CURRITUCK — Move over West Coast Choppers. There are some new bike builders in town.

A group of students in Mark Wootton's Autotech II class at Currituck County High School recently finished reconstructing a motorcycle to run on biodiesel.

Justin Falls/The Daily Advance (ENLARGE)

Bryan Leary, 16, sits on a biodiesel-converted 2003 Harley-Davidson Heritage Fatboy motorcycle Thursday as other students look on inside the automotive shop at Currituck County High School.

Justin Falls/The Daily Advance (ENLARGE)

The Fatboy's gas tank shows the artwork of a student who worked on the bike.

Justin Falls/The Daily Advance (ENLARGE)

The Fatboy's 3-cylinder, 22-horsepower engine is shown.

The bike, a 2003 Harley-Davidson Fatboy, was originally modified by a class in Pennsylvania. Keystone Biofuels then recruited Wootton's class to repair it and turn it into a theme bike. The motorcycle took about four months and $20,000 in parts to complete.

Bryan Leary, a 16-year-old junior, did much of the mechanical work. Leary, who was assembling a motorcycle for the first time, said he was worried that parts would not work. However, he said he was pleased with the end result.

"It was great," he said. "I'd never seen a biodiesel bike before."

The bike was painted by junior Adam Link, based on a design by senior Art Perry.

"When they told me it was biofuel, the first thing I thought of was the environment," said Perry.

The 17-year-old opted for a green color scheme to replace the bike's existing purple and silver paint job.

"It was a pretty cool project," added Link, also 17.

According to Wootton, biodiesel motorcycles are quite rare — there are fewer than 10 in the country. He said the bike currently runs on soybean oil, but can be powered by other biofuels and even conventional diesel in a pinch. In addition to being better for the environment, he said biodiesel acts as the bike's internal cleaner.

Wootton, Leary and Link recently showed off the bike at the Virginia Beach Bike Classic motorcycle show, where it attracted the attention of custom-bike builders.

"Hardcore Harley guys were pretty enthusiastic at this show," Wootton said. "It does buck the norm."

Wootton and his students were also interviewed for SPEED Channel's "American Thunder" motorcycle program and got to meet host Michelle Smith.

"I felt famous," Leary said.

Leary said he is definitely more interested in motorcycle work than he was before he started the project. He said he is looking forward to being able to get a motorcycle license.

Wootton, who has built electric cars in the past, said he is open to working more with biofuels in the future. He also expressed interest in entering his students in a high school bike build-off, provided they could keep the biodiesel engine.

The segment of "American Thunder" featuring the bike is scheduled to air in June.

Biodiesel bike

Chassis: 2003 Harley-Davidson Fatboy

Engine: 3-cylinder diesel

Horsepower: 22

Fuel economy: 99.5 miles per gallon

Weight: 780 pounds