Rhubarb December 2025

Where did the original idea for a sustainable motorcycle come from and what made you return to it after all this time? This project had its inception in the classroom of Ollie Barstow (former Head of Design Tech) in the Lower Sixth as we set out on our A Level DT projects. After building three electric skateboards in the years from Shell to Fifth Form, which was very fun and certainly unachievable without the DT department’s help, I wanted to push my frontier for A Levels with a custom electric 70s minibike. Lockdown shut Teddies down, and our A Level portfolio got cut in half. No physical project. So, a year after arriving in Canada to study engineering and learning about the environmental devastation of those battery cells in my electric skateboards, I still had the itch to build adrenaline-fuelled personal transport – but this time, making it sustainable by reusing existing equipment instead of extracting new raw materials for ‘virgin engineering’. Tell us about the motorcycle – why Harley- Davidson, and what makes the biodiesel system you developed so different? The choice of a Harley-Davidson was largely a practical consideration, along with a little exploration of American iconography. I led two teams of five engineering students to develop a biodiesel preheating system alongside my university’s 400-vehicle fleet operator. The technology allowed 100% biodiesel use (74% CO2 reduction) year-round in existing diesel utility equipment, saving environmental and economic resources. Throughout the entire development process, I still harboured the dream of a throttle-twisting adventure. After a graceful introduction and months of gifted my team a D950 engine, and I secured CA$15,000 in sustainability funding from our student union. I had the ingredients I needed. I went south of Vancouver to Tacoma, WA, to find a Harley, bought it, and rode it home without any riding experience and with absolutely no guarantee the engine would fit persistence, Kubota (the world’s largest sub-100 hp diesel engine manufacturer)

What’s been the biggest technical challenge and the most rewarding breakthrough in building the bike?

I thought the build would take me one

month. It took nine, full time. The greatest breakthrough and the reason I persisted despite seemingly insurmountable challenges was getting the engine to start with the original starter system, 24 hours before leaving for a four-month internship in Italy. What were the highlights of the 1,200-mile ride and how has the reaction been so far from engineers, students, or industry figures? The best thing was doing the trip with two great friends and inspiring entrepreneurs. One of them builds bespoke Land Rover Defenders (GB Defenders), so he and his Defender were great British support. The other friend was filming and has a fantastic health optimisation company (Optimability). It was a superb confluence of chaos, adventure, dream fulfilment and amazing freedom. It was a rewarding experience to educate and fascinate students at UC Berkeley as well as automotive enthusiasts. The highlight was accelerating (but it felt like floating) amongst the giant Douglas firs in Oregon.

BEYOND TEDDIES

Building a Harley-Davidson motorcycle

powered by clean, biodiesel fuel.

What’s next?

Leveraging my experiences, lessons, motorcycle and story into a business in San Francisco. I’m open to new opportunities, so

contact me @alexjennison on Instagram. That, or a cross-US biofuel campaign! If you want to see that happen, please support my GoFundMe.

inside. But that was the plan all along: to learn by doing and make a rolling proof of concept that redefines

Favourite memory from Teddies?

sustainable innovation.

Blasting music from the Tilly’s Fourth Form dorm across a packed weekday Quad and the Sub-Warden storming over to confiscate the speaker was a mischievous highlight. That, or our DT class doing doughnuts on the drift trike that we built on the tennis/netball courts, Field Side.

To prove that clean fuels are viable today.

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