THE SPARROW STORY
Mike Corbin Recharging an Electric Motorcycle by Windmill on Mount Washington in the 1970s
This photograph was published in National Geographic magazine in the 1970s. It shows Mike Corbin recharging his electric motorcycle from windmill power at the top of the Mount Washington auto road in New Hampshire. After the climb, the bike was recharged this way and took on a full charge before the descent.
From the Sparrow archive. Product plans, events and availability described here belong to the original historical period.
The context of the climb
Corbin's electric motorcycles were regular visitors to Mount Washington in the mid-1970s. Company history records that in 1974 Professor Charles MacArthur rode a Corbin electric motorcycle to the summit, and that in 1975 a Corbin electric street motorcycle completed two non-stop trips up the road, which climbs about eight miles at an average grade of twelve percent through 99 hairpin turns.
Recharging from a windmill at the summit made a simple point that Corbin has returned to for decades: a battery does not care where its electricity comes from. Wind at the top of a mountain served the same purpose as a wall socket at the bottom. The same road later became the setting for the Electric Vehicle Regatta and, much later, for a climb by a converted Sparrow with an AC drivetrain.