Omaha man builds electric motorcycle in spare time (w/VIDEO)

A man from Omaha, Nebraska named Tony Parker (no, not that Tony Parker) recently found himself with a bunch of extra time on his hands after being laid off from his job, so he decided to try and put it to good use by creating a home-built electric motorcycle he's calling Electra Green.

Using a 2.5 kW DC electric motor hooked up to four 12-volt lead-acid batteries, the Electra Green is reportedly capable of hitting speeds of up to 50 miles per hour. What appears to be a fairing from an older Yamaha motorcycle helps keep things as aerodynamic as possible while a donated seat and saddle bags from an unknown Honda motorcycle complete the package.

In addition to the actual motorcycle, Parker also built both a small solar charger and a wind charger, though we'd imagine either solution would take a very long time to actually charge the bike to full capacity. The completed machine was shown at the 2008 Motorcycle Show at Omaha's Septemberfest, where it managed to take home a trophy for 3rd place in the Custom Sports category. See a short video of the bike in action after the break.

[Source: FirstOnTop.com via Gas2.org]

Video:

The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience.