How to build a 96-Volt Electric Motorcycle

Step 8 A snazzy paint job & we are done!

After the snazzy paint job I covered the two sets of saddlebag batteries with half of an ABS tub that Vicki & I found at Lowe's. (Improvising being the key word here!) I put an 'Emergency' Disconnect up on the fairing (just in case something shorted out). It's the bright red knob below the left handle bar grip. I also put a 'Charging Complete' light on the fairing under the throttle grip.
It took me about 2 months of spare time to put it together (and I live on a farm so there is not a lot of spare time available). (Who needs TV anyway? It's over rated!)

Anyhoo, here are the 'specs':
-70mph top speed
-15-20 miles range (I don't baby it at all, so I usually see 15 miles/charge)
-Single speed (including the wheels there are only 6 moving parts)
-Cost to charge: 15 cents
-Can out-accelerate most 4-cyl cars.
-Maintenance: Check the pressure or change the tires every few years.
-Fun Factor: Off the gage.

Comments

[li789]

what happens when you drive it say thru a puddle? would it shorten out?

[wmacdougall]

It would depend if he sealed the circuitry (or any electric current running through) or not.

[erfquake]

Kentucky-bum, that cycle's great! Fine job!
I've been looking for an upright design like this instead of all the crotch rockets on the market. (bad back, too) The Vectrix is all I can find these days, but lacks the nobility of this beast.

[JAYDAWG40]

so how much did you spend on the bike total not including the cost of the bike it self

[Kentucky-bum]

Jay, I didn't spend much as I had a lot of the components laying around. Google search "EV conversion kits" and you will come up with a number of complete kits (sans bike) for between $1500 and $2500. Most kits are based on the voltage you want to run, but don't include the batteries. To replace the lead-acid batteries in my bike with LiFePo (1/2 the weight and twice the range) will cost me $2,700 (BMS and all).

[menahunie]

Yes I have seen the kits also. I am trying to figure out how to assemble a bike that has 35 mile range and can go at highway speeds.
The batteries and cost is the big issue.
The thing that burns me is the EV-95 battery isn't being allowed to be manufactured by Chevron who bought the rights from General Motors and who bought the rights from the inventor - THIS ALL TOOK PLACE OVER A NUMBER OF WEEKS. These batteries were used in the EV-1 car GM built and also the Rav4-EV also. A battery that would run the cars at 80 mph and get around 120 miles to a charge. The EV-1 car was only leased then destroyed by GM when the Calif. air resources board caved in and removed their mandate to have 10% of the cars on the road emission free. You hear about all the junk spouted from those holes they call a mouth from politicians and GM and BIG OIL that the technology isn't here for EV vehicles - BULL. It was here until they killed it. Toshiba tried to make the EV-95 battery and was sued by Chevron and Chevron got over 30 million from them. Thing is the patient expires in about 4-6 years - when it does watch out.. I'm not a green freak and love my kick in the pants camaro and suki gsxr1100... Now they are pushing that stupid farce HYDROGEN AS THE FUEL OF THE FUTURE; give me a break... If we had use of the EV-95 battery there would be a whole heck of allot of EV cars and trucks on the road today... The battery is allot safer the LI=Lo batteries that will explode on you if you do the wrong things to them..
Sorry for the vent but if anyone looks up on the net - who killed the electric car you would be venting also...

[gregblackburn]

awesome job!!!

[Jimichan]

Hey Kentucky-bum; Ever hear of a tri magnum? Google it! Converting your bike to a trike would give you room for a lot more batteries.

[Kentucky-bum]

Jimichan, I have heard of them before, and actually helped a buddy build one (gas, about a zillion years ago :-). I had given your suggestion some thought, and I see where Honda has introduced a 3-wheel bike similar to the Bombardiar Spyder, so I suspect that 3-wheel EVs based on that idea are just around the corner. Me, I plan on converting my Toyota Spyder for an 'extended range' EV. I don't mind 20 miles range on my Bike; I only live 5.5 miles from work.

