How to build a 72Volt electric motorcycle

No gas, no oil and almost silent. 72 Volts, 70mph of pure fun. This is how I built an electric motorcycle.

Step 1 Why and how

I only work 3 miles from home but with gas prices getting out of control, I thought it would be great to have an electric vehicle. I've always wanted a motorcycle and decided that making an electric motorcycle would be a good EV project, keeping costs down, and be fun to ride.

This project took about 3 months of research and development (not counting waiting for parts to come in or help from a friend with the welding). All in all, it cost about $3000 to buy and build. This may take a long time to pay off in gas savings, but if you add the fun of building and all of the environmental benefits, it was well worth the effort. With a top speed of over 70 mph and 10 miles per charge, this vehicle is perfect for me. The following instructable will not give you exact step by step instructions, but if you have some mechanical skills and welding ability you should be okay. A little knowledge of motorcycle maintenance wouldn't hurt, too. However, I just read the user's manual and learned as I went.

Comments

[tim127]

thats really cool, i wouldnt even know it was home built. how many volts is one of those battaries and how much did they cost?

[charlesfries]

12V in each of the batteries, and they cost about $175 each. He used six in series for 72V.

[thorngil55]

Dear Stryker, I am highly interested in doing this build so I can get to school and back efficiently, but I'm mostly concerned about insurance. I live in California and have a large insurance company. I was wondering if it was difficult getting insured and if you used a small specialty insurance company? also I'm concerned about the premium because it is a home build bike. Was that the case with your bike?

[Stryker]

I did use a local insurance company and just registered it as a custom bike with minimum coverage. The CC rating was put in as the original bike.

[charlesfries]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-Your-Own-ELECTRIC-MOTORCYCLE/step2/Legal-Insurance-and-Registration/

This is a great write-up on how to register your bike.

Cheers!

- Charles

[redticker]

Love this project,in fact I have started my own with the exact same bike! Can you tell me if you need to change the back and front sprockets, and if so can you tell me the specs and where you bought them?
Thanks
[e-mail]

[Stryker]

I left the rear sprocket alone but changed out the front. A friend gave me one but I don't remember what the number is. Sorry. I think you can get the sizing online somewhere if you know how fast you want to go. I want to change them both out for a belt drive system.

[charlesfries]

Would anyone like to view/correct my schematic for a 24V system with an Alltrax controller?

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m45g8hZaBS1qkbchho1_1280.jpg

Thanks!

[gautam nitin]

hi buddy,
congrats man, u done a great job.
i'm totally impressed & wanna take u as my inspiration because from many years i'm planning to do such model but unfortunately i dint find a way to start it.
after knowing reading ur process, i'm happy to tell u that even i'm going to start like ur model & procedure but 1 change in it.
so, can u help me out in this?
reply [e-mail]

[TSC]

Nice that things pretty awsome I think I might build one when I'm older and have the money. Great job!

[gggiiilllbbbeeerrrttt]

where do you find an old motorcyle

[Karletto555]

in a junkyard

[Stryker]

ebay,  craiglist, motorcycle scrap repair shops.

[rainbowrider42]

Hello Stryker. This is my second post here since I became an avid follower of all the instructable projects in this site for five years already. I admire your e-bike project. Can I request for the pdf of your instructable coz i can't download it here for no apparent reason. Maybe something wrong with my pc. My email add: [e-mail]. I want to make my own e-bike based on your design. I'm from the Philippines and the cost of gas here is very high for my motorcycle. Thanks to this site, I receive an email regarding the projects of e-bikes and I really like to make my own to cut down the cost of riding my motorcycle. Thanks a lot.

[garretttm]

You can't download the PDF because that is a feature limited to Pro accounts. As that is how instructables makes money, i'm guessing a pro member won't download it and send it to you. If you want it, you've got to pay.

Wait a minute... is this kim dotcom?

[rainbowrider42]

Hi, This is my first interaction here in Instructables though i've been browsing and reading comments on every project for more that 5 years. First: I really like your project that I wanted to make my own. I really admire your E-bike finished product. Secondly, Is it ok for you if I request you to send me the instructions via e-mail coz i can't download the pdf of your instructable here? you may send it to: [e-mail]. thanks a lot. If I receive your email, immediately i will start making my own e-bike based on your concept. BTW, I am from the Philippines and I love this site and all the projects here. KUDOS to everybody who shared their talents, time, efforts. I salute to the people behind this site.

[earthwindwater]

That is a very slick conversion! Nice!

[steveo625c6]

What are some of the specs:

How many HP is the motor?

Top speed?

[kenbob]

Beautiful work

[Stryker]

Thanks. I'm actually in the process of upgrading the batteries to Lithium. I had to rebuild the entire battery housing so it's taking a while. It should increase my range and power.

[pubicperm]

Okay as for the people commenting about the perpetual motion. Why can we not build something that uses multiple forms of recharging, re-generative brakes magnetos on the wheels, an air inlet with a turbine and maybe some solar paneling too? In motorcycle format this doesn't seem impossible because their is a lot less drag and resistance.

[andrew.downs1990]

Any machanical work needed to generate electrical energy requires it's own energy source to drive it, and this energy is always greater than the electrical energy produced.

The Second Law of thermodynamics essentially says that energy exhibits entropy. It moves away form its source. In machine terms, you have to add energy to get more work, and the ratio of energy to work will never equal 100% due to energy expanding away from its source.

Solar pannels are a good source of energy used to get work but all other forms of "self recharging" through a mechanical means would require work and energy of a greater amount that it would produce.

[dans060887]

This is all true. But by adding magnetos, or re-gen brakes could lessen the strain on the batteries causing them to stay charged longer and therefore increase the range of the vehicle.

