This Engineer Is Aiming To Create A World Speed Record With His Electric Bike Built From Spare Parts

Electric vehicles have thrashed the speed records held previously by their gasoline counterparts. But to do this with an industry developed state-of-the-art car (or bike) like the Pinninfarina Battista is one thing. To do it with a scrapyard junk-built motorcycle is completely another. Shea Nyquist is one guy who is preparing to do the latter.

Shea, a BMX freestyler at one time has now turned his focus towards breaking the land speed record for an electric motorcycle streamliner. The catch? He plans to do so on a self-built electric motorcycle, for the most parts of which, he has used junk parts.

The guy is no stranger to custom built motorcycles, having built dozens of them over the years, as per . The fact that he has a degree in aerospace engineering leaves no room for doubt on his capabilities for doing so. The fun part is that he has learnt over the years how salvaged parts can be used for most of the process, an ideology not many will have faith in.

(Image: Shea Nyquist)

Building an electric motorcycle from scratch can prove to be a costly affair. Apparently not for Shea, as the man has been able to do so within a very tight budget. As quoted by Electrek, Shea estimates that the total cost for the streamliner motorcycle will come out to be somewhere around $15,000 (Rs 10.5 lakh) towards completion. As for just the production of the motorcycle, you can take out over $3,000 spent on safety equipment, including multiple parachutes and fire extinguishers, and $800 (Rs 56,000) just needed to sign up for the land speed record attempt.

The close to $11,000 (Rs 7.7 lakh) budget might seem a lot. But look at it this way, the price for Lightning Motorcycle¡¯s LS218 stands at $38,888 (Rs 27.2 lakh). While the bike can go over 351 kmph, a $11,000 budget for an electric streamliner touching just over 320 kmph for less than half the money.

(Image: Shea Nyquist)

The low budget can be accredited to Shea¡¯s genius, as he was mindful about sourcing the parts for the motorcycle. Most of the parts have been recycled, including the battery packs, which are supposed to be the costliest entity of an electric vehicle. Shea managed to salvage the batteries from an industrial pack that was thought to have been dead. Upon disassembling it, Shea found out that only a few cells were dead within the pack, leaving the heavy (LiFePO4) battery pack at around 85 percent health. Still, a lot of energy upon repair, enough to power the world¡¯s fastest electric motorcycle.

In a similar fashion, Shea managed to procure a free motor and inverter for the motorcycle.

As for what has gone inside it, the electric streamliner now holds a 22 kWh of battery and a 200 kW (268 hp) motor. The designing of the bike was another difficult part, because the aerodynamics had to be on point, even better than the fully fared motorcycle, as in a streamliner the rider is completely enclosed within the vehicle¡¯s body.

(Image: Shea Nyquist)

With the cockpit format leaving much space between the rider and the rear wheel, Shea had to come up with a new way to control the traction as well. He managed to use a sensor for this, which now flashes a warning light in the cockpit if the traction is off.

With the electric streamliner almost ready, Shea aims to have a go at the world record at the El Mirage by June or July, followed by another attempt at Bonneville in August. As the daring engineer looks to break the world record we wish him luck and will be keeping an eye on his attempts. Make sure you watch this space to know if he does.