How to build a 72Volt 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

[Guy.Fawkes]

Assuming 100% efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity, at the equator, at noon, on a perfectly clear day halfway between the Solstices. You would need approximately 1 square meter of solar panels per 1000 watts of power to be collected. The Optima D51 holds 41AH at the 20 hour rate (we really need the 1 hour rate for electric vehicle use, but just ignore that for now). That's 492 watt/hours per battery, or a total capacity of 2952 WH; call it 3 KWh for easy math. So you'd need 3 square meters of solar panels, charging for an hour, to get that. Ah, but real solar panels are only about 15% efficient, so that means you'd need either 20 square meters of solar panels, or 20 hours of charging per day to get the full charge on the batteries. Of course, if you don't happen to live on the equator, you'll need more panels, roughly figuring an efficiency decrease of 2.5% for every 1000 miles North or South. I would love to be able to drive a solar-powered bike, but honestly, there's (1) not enough energy from the sun at the Earth's surface to do a reasonable job of it with portable solar panels, and (2) the technology to do it even with fixed-location solar panels is too expensive for anyone who doesn't rub elbows with Bill Gates every week or so. The wind turbine, however, is fairly practical if you have the space. Of course, many US States will give an employer a tax break for letting you charge your EV at work. You should look into that.

[jumbohiggins]

it says 10 miles per charge does that mean you can only go 10 miles b4 your battery dies or can you put in multiple charges also how long does it take for this to charge all the way from a totally dead battery?

[Stryker]

Yes 10 miles +/- depending on how hard you ride it. I don't get 10 miles when I go 70mph. It takes around 5 hours to charge up.

[Country dude]

what if you could get some big a*s solar panels to cover the fame it will look cool as well would that work

[Stryker]

When they start making flexible, efficient,affordable solar panels I will definitely put them all over the bike.

[Mr.Grinch]

if i had enough money, i would just buy some high-efficiency solar panels to bring with me and set them up at work to charge the bike

[Mr.Grinch]

i just found a site that offers portable wind turbines also (telescoping, designed for rv's and outdoor recreational stuff) http://www.siliconsolar.com/complete-wind-power-kits.php

[Silence]

For a far out power option look up 'Parendev' or 'magnetic generator' on you-tube / google. If i had the time, space and money id be playing around with this stuff trying to mesh it with electric autos n stuff.

[hobbssamuelj]

perendev has been debunked. it's impossible to create infinite energy from rare earth magnets. why does everyone forget the 1st law of thermodynamics? energy cannot be created, only converted. magnetism, though related to energy cannot create electricity for very long.

[cody316]

Yeah, but what if you used the neodnyum magnets to spin a shaft mounted to a generator.... its my work in progress its about 60% complete

[Silence]

By my view, the energy being put in is the magnetic force, like radiation in nuclear reaction, theres plenty of it, all we need do is figure out the most efficient way to tap it. Then, leaving parendev behind ive recently seen some materials on heat pumps and some ingenious fuel technologies that several backyard hacks have come up with. Its never a matter of breaking the laws of thermodynamics, its a matter of understanding where your idea fits in. Who would have suspected a plutonium rod could generate electricity ? its just a warm piece of rock yet now its the foundation of power generation in industrialized countries. radiation > heat > steam > power magnetics would be Magnetism > Motion > power

[hobbssamuelj]

magnetic force is not energy. magnetic force is finite and dependent on the degree to which magnets are matched together to produce motion. magnetism is replenished by electricity. perendev, to be viable, requires electricity to replenish the magnetism. that makes the system nonviable. radiation from fissile nuclear material is finite. magnetism is finite. all fuels are finite. there is no way to generate infinite energy from finite sources. it's impossible, wishful thinking aside. by all means though, spend the 90000euros on a perendev engine and tinker to your heart's content.

[Grey_Wolfe]

Magnetic force can be used to create kinetic energy.

Perendev's are a valid design basis. It's a matter of finding an efficient balance of output vs. cost of replacing/recharging magnets. Btw, magnets can be recharged with magnets. There's nothing making it impossible to reallign the atoms over and over. Feasably, if one had a multi stage system where one wheel was working as the Perendev does while the others were aligned with the polarities reversed so as to reallign the atoms in their magnets, you could have a system that degraded much more slowly by switching which wheels are being in a cycle. This does enlarge the system, but it has dynamic potential. (Infinite, no, but a starting point towards a viable system, perhaps.)

Just because it doesn't create infinite energy doesn't mean it doesn't work. Neither does any other energy source.

The goal is not to create infinite energy, it is to create efficient energy.

I don't disagree with you that Perendev's as they are are not entirely viable, but then neither was the original light bulb. Gotta start somewhere. ;-D

[Country dude]

Sweet i will look that up in a bit