Student building his own electric bike

The days of school students battling headwinds and hills on their trusty old bike, are numbered.

Forest View High School student Cain Morgan is one of more than 100 Waikato school students who are building their very own electric vehicles as part of the Evolocity Waikato competition.

The competition will see a regional race-off later this month before the national finals in December.

Students have the option of building either four or two-wheel electric vehicles using the electric motor kits provided.

Cain is the only Tokoroa student taking part in the competition and said the experience so far has been exciting.

‘‘The amount of people using electric bikes in the South Waikato has picked up a lot over the last couple of years but they can be quite expensive to buy,’’ he said.

‘‘The idea of this is that you can do it yourself which is a lot cheaper and my design means that anyone should be able to put a motor onto their bike.’’

The 15-year-old said the advantages of electric bikes were easy to see.

‘‘I go mountain biking every week but by using an electric bike it makes it a lot easier than just pedaling because the motor does the hard work for you,’’ he said.

He’s building his bike with help from teacher Shri Menon and said it’s been rewarding learning how to use different tools and machines along the way.

‘‘What we have done is we have made some brackets to put the motor on and also some [holders] on the back to hold the batteries,’’ he said.

Menon said while Cain isn’t gaining credits for the project, next year students will be able to.

He said the programme will allow various subject areas to come together to better reflect the real world.

‘‘We will have design and visual communication, digital technologies, construction and mechanical technologies, and mechanical engineering all involved so it won’t just be about one subject area,’’ he said.

‘‘This year we are just trialling the concept but we are all ready to go next year. Finally we will be able to offer what our students of today need.’’

The regional final of the competition will take place at Kartsport in Hamilton on Saturday, September 16 from 9am.