Dad had other interests and his home was on New York’s Long Island, hardly the place we now think of as a hotbed of natural activity. In his day, Long Island was substantially less populous and developed. Dad grew up riding his bicycle to nearby woods and bays, searching for wildlife.

Dad moved to the New River Valley 60 years ago, and his relationship with the River has evolved. His first love was fishing. In mid-life, he took up scuba diving and began a passion for photography that transitioned from underwater to above-ground. He’s become an exceptional wildlife photographer, with wading birds and ducks his specialty.

We paddled into the main current from behind a small island and then let the electric motor take over. An osprey flew overhead, squawking at us, carrying a fish in his talons.

I’d neglected to bring the one item I most needed: my binoculars. But while Dad was purposeful in the day’s excursion in his quest for more bird shots, I was content to drift aimlessly, literally and figuratively, in the quiet and company of nature and Dad.

The fog began to lift, revealing a warming sun and a scene of timeless beauty. The New is one of the world’s oldest rivers, cutting through the nearby ridges like a stationary knife as they rose upwards to block it. Majestic sycamore trees with their thirsty roots overhung the River. Railroad tracks bracket the River on both sides, a decidedly mixed blessing. On the positive side, the railroad’s ownership of the right of way has perhaps impeded commercial or residential development. On the negative, trains rumble noisily along from time to time, annihilating the silence but not bothering the wildlife at all.

Dad is oblivious to physical pain. He’s three days out of the hospital with an intestinal blockage which apparently hasn’t been fully resolved. When he feels good enough to be on the river, then he goes to the river. When not, then not. It’s that simple. He still lives his life with a child-like exuberance and enthusiasm and a lasting zeal for travel, adventure, family, and friends. He has four kids (I’m #2.) and seven grand-kids, the oldest of which is my daughter who is 21. Many of his friends have passed away, including Mildred and George Gerberich, with whom he and mom were inseparable. But he’s continued to cultivate new ones and finds visceral pleasure in the gifts of kindness and sincerity they offer him.

Under a crystalline sky, he grabbed his digital camera from its plastic case, shooting anything that moved as we trolled along near the east shore. Digital imaging has revolutionized his photography, as now he can take hundreds of photos and discard 98% of them without expense. He shot cedar waxwings, tree swallows, cormorants, a little green heron, kingfishers (“They never let me get very close.”), and great blue herons (“I have a million pictures of them!”). He has done several photographic presentations and is always eager to do more. He stays surprised that more people aren’t interested in the abundant nature that is so close to us. “The New River is a real treasure.” He has photos in his files of muskrats, mink, raccoons, otters, and countless species of birds. Our best find of the day was an immature peregrine falcon, a stunning, majestic bird that only a few decades ago almost reached extinction.

We motored across the placid, shallow river to the other shore, occasionally stopping to pull grasses from the tiny propeller. Dad arched around, straining the muscles in his thin, leathery legs, scarred from countless scratches. He’s 84 now and while his body shows the signs of age, he keeps doing the things he’s done for decades, albeit more slowly.

We talked about family, my siblings and his. He and I have gotten along well for most of my life, except for the two years we worked together in the business he created.

“I don’t have too many years left,” he admitted ruefully. “Time is more precious than ever before. I don’t want to waste any of it. A day on the river is never wasted.”

* * Mike Burnop has the job we all want

Do you think you could say, “This guy is slicker than a peeled onion in a bowl full of snot!” over the radio to thousands of listeners? Welcome to the glib, colloquial world of Mike Burnop. Mike and Bill Roth are the voices of Virginia Tech Hokie football and basketball.

“We had a great running back a few years ago, Ryan Williams. In a game against Nebraska, he made an incredible run, cutting around a would-be tackler and gaining several additional yards. So I made that comment about him. Bill looked at me incredulously and said, ‘What did you say?’ He’d never heard it before, but I didn’t make it up. When you put a peeled onion in a bowl of snot, now that’s pretty slick.”

