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POWERING UP
Lawless Industries adds venture, breaks records
By Burton speakman
poland
The typical work that is produced at Lawless Industries in Poland is specialized and one of a kind.
Shawn Lawless watches his ideas come to life at a nondescript building at the back of a series of small office buildings. On any given day, employees could be building the world’s fastest electric motorcycle, creating the foundation of a float or working on a hybrid motorcycle with Orange County Choppers, a New York-based custom-motorcycle shop that has television shows that air on Discovery Channel and TLC.
The company has the motto “special is the standard” that has existed since Shawn Lawless’ father ran the company, said Shannon Lawless Grantz, Shawn Lawless’ sister.
But Lawless is preparing to take his company into a whole new venture with the Youngstown Mower Company.
“I plan to build an electric lawn mower in Youngstown,” Shawn Lawless said.
Lawless Grantz is assisting with the mower company. She said the siblings met recently with representatives from the Youngstown- Warren Regional Chamber, Youngstown Business Incubator, Youngstown State University and the Mahoning Valley Regional Development Corp., among others.
Lawless has already made an agreement he believes will make the company a reality and has been working on the project for years, he said.
The current variation of the lawn-mower project is the fourth, he said. The only sound the machine generates is from the spinning of the blades.
One of the things that’s expected to be added to the mower is a charging station in the back for other tools such as weed eaters, Lawless Grantz said. They would charge while the mower is being charged.
“It took some time for the battery technology to catch up with Shawn’s idea,” she said.
The idea to build lawn mowers came from a parade float called the whirlybird, Shawn Lawless said.
“When you look at a whirlybird [a type of parade float that spins], it looks just like a zero-turn mower without the mowing deck,” he said.
Lawless had been working with Toro on the electric lawn mower, but the partnership ended amicably, he said.
“They said they weren’t ready to mass-produce electric lawn mowers, and I told them that I was,” Lawless said.
An electric-powered mower is a excellent idea, said Eric Planey, vice president of international business attraction for the chamber of commerce.
Due to the energy efficiency, low environmental impact and lack of noise, the idea certainly has the chance to take the leap into the next generation of technology, he said. The recent meeting was a kickoff for the chamber in terms of Lawless’ concept and idea.
Though the lawn-mower venture remains in the future for the company, Lawless had a significant achievement in March setting the quarter-mile speed record for electronic motorcycles reaching 200 mph and finishing the quarter mile in less than seven seconds.
“Video of the run has already gotten more than 200,000 hits on YouTube,” he said.
Lawless said his next goal for the dragster bike is to top the best quarter-mile speed of the nitromethane-powered vehicles, which remain more than second faster in the quarter mile.
Since the electric drag-racing motorcycle was built, Lawless was able to take a second off the quarter mile time each year until 2010. It took two years to develop the bike to the point it could break seven seconds in the quarter mile, he said. The next goal is to top 250 mph. “I’d like to be able to break six seconds in a year,” Lawless said. “Realistically, it’s probably going to take two. It’s taken us about seven years to get where we are now.”
Lawless said he was working with Orange County Choppers the first time the motorcycle was tested at Lebanon Valley Dragway near Albany, N.Y.
The driver for the test, Larry McBride, flipped a switch that was designed to protect the battery and motor from abuse, changing the mode to full power, which was not expected, he said.
“I was so afraid when he was doing that, but when it was over, I knew it would withstand anything,” Lawless said. “That first day was very exciting and stressful. We had a brand-new chassis, battery and control system. Only the motor had been previously tested and not to this extreme.”
Shawn Lawless has spent nearly his entire life working to make and improve machines. He was taking apart his and his sister’s toys to build things when he was 4 years old, Lawless Grantz said.
“If Shawn has an idea, he can figure out how to build anything,” she said.
Much of the Lawless Industries work remains building float mechanisms for amusement parks. The company builds everything for floats the public cannot see, all the mechanisms that make it move, Lawless said.
The company has a total of nine full-time employees and works with several local companies, including Boardman Steel, and various machine shops to help them develop their creations.
About half the company’s projects come from calls from customers asking if something can be done, the rest come from ideas that Shawn Lawless has had over the years, he said.
Both the electric motorcycle and the mower will be part of the Sustainable Energy Forum at Youngstown State University on Monday and Tuesday.
There will be companies from all over the world that will be part of that forum, including Lawless, Planey said.