[Elect_Rick_Carr]

Thinking of things that could increase range, what happens when you shut down the throttle at speed, does the motor act as a brake or does it coast along with little slowing effect? Could a centrifugal clutch in the drive line allow better coasting, motor off, for taking advantage of downhill runs or even anticipating redlights, etc? Thanks for the inspiring article, I've gotta try making one now!

[Kentucky-bum]

Rick, the dirty little secret with EVs is that unless it has regenerative braking (where the drive motor turns into a generator) there is no engine braking at all. It will coast forever. If the brakes are not sized for this it's easy to burn them up quicker than usual. Regen on an EV will give the feel of engine braking (and put about 10% - 15% back into the battery) but it is generally not cost effective; you spend more on the complexity of the system than you would get if you just bought some longer-range batteries.

[DabeAltis]

If brake size were an issue, it would be a simple and inexpensive matter to to use the brake light circuit to activate a relay which would connect a braking resistor across the motor. The power generated by the motor would be wasted rather than fed back into the pack, but you could easily get all the motor braking you wanted with little extra expense. You would still have the best of both worlds, motor braking when you wanted it and free wheeling when you didn't. This same system could be made regenerative by replacing the braking resistor with a DC to DC converter to convert the power generated by the motor into a high enough voltage to feed back into the pack but, as the author stated, the return would really not be cost effective.

[Elect_Rick_Carr]

Thanks Kentucky! When I think of regenerative braking, I think of the tiny little generator I had on the wheel of my "English Racer" bicycle back in the '60s. When you applied it to turn your light on, you could immediately feel an extra drag on your pedals. So multiply that effect by 10 and you have regenerative braking! I have a pretty well equipped machine shop and can fabricate almost anything, so when I see some of the EV conversions around, I really do get the urge to try stepping into that field. Hey, there might even be a few bucks to be made doing it!

[thorning]

This conversion is very interesting but did you weigh the cycle before removing all the parts not needed and after the conversion. Looks like fun but I bet it weighs a heck of a lot more and would be difficult to handle. Can it still be licensed and insured to drive on the road legally ?

[Kentucky-bum]

It weighs about 75# more. About the same has having your kid sister sitting on the passenger seat. (By putting the 'saddle bags' on the rear I eliminated the possibility of carring passengers anyway). If I go to LiFe-ion batteries I could get it back down to original weight. And it does drive like I have a small passenger on the back so it is not a balanced as with out one. License? Insurance? No problem. It's still street legal.

[bodo]

hi everyone it is posible to build al tose charger speed controler and converter more cheaper by yourown the diagrams are posible to find google som and see wana make myown electro bice alsoo

[klixtopher]

Nicely done! You did miss one important maintenance step though- check/replace the belt. Even though you've got a shaft drive, it's connected to your motor via a belt, which will wear over time. Granted it takes a while but still, you don't want to be pushing all those batteries home one day :)

[Kentucky-bum]

Yeah....well...kinda.... I am using a geared belt drive, just like the kind that Harley uses as a drive for their rear wheel. These belts are kevlar lined and pretty much darn near industructable. The teeth may strip over time, but they don't see a lot of wet (or bad) weather, and they never break. Since most bikes don't see that much action over their useful life anyway (when was the last time you saw a bike with over 50,000 miles on it?) I consider the belt pretty much a life-time component. (Oddly enough I want to take it back to chain; like most belt drives the tension is horrendous and that causes a lot of unnecessary drag. I'll just oversize the chain so it won't stretch that much over time)

[Chuck66]

Great build!! Really looks good. Have you thought about adding a small wind turbine to the back of the bike to recharge the batteries as you drive? They are making them smaller now and there is a website that sells blue prints on line on making them yourself for your home. Why couldn't you just scale it down for your bike?

[doctMarlius]

instead of wind turbine....what about installing solar panels to recharge the batteries?

[Kentucky-bum]

The best you could hope for will be under 100 watts per square foot (@ 50% conversion rate) so you are not going to get a lot of power from solar panels. Maybe enough to run the blinkers...