Burnop is so beloved to his fans and friends alike that he can get away with a few snot references, “boogers” and “snot bubbles” from time to time. He’s in his thirtieth year as a broadcaster, twenty-five with Roth. As the new season loomed, I chatted with him about his experiences.

Burnop played tight end at Tech from 1969 to 1973 after playing at Roanoke Catholic. “I grew up a mile from Andrew Lewis High School in Salem – they were the big gun – but I played in Roanoke. Everyone in Salem was mad at me.” He played basketball and football. He got lots of scholarship offers and took all the recruiting trips. But with many Tech connections, he chose Tech. He got his degree in Health Education and eventually a Masters Degree in Education.

I told Mike that one of the things that distinguishes his work as a broadcaster was his empathy with the players. He said, “Everybody out there is trying to do their best, on both teams. They want to be successful, to make the catch, make the tackle, don’t fumble. When something bad happens, nobody feels worse than he does. Lots of announcers will criticize players. Lots of announcers give no credit to the opponent. Sometimes the opponent makes a great play. (The announcers) blame the officials whenever a call goes against them. I’ve always felt you give credit where credit is due. Some days we’re just not the best team. Let’s recognize what the other team has done, too.

“In football, Bill and I do a lot of preparation. Including pre-game and post-game broadcasting, we’ll be on the air for 6 hours or longer. Basketball is only half as long, with fewer players to study. When you’re in conference, as we are, we play the same teams and there is some carry-over. It’s a part-time job but it’s almost a full-time job.”

Mike was tapped for the job in 1982, primarily because he was a good interview as a player. “I thought (the broadcast) was only on the student radio station. I learned that there were 60 stations in the network. Now, with XM and the Internet, we are heard all over the world.” When Roth came along five years later, there was instant rapport. Bill’s eloquence and smooth, clear voice fit in perfectly with Mike’s glibness and warmth. “We always had good fun on trips, and that’s where the stories come from when we’re on the air. When games are not competitive, we have fill material to keep our audience. We try to be funny and entertaining.”

I suggested that of the 120 Division One football programs, there really is something special about Tech. He said, “There is. It is incredible what Frank (Beamer) and his staff have been able to do. We have 19 bowl games in a row, 8 ten-win seasons, and 4 ACC championships in 8 years. But remember, Frank was almost fired after his third year. The future is scary because all the institutional foundation of Tech football is aging. Frank, (Athletic Director) Jim Weaver, (President) Charles Steger, and many others are nearing retirement. What will happen as new leadership comes along?

“Football really put Virginia Tech on a national map. The admissions office went nuts when we played for a national championship (in 1999). But the tail doesn’t wag the dog here. We do things the right way. It is a team thing, a family thing. (Bill and I) go to schools all over, but we never see anything like what we have here.”

Mike lost his best friend, business partner, and parent of his children when his wife Ellen died earlier this year from lung cancer (although neither she nor Mike ever smoked). “We had a special relationship. She was an incredible woman.”

In spite of his personal loss, he is looking forward to the coming season with eagerness and optimism. “We have incredibly passionate fans. They love the game day experience, whether home or away. They love their Hokies. It is something to behold and to be part of. It has been a great ride.”

* * Eric Langston and Anita Bevins are about music, community, and heritage

The inaugural Catawba Farm Fest is coming up this weekend, August 31^st - September 2^nd at the Virginia Tech Sustainability Center in Catawba, a presentation of Half Acre Promotions. I sat down with partners Eric Langston and Anita Bevins to learn how it all got started.

Eric said, “I went to Virginia Tech from 1984 to 1987. There was a vibrant downtown music scene (in Blacksburg). I moved away, and then moved back in 1996. I was traveling and working a lot in carpentry and architecture. Lots of my friends were still around. It’s a beautiful place and lots of people want to stay. I grew up in a world of music appreciation. I used to play some but neither Anita nor I are musicians.

