Reid Nelson, 47, left, and Bill Remmers, 68, both of Lawrence, have scooters and bicycles converted to run off of electric batteries. Nelson charges their electrical powered two-wheelers from a solar panel on his roof.

Call it the alternative to alternative transportation.

These vehicles can’t be bought off the lot or even found hanging in the sporting goods section of big box stores. Most are labors of love, involving a little bit of grease and lots of tinkering.

Some of these modes of transport are head-turners and for others, the only discernible difference is the way they smell.

Their owners are the ones filling up their cars with vegetable oil and fueling their bikes with a combination of leg power and electricity.

And, many of them believe that it is going beyond the conventional sources of transportation that will help ease the country’s dependence on gasoline and reduce carbon emissions.

Here are some of their stories.

Homemade electric cars

When Reid Nelson and Bill Remmers rattle off a list of their projects – a nutritional bar, a solar furnace designed from an old satellite dish, thick-insulated walls for houses and a large telescope – they roll off their tongues as if this is what most people spend their spare time doing.

The majority of their experiments revolve around “save the world” themes, Nelson said.

And, much of their time together entails swapping ideas over cups of coffee in downtown shops. Nelson, a criminal defense lawyer working for the public defender system in Topeka, and Remmers, a retired social science researcher with degrees in mathematics and physics and a background in the hard sciences, met about a decade ago while playing chess. That common interest segued into building telescopes and then moved on to experimenting with electric forms of transportation and other energy-saving devices.

Nelson joked that a woman once asked him if he “was still dating Bill.” It’s a line that brings a big belly laugh from Remmers.

The two are in a relationship of sorts. Remmers brings the technical knowledge and imagination needed for these backyard inventions. And, Nelson has the steady determination to toil away until something works. Together they keep each other motivated.

Today their interest lies in a car made out of foam and fiberglass and carried on three wheels. Its carcass lies in Nelson’s garage. The current model is improving on a 900-pound delivery van bought from India.

That vehicle – resembling a small ice cream truck with the word “solar” written in red across the side – was too heavy and required far too much energy.

The lighter version is half the weight and right now runs off 36 volts of electricity. That car, along with Nelson’s scooter and lawnmower, is powered from solar panels he installed on his roof.

Besides trips up and down Nelson’s block, the newer model has been on one maiden voyage – out to the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds and back.

Work still needs to be done before the car is a regular on Lawrence streets. Because it has three wheels, the vehicle will be licensed as a motorcycle, which requires some safety features but has less stringent criteria than a car. When it’s finished, Nelson promises, it will be put to use.

“I will use it because I’m immune from public opinion,” Nelson said.

In the meantime, the two men can be spotted zipping about town on other means of electric energy – Nelson on his scooter and Remmers on a bright red recumbent bicycle.

It’s surprising, Remmers said, that two men in a two-car garage can come up with electric car models that work, while big auto makers continue to struggle with the concept.

“If we put our minds to it and our hearts to it, we would be able to develop incredible vehicles and clean energy sources,” Remmers said. “And we are going to have to do it.”

Vegetable oil cars

To gas up, Michael and Judy Carman go to Lawrence’s downtown alleyways. It’s a tactic that saves the Lecompton couple several hundred dollars a month and has their vehicles smelling like french fries.

Their 1996 Ford pick-up and a 1985 Volkswagen have been converted to run off of vegetable oil.

“We got them to save money on fuel,” Michael Carman said. “And it is better for the planet, better for the environment.”

Every week or so, the Carmans gather free vegetable oil from the deep fryers of three local restaurants. The oil is cleaned in their shed using water filters and then dumped into the vehicles’ spare tank.

Using straight vegetable oil (which is different than biodiesel) isn’t a novelty. It’s been around since the early days of the auto industry.

For the Carman’s vehicles, diesel is used for the first few miles of the trip and then the switch is made to the tank holding the vegetable oil.

The two have gone on a couple of cross-country journeys using primarily vegetable oil, stopping at restaurants along the way to ask for leftover french fry grease.

This summer, they made the 1,900-mile drive to Michigan. So they wouldn’t run out of fuel, the Carmans brought along 40 gallons of vegetable oil. Canisters were tied to the top of the Volkswagen and crammed in the back of the trunk for the trip northward. By the time they arrived back in Lawrence, their fuel bill was a grand total of $5.

Michael Carman sees vegetable oil as a interim solution between gasoline and other forms of alternative fuels.

He believes – and points to studies that prove – that vegetable oil is better for his vehicle than gasoline. A piece of land one-tenth the size of New Mexico could support the algae needed to produce enough vegetable oil to supply the country’s entire energy needs, Carman said.

Time is the main reason more people don’t use vegetable oil, he said.

For him it’s like a part-time job. And when gas prices climb as high as $4 a gallon, the money he saves figures out to about $75 for every hour he spends gathering and cleaning the vegetable oil.

“It’s a little bit messy at first, but once you get used to it there is nothing to it,” Carman said.

Electric Bikes

In the garage behind his house, Del Christensen converts the old-school Schwinn cruisers and the mountain bikes hanging unused in people’s basements into electric bikes. He even compiles his own parts to build the ultra-cool, low-riding, chopper-style electric bike.

Started two yeas ago, Christensen’s mainly Internet-based business has grown as gas prices continue to rise.

His handy work has traveled as far as Spain and as close by as his neighbors in northern Lawrence. To convert a bike costs about $1,600. A brand new one runs at about $2,150.

These bikes can be pedaled, but with a push of a button they zoom forward on their own. Some travel as fast as 35 miles per hour.

For Christensen, an electric bike means the silence of no motor, no gas and less tinkering than a car. And, they are fun.

“I stay pretty excited about this because almost everybody who gets one ends up with a big smile on their face or they just keep calling me up and saying, ‘I just want to tell you how much I love my bike’,” he said.

Among the love-struck is Christensen’s neighbor, Alison Roepe. For her birthday she had an old mountain bike converted into an electric one. She uses it for trips around town. It takes about the same time to get downtown on her bike as it would in a car.

Her moment of car-free triumph came this summer when at the peak of gas prices she was able to keep the gas gauge on her SUV hovering at a quarter of tank for two weeks.

Instead of driving, she traveled by bike.

“I absolutely love it. I can go up all the hills all the day long and I don’t get tired,” Roepe said. “And, it feels good. I know I am being a good person on the planet when I am riding, because I am not polluting.”