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Biker,
inventor, entrepreneur
Necessity
may be the mother of invention, yet in Tom Fiddler's
case it was inconvenience. A rider of motorcycles for
20 years, Fiddler was annoyed that bikes, unlike cars,
don't have a signal that tells when the battery is low.
"I've had four or five batteries go out on me in
the last 15 years," Fiddler says, and that was
more than enough for him.
After
pushing his bike one night for a quarter of a mile,
Fiddler was fed up. The idea for the Stator Gator was
born. Thinking that no "self-respecting bike owner
would want to install some ugly gauge or a gaudy light,"
Fiddler opted to use a pre-existing part of any bike
- the oil light.
With
the attachment of the Stator Gator - which bikers can
install themselves in about 30 minutes - the oil light
will blink when the battery is running out of juice,
and will stay lit if the oil is low.
Sensing
that other bikers would be just as interested in a battery
warning system, Fiddler launched a Web site from his
Stephenson home, www.statorgator.com, to sell his product.
Retailing at $35 plus shipping, Fiddler calls it a "$30
insurance policy." People may not think they need
it, but if they're in the habit of taking long rides
with their spouses as passengers, it could just save
their marriages. "It's much better to have the
warning than to have your wife very upset with you,"
Fiddler says.
-
Blair Euverard
Return to Virginia Business - August
2002
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