“A reunion of a friend with his band About Time led to me organizing a small festival in Newport in Giles County, the Newport Fest, in 1999. It was basically a reunion of friends and family. We did a variety of genres, from Old Time to Bluegrass to Country and Western to Rock. We discontinued it as it outgrew the venue.

“The Catawba Farm Fest grew from our experience in Newport and another event, the Giles Fiddlers Convention that we put together.”

Anita grew up in Eastern Kentucky, surrounded by Appalachian music. She then moved here from North Carolina separately and met Eric here and shared a common interest of roots music and small gatherings around featuring live music. They began talking about ideas for various events which led to forming an LLC called Half Acre Promotions.

Eric stressed the community aspect of their work. “We have always recognized that community buy-in is important to the success of our events.”

“We knew we needed recognition for our quality of events as well as community trust,” echoed Anita. “We have always looked to partner with organizations like the Ruritan Club.”

They admitted that there wasn’t much money to be made in event planning, that their efforts were a labor of love. Anita works part-time at Gillie’s Restaurant and is a student at Hollins University. Eric works in construction as his day job. It will take time and more successful events to allow them to expand and turn a personal profit.

“We live a simple lifestyle and live on a tight budget,” Anita confessed. “That carries over to how we budget our festivals.

“The new event, the Farm-fest in Catawba is collaboration with the Virginia Tech’s Sustainability Center. The past director, Christy Gabbard, is our neighbor in Newport. She encouraged us to submit a plan for the event. First, we worked to get the Catawba community on board. Then Tech agreed to partner with us and it brought a new level of credence to our festival.”

“One of the initial inspirations for this,” Eric said, “was to raise money and awareness for the Sustainability Center. This would be part of what I call the ‘flash economy,’ which is that part of tourism when people come and contribute to the economy for a short time, and then depart. Our other events showed our abilities to run an event like this one and we both have previous career experience in project management. We think this event has great potential.”

“The site is wonderful,” beamed Anita. “It is a beautiful, pastoral setting, with long grand ridges. When you arrive to the site, the views are magnificent. We have on-site parking, on-site camping, and plenty of room. We are hosting 48 bands, playing on three stages, with acts including Acoustic Syndicate, The All Mighty Senators, Wayne Henderson, Papadosio, and Larry Keel. The music will be excellent and very diverse. The festival will end on Sunday night, but there is a Tech football game on Monday and we expect lots of people to stay in the area, enhancing tourism.

“Many of these acts have worked with us before with music bookings at Gillie’s or Newport Jamboree events and they were willing to be more flexible with their guarantees this first year—and because they believe in our vision. We don’t have the budget to host a lot of big-time acts, but featuring a mix of familiar regional musicians and popular local bands help through word-of-mouth advertising.”

I asked Eric how many people they expected. He said, “We’re expecting around a 1000, but would be happy if closer to 2000 came. I hope people will leave the event being pleasantly surprised, really impressed, and satisfied with the value they’ve gotten. We’ll have artisans, vendors, terrific food, sustainability workshops, and kids’ events. Almost every rural Appalachian setting is a good one, but this is an ideal setting!

Anita said, “We have learned the value of word-of-mouth advertising. With the connections in the Blacksburg and now new networks in the Roanoke and Salem area, we hope to ensure the viability of our events. Catawba Farm Fest will seem like the convergence of the New River Valley and the Roanoke Valley.”

“Tickets are on average $30 per day—at least seventeen great performances, enjoy primitive camping, hear about sustainability, and have your kids entertained in a beautiful atmosphere. Catawba Fest is going to be a memorable, homegrown event.”

* * Rewarding ignorance

The bumper sticker goes something like this, “Ignorance can be cured but stupidity is forever.” It’s likely the psychiatrists would add, “Ignorance can only be cured if the ignoramus wants to be cured.” Which brings us to Missouri Senatorial candidate and current congressman Todd Akin (R).

 Last week, Akin showed monumental ignorance when he claimed that victims of “legitimate rape” are able to naturally prevent pregnancy. Then he later claimed he misspoke. Akin has thus dramatically illustrated both his ignorance and his stupidity.

