Return to Virginia Business - August 2002

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