[Kentucky-bum]

The issue becomes how much drag you get from trying to generate electricity from wind. If the turbine was placed in such a fashion as to not cause drag (let's say in a conduit between an area of low pressure and one of high pressure in the chassis) it would work. But it you just place it out in the free stream it would create more drag than the energy you would get back from it. Besides, the only other problem is that it would have to be of significant size to really add any usable amount of electricity to the battery. It could be used to run the minor 12-volt functions, but a Vicor DC-DC convertor is dirt cheap so economically it would not make much sense.

[gidian]

maybe if you created a simple funnel-style pnuematic tesla turbine with flat discs you could actually create more energy than the resistance, a funnel like that of some pontiac superchargers, and connect it to a dc gener. but youd have to find a place for it (its relitively small but it would need something to releive tension from gener.) idk, but new ideas are good right?

[jdsoccer17]

how much did the entire bike cost?

[TheBlueBomberMan]

These batteries are an EXCELLENT EV vehicle battery.

http://www.electricmotorsport.com/store/ems_ev_parts_batteries_thunder_sky.php

Very high energy density and cost is very reasonable. 3.2V 40Ah ~3 Pounds

[rechevarria]

Do I see a country boy starting his own electric motor bike company? You did a great job. It would be easy for me to ask you to build one for me! But that makes me down right lazy. You do seem to have a knack for this. The bike looks very clean, very first class. Have you thought about putting on a generator to feed power back into the battery. I would think this would increase your range. Solar power cells wouldn't be to bad. But then that would make the bike look funny. K.E.M. IE: Kentucky Electric Motors. Thank you Ray [e-mail]

[vjopkb]

i thank you, its great not all humans are self-centered and keep info to themselves, anyway, i'm curious as to how long the batteries last, whats the range??

[Kentucky-bum]

Depends on what you spend on them. A $500 pack will get you 2 yrs & 20 miles a day. A $1,000 pack will get you 3 to 4 yrs yrs and 25 miles a day. A $5,000 pack will get you the life of the bike and 15-20 miles a day. A $10,000 pack will get you the life of the bike and 50+ miles a day.

[peter57733]

I am presently engaged in a search for a bike to convert, My hat is off to you for making a statement, why let all the model guys have all the fun with electric cars, boats,plane's and stuff, I think riding your hobby is more fun, and if you take all the cash it takes to do electric radio control models you can be the proud owner of an Ev! well almost.

[Kentucky-bum]

Start with eBay, and then google for motorcycle scrap yards in your area. With a little digging you should be able to find a late model that doesn't run for under $1K. There are also a lot of older-style bikes out there under $500 if you look around.

[peter57733]

That is exactly what I am doing, I have one guy watching out for me right now and will trade my 40 cal Glock for one!! I am really wanting to get a donor bike bad.

[Kentucky-bum]

Look for an early Ninja...250 or 600. They have just the right amount of fairings to keep it neat (like Strykers) of find an old Turbo like mine.

[peter57733]

Yea I found 2 early Ninja's at 500.00 for either one, one is a 750 and the other is a 900, The 900 is very complete

[Kentucky-bum]

Of course you have to do an Instructables now :)

[Lance Mt.]

If you can't do an instructable. TAKE PICTURES!

[peter57733]

Well when I get some pictures I will see about posting a Instructable I still need to find all the tools for one, I have not even tried to figure out how yet but I am great at posting pictures
http://boatsbypetere.blogspot.com

[peter57733]

I was planning on giving it a try, I sure wish I could afford to kill a newer Ducati or something that would get someone riled just for pure statement!!

[summerwolf]

This is really cool. I want to build an electric motorcycle with my fiance as a summer project, but I'm needing something more for distance (in the 50 mile range). Any suggestions

[kahles77]

I want to also, but I keep running into the factor of distance to work (69 miles round trip), and it is all interstate, 70+ mph. Great Instructable btw, the bike looks great.

[Kentucky-bum]

50 mile range...what kind of speed? What kind of driving? For two?