Let’s be clear: rape is neither legitimate nor illegitimate; rape is rape. Rape is an act of terrorism, aggression, intimidation, and dominance. Rape is an expression of male dominance over female. Rape is a frequent spoil of war, used by the victors to punish the vanquished. Legitimacy has no bearing.

 It takes no special knowledge of human reproduction to know that an egg has no ability to determine whether a sperm in its proximity was deposited in an act of love or terrorism. Suggesting this is pure ignorance. That a senatorial candidate would fail to understand elementary human reproduction is abhorrent and inexcusable. Millions of women have carried fetuses and given birth to babies when impregnated against their will. One or more of the women in Akin’s life – and we must assume he has some – should slap him.

 Making matters worse was his claim that he’d misspoken. Mitt Romney introducing Paul Ryan as, “the next president of the United States,” is a mistake, because he meant “the next vice-president…”. Akin’s statement is not a mistake, it was what he believed to be factual. Calling it a mistake proves his stupidity.

 So Akin is both stupid and ignorant. Which would be bad enough.

 Sadly, Akin isn’t alone. Our own senatorial candidate George Allen illustrated his own ignorance in a similar lack of the grasp of the same issue of human reproduction in a recent debate with challenger Tim Kaine. Allen, who graduated at what I once considered one of our state’s premier universities (with apparently with a degree in Footballogy), failed to understand why a Personhood Amendment that he advocated would make many common forms of contraception illegal. (Watch him trip over himself, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTkfRV9bc2U)

Deferring to Kaine’s obvious intellectual superiority, Allen actually referred to him twice as “Dr. Kaine.” A better bet for Allen, especially with his aspiration to return to a seat he once held in the Senate, would have been to actually learn what he was talking about. Anyone so motivated could learn the basics of human reproduction in an hour. Instead, Allen remains willfully ignorant. Kaine is intelligent, informed, nuanced, and sincere, while Allen flies blind, relying on sound-bite and rigid ideology.

 Not to be outdone in the ignorance department is our terminally clueless congressman Morgan Griffith. His energy policy, which he proudly and often states, is based upon “drill, dig, discover, and deregulate.”

 This pretty much sums up our national energy policy in the past 100 years. And while it has fueled significant economic progress, it has also allowed for horrific environmental abuses, mining disasters, oil spills, and similar ills. Further, it completely ignores two essential natural facts: the reality of the terminal decline of natural resources on a finite planet and the looming threat of global warming.

 Of more profound regional impact, consider coal which has been actively mined in his district for over a century. It is a fact that the counties that have produced the most are now among the poorest. If coal was so important to our economies, where’s the money? It has risen to the top of the economic food chain by enhancing the rich. Morgan “big money” Griffith knows this only too well, and he might as well say so. Deregulation invariably results in activities that hurt most the people Griffith was elected to serve.

 Here’s the tragic part and the subject of this essay: millions of voters consistently reward this ignorance at the polls. I’m not implying that Republicans have a lock on ignorance, but they have shown increasing willingness to let the most radical and ignorant members of the party define their policies. The Condoleezza Rices and Colin Powells are overshadowed by the Todd Akins, the George Allens and the Morgan Griffiths who have come to dominate the Republican agenda.

There seems to be no level of ignorance that precludes a candidate’s viability. I’m waiting for one to exhibit brutal honesty by saying, “I am stupid and willfully ignorant. I am completely owned by wealthy special interests. If elected, I will work to disenfranchise voters likely to vote against me, eviscerate human rights, eliminate women’s reproductive rights, marginalize all religions other than my own, suppress the power of labor unions, de-fund arts and education, decimate our nation’s natural resources, and channel more of our resources and money to the top of the economic food chain.” And he’d probably still get at least 45% of the vote.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the Republican Party was “callous and insensitive,” and was waging a “war on women.” At the time she was derided as exaggerating. It seems now that she is entirely accurate. As the sign says, “It’s only a war if we fight back.”