Inventor stretches fuel with hybrid bicycle

Phil Gurian isn’t about to threaten Toyota, Ford or any other environmentally conscious manufacturer in the hybrid-vehicles market, but he’s sure getting mileage out of his invention.

Gurian, who lists author, Web site designer and inventor among his many occupations, has built something that’s part bicycle, part moped and completely functional for his uncomplicated lifestyle.

It’s an 18-speed motorized bike that gets an average of 150 miles per gallon. Filling up his half-gallon tank costs about $1.25. The bike requires some pedaling, but Gurian estimates the engine does 85 to 90 percent of the work.

“It was done through trial and error,” said Gurian, who has written a manual designed to give people tips on how to build a similar vehicle.

Gurian, 48, is easy for motorists to spot. He’s the guy wearing a helmet and goggles tooling around on a bike with a handmade “150mpg.com” sign duct-taped to a rear basket. He mostly stays on the South Hill and in his South Perry Street neighborhood, but the entire county is his playground.

Freya, Grant and other steep hills, however, are too tough to tackle, even with the aid of an engine.

“Everywhere I go, there’s a huge crowd,” Gurian said one afternoon outside a South Perry Street coffee shop. “They want to know what it is.

“Females see it as a novelty, or for their men. They, however, think it’s goofy.

“Men show overwhelming interest until they hear there is pedaling involved. I see it in their faces.”

Gurian’s rig is a cream-color generic bike that has a two-stroke engine mounted between the wheels. He got the idea to build a street-legal motorized bike more than a year ago.

He figured the exercise would do him good. It also was a great way to save money on gasoline.

“I got tired of watching the funds – pension, hedges, mutuals – manipulate the prices of oil-related commodities,” said Gurian, who lists stock analyst as another trade.

Gurian’s bike became all the more necessary a few weeks ago when his flivver of a 1980 Toyota was stolen.

“It was the worst-looking car on the block,” he said without hesitation.

Gurian’s bike weighs anywhere between 50 and 100 pounds, depending on what he’s carrying in the small suitcase he lugs around in a basket. Sometimes, it’s filled with tools, for the Gurian invention has been anything but maintenance-free.

The first engine he bought from a distributor was a lemon, he said.

Gurian said the difference between his bike and a moped is that his bike has 18 speeds. He said he can cruise as fast as 30 to 35 mph on a flat road. There’s no telling how fast he can go with the engine at full throttle downhill, because he’s never tried.

“I’m kind of chicken about doing that stuff,” he said.

He is, however, careful and law abiding, never riding without a helmet and making sure he meets all Washington state requirements. His bike is rigged with blinkers, mirrors, lights and a horn.

Remember to wear a helmet! Nobody’s too cool to get hurt!” he writes on his Web site.

Gurian also sells a manual on 150gpm.com on how to build your own bike. He claims his information alone will save people as much as 30 times the cost of the $21 book.

Gurian said the average cost of building a motorized bike is about $500. The cost of “trial and error” on his bike has been about $1,200.

His next big plan is to ride across the state.

As to how far he thinks he’ll get as a motorized bike inventor? His answer was simple.

“Nowhere.”