![]() ![]() ![]() "I travelled just over 50 miles in it and finished second out of 50 competitors." "I designed and built an electric motor out of the metal from baked bean tins," recalls Cedric. Three years later he spotted an appeal for young engineers to compete in electrical parts company Lucas's 'How far can you go' competition for battery-powered vehicles. His parents (during the Second World War, his father helped to build Colossus, the world's first electronic, programmable computer that was invaluable to the code breakers at Bletchley Park) vainly tried to persuade Cedric to return but he was having too much fun making electric motors.Īged 19 he enrolled on a mechanical engineering crafts course at Welwyn Garden City College where he learned to use lathes and to machine parts. I saw the bottle and thought it sensible to pick it up." One blow on the whistle and you had to stop whatever you were doing and fall in line. He walked out of school at the age of 12, he says, after a teacher disciplined him for picking up an empty milk bottle from the playground and returning it to the crate. It's an amazing story which is why I'm astonished when Cedric drops the bombshell that he is entirely self-taught. The result of these breakthroughs was a more powerful electric motor with reduced friction losses and offering a lower rotational speed for a given winding – in short, one offering twice the torque but at half the speed. The first was when he realised he could make copper the structure of the armature and second, when he discovered that having identical magnets on each side of the armature would allow the magnetism to pass through uninterrupted rather than, in the case of dissimilar magnets, being turned back and retarding the rotation.Īnother big step forward was when he acquired some grain-oriented steel for use in the armature that resulted in less energy being lost during the rapid cycles of magnetism and demagnetism. ![]() In so doing he made a couple of key breakthroughs. It's one of the earliest known designs of electric motor but by the 1960s development had stalled until in 1983 Cedric decided to make his own. In an axial flux motor the magnetism flows in a direction parallel to the rotating shaft. It's mounted on the bike's rear swingarm and turns the road wheel via a toothed rubber belt. It's powered by an Agni Motor, in reality a version of the revolutionary axial flux motor that Cedric designed and built almost 40 years ago and which is now produced by the India-based company of the same name owned by his long-time friend Arvind Rabadia. On one side of the case are 14 red lights that glow red when the groups of cells connected to each one are at four volts. At the base of the bike is a toughened case containing the bike's 13kWh battery, comprising 742 lithium-ion cells. The bike's complex power electronics feature a tightly wrapped bundle of 58 capacitors looking for all the world like AA batteries. "Of today's electric car makers only Tesla appears to appreciate the benefits of streamlining in terms of improving range and efficiency." "The bike requires only 2hp to do 60mph, precisely because it is so streamlined," says Cedric. ![]() The wheels, which are shod with narrow tyres and fitted with covers to reduce drag, are not visible, giving the bike the appearance of a sleek, if crudely fashioned, projectile. This extends over the rider to a stubby rear section with a boat-like lower half. The nose, which features a central headlight and is removable, rises to a hinged, Perspex canopy swept by a single wiperblade. It's sculpted from hand-painted laminate sheeting folded over a tubular-steel spaceframe. I've met him at his home in Hertfordshire where, with his quiet intensity, ponytail, loose attire and bare feet he seems every inch the inventor from central casting, an impression confirmed when I set eyes on his daily transport: an enclosed electric motorcycle.Ĭedric designed and built it in 1991 for a competition and has covered 100,000 miles in it. "I worry that as EV batteries become better at storing energy, manufacturers will devote less time to making electric motors more efficient and designers to making their cars more aerodynamic."Ĭedric Lynch, inventor of the Lynch Motor, a highly efficient axial flux electric motor, is as engaged by the challenges and opportunities of electric mobility today as he was when, as a boy, he built simple electric motors with the help of a Ladybird book on the subject. ![]()
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