George Stelle isn’t like most university-bound students who throw a few belongings into their car and head to school. In addition to the necessities, this 23-year-old graduate student will pack a custom-built, solar-powered recumbent trike for his trek from Whidbey Island to Albuquerque, N.M.

Initially Stelle planned to make the journey by way of pedal and solar-power along Highway 101 with his girlfriend Beth Roberts, but as their July departure date neared Stelle questioned the trike’s ability to withstand the nearly two-thousand-mile excursion.

The real feat, however, is that Stelle built the solar-powered trike from the ground up without any instructions to guide the forward-thinking transportation experiment.

“I figured it out from information online,” he said, listing Internet message boards, chat forums and various Web sites as sources of information and inspiration.

Stelle’s motivation to tackle such a project stemmed from a realization that solar powered cars are able to sustain normal car speeds, while human-powered vehicles are also known to reach nearly 80 mph on flat ground.

“I figured by combining these two low-power, but low-weight technologies, I could come up with something that was at least fun to drive/ride around, and approaching practical as a means of getting around, perhaps even for long distances,” Stelle wrote in a blog dedicated to the trike’s fabrication.

The project began with a single-seat KMX Trike frame that Stelle cut in half and welded back together with stock metal tubing made of high-carbon steel. The metal extensions transformed the single-seater into a double.

More than two-hundred palm-sized solar panels, resembling shimmering scales, flank the top of the four by seven foot trailer, which hooks to a hitch on the back of the trike.

Collectively the small,rectangular panels will generate roughly the same amount of power Stelle and Roberts will generate while pedaling.

“It’s basically enough to help us with the hills,” he said.

Through trial and error the couple fashioned two battery packs to store excess solar power.

“There’s always things you don’t anticipate,” he said.

Despite many “failed experiments” along the way, Stelle’s trike is nearly ready for the road.

With each missed mark, Stelle managed a functioning fix.

“Failure has been a big part of this,” he said while showing off a controller board, with different colored wires snaking in every direction.

“It’s a bit of a monstrosity,” Roberts said as Stelle showed off the board.

The modified recumbent trike frame features “driver-side” gears and brakes and shared steering, which may take Stelle and Roberts a little getting used to.

Throughout the trike project, they’ve practiced gear changes, steering and stopping during test rides along a relatively quite stretch of Penn Cove Road.

The trike is clearly in the 21st century — if not ahead of its time — complete with a GPS tracking unit, power output monitor and wireless internet.

Learn more about the technical side of Stelle’s trike and follow his travels at stelleg.homelinux.org.