[tootall1121]

Some of today's vehicles have the charging feature from the wheels during braking. Not a big deal to think up, somebody in my sixth grade class thought of it way back in the dark ages. Harder to do, though. I truly think that electric is not the way to go for vehicles, until and unless very high capacity batteries become widely available. Alternative fuels, turbine engines, or maybe even a new version of a Wankle, seem more likely. It's possible to run a standard internal combustion engine on anything that burns. the better it burns the better fuel it is, but I've seen a pickup truck powered this way, the owner preferred wood chips and sawdust. Basically the material is contained in a "smoker" that heats the material, but oxygen is at a minimum, so it doesn't burn with a flame, it just smokes. heat has to initially come from some source like alcohol, to get it started, but once smoking is no longer required. Another way to handle that would be to start the engine on another fuel, say propane, then once the exhaust gets hot, let it heat the material. The engine burns the smoke via a carburetor, in this case one designed for propane originally. I can envision this gas being compressed by what amounts to a supercharger, mixed with compressed air, to make an efficient, high performance engine. The original wasn't but that doesn't mean it couldn't be done that way. Oh by the way, an auger system keeps fuel in the "smoker."

[eraj1]

hello sir,
Is there any possible of regenerating in E-bike.

[krashtest]

Couldn't you charge the batteries while riding with a magneto? Lotsa volts with a minimal drag. They got the old brit bikes down the road for years, and todays electronics technology being what it is......just wonderin.

[luckadoo42]

Wouldnt that be perpetual motion, though?

[krashtest]

Not perpetual motion. Anybody got any unobtanium? I'm just wonderin why the hybrids are only charging on regenerative braking or whatnot. Magnetos produce thousands of volts,(when working right), and require very minimal energy to operate. Not trying to sound like a downer, but I can't help thinking that so many of the hurdles we now face, in respect to fossil fuel free transportation, will quickly disappear as soon as chevron or bp put their business models in place to maximize their profits from the industry. The LAST thing the corporate giants want right now is fossil free futures. Drill baby drill! Alas....I rant.

[luckadoo42]

Just out of curiosity, do they call unobtanium because its unobtainable or does it have some sort of latin meaning?

[StuNutt]

I think that "unobtanium" may be a "Terry-Pratchett-ism" to me.

[krashtest]

Its as obtainable as upsadaisium....Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a hat outta my rabbit! I'm just sayin luck, I kinda think we've been saddled with a bad bill of goods. This is corporate america. We certainly need more Teslas around. I hear they're doin some cool stuff with capacitors now instead of or maybe in conjunction with batteries.

[badideasrus]

well, technically no. the magneto will never make as much energy as you use. but it should boost.... time between charges?(man, i only speak English and i can't figure out how to say it..... why is our language so dang hard?)

[luckadoo42]

Ah, yes, but it takes energy to change energy from one form to the other, and in the process, one almost always losses energy (if you didn't, then that would be 100% efficiency...), so any increase in time between charges would be minimal, which means that any energy gained would probably be countered by something else that just dislike perfection.

[badideasrus]

i see your point, though i didn't quite get that last bit.

but still, we both agree it's not going to create perpetual motion.

magnetos work so well with 'those old dirt bikes' because a gas engine creates tons of energy, much more than needed to get you down the road.

off course, you could always peddal :) lol

[mcmonte]

I wanted to do something like this 14 years ago. Then about 8 years ago, 4 years ago and now I'm over it. Every time I want a bike I read something in the paper, or see something on the news that stops me cold. I digress,

If you want to increase range a little more, additional methods include:
- use a brushless motor
- get the best batteries you can. Absorbed glass mat (AGM) aren't quite the pinnacle, but they can't leak and some have good capacities
- consider small, flexible solar panels that can conform to top-facing surfaces like top of fuel tank, ducktail etc. Trickle-charge a little while parked!
- consider these little buggers: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/wind-powered-led-light-for-vehicles-2-pack-5172

Might seem silly, but my idea was to place these tiny wind generators in fairing gaps (where airflow to voltage controller etc would not be affected).
So maybe 6 or 8 of these little guys, (of course you removed the leds) to divert the energy produced into an auxiliary channel of the charging circuit.
It could work!

[doodle moo]

if you added wsmall wind turbines it would make it slightly harder to drive meaning it would use more electricity so much so that you would not gain any and would loose a little bit

[mcmonte]

I agree if they were wind turbines in the common, huge sense.
...but click the link provided ^

These are tiny, lightweight plastic items that represent NO parasitic loss. They're designed for bicycle or car exterior and as they spin, generate something like 1V (if that) to illuminate one LED.

If the air is passing through a vent anyway, why not use it?

[jmengel]

If the tiny, lightweight plastic items truly represented no parasitic loss then they would not light the LED. The reason not to use the air passing through the vent anyway is called thermodynamics, as in there is no free lunch.

[mcmonte]

Ahh, so the blade that weighs 0.1 gram spinning in an otherwise wasted air channel is not worth doing. I see.

By themselves, the little wind powered LEDs *do* have a degree of inefficiency, as they don't use high quality bearings etc. Yes, there is some friction.

In the context of the overall project though, you're getting a bit of electricity for what? Negligible wind resistance.

Using your argument, you'd also oppose the use of a capacitor to store static electricity from the riders body. Well, the cap *weighs* something doesn't it? lol

[Andsetinn]

Let´s just say that if wind turbines are not powerful enough to cause losses they are not powerful enough to drive the motorcycle.

Solar cells small enough to not effect the shape of the vehicle are not powerful enough to drive it.

Because of losses in each step of transformation, of wind energy to electric energy to chemical energy (battery) to electric energy to moving energy again, and losses in storage. It is clear that no equipment attached to moving vehicle, and driven by it´s movement, will ever cause it to go faster or further. If it could, we'd have solved humankind's energy problems.