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

[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.

[Disc Dog]

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.

[jerhpk]

3 wheeled electrics already exist. Not to hijack, but look into Myers Motors. It's not a traditional trike, but it is a three wheeled electric. rqriley dot com also has plans for sale for the 3 wheeled options (tri magnum already mentioned).

Like the job, just can't do it myself.  I work about 20 miles away, and don't have access to outdoor plugs at either work or home.  find a way to incorporate solar panel charging, and I'll be there!  Will definitely keep this in mind, it's already bookmarked.

[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

[Disc Dog]

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!!!

[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!

[Disc Dog]

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 ?

[Disc Dog]

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 :)

[Disc Dog]

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?

[Disc Dog]

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...

[Disc Dog]

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??

[Disc Dog]

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.

[Disc Dog]

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.

[Disc Dog]

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

[Disc Dog]

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.

[Disc Dog]

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

[gurkaran03]

Hey Congrats Pal.... I would like to know the cost of all this stuff you put on the bike frame. I mean the batteries, motor, converter, etc...

[jb2]

do you think you Can still get 70mph speeds with a sidecar attached?

[Disc Dog]

On a straight stretch of road...maybe. 65 yes,...70 maybe. You would lose a lot going up a hill though. That's a lot of weight to go up with. This thing is already too heavy with lead acid battteries as is (It will only do 60 tops up a steep grade as it is now).

[jb2]

I live in Florida the only hills here are man made :) I'd really like to maintain the local highway speeds around 70-75mph and a range around 50-60 miles. Now with the sidecar, I can mount more larger batteries, so I could also power a bigger motor, or the same type for longer right? but I still don't think it'll give me the range required. Perhaps I should go hybrid instead?

[Disc Dog]

JB, You don't need a bigger motor, but you may need more gears. It's a fine line between having a strong enough drive train to withstand the brute force of accelerating with that much mass, and having the right ratio for high speed travel. Normally that's what multi-speed transmissions are for. You can get away with it but you must be careful on your accelerations. That Advance DC 6.7" motor is used in a lot of small car conversions, and they go 75 mph with it, but they regular manual transmissions. Like I wrote about earlier, I made mine for more acceleration than speed. You would want to run it a about a 5:1 ratio rather than a 5.6:1 ratio like mine. That way you would have better high-speed motor characteristics. I have envisioned just what your talking about but using a motorcycle trailer instead. They are much lighter, can hold what you need for a battery, and don't offer much air resistance. I have actually begun designing one for my bike just for this reason.

[jb2]

wouldn't using a transmission also mean less efficiency due to friction and whatnaught? or do you think the amount is negligible? Also, what do you think about running this as a Pure hybrid, that is, a smaller gas motor powering only a generator, not the driveshaft. I've got a heavy framed 150cc scooter at home that gives me 60mpg at speeds around 40mph I'd imagine a small gas engine of that size would do pretty well powering a small generator instead of 500 pounds of bike and passenger.

[Disc Dog]

Most transmissions are more efficient than what powers them. They do degrade the overall efficiency of the system, but gears and chains are pretty darn efficient. It is better to operate the motor at its peak efficiency speed and loose some through the tranny than it is to not have the tranny and loose efficiency operating the motor at an inefficient speed. By all means, a constant speed ICE hooked up to generator (parallel hybrid) is the most efficient drive there is IF you have to burn a fuel to generate electricity. The only problem is you are limited on acceleration power (raw torque). The trick is having a constant-speed ICE with batteries too. The Aptera does what you are talking about, but it still needs a bank of batteries to give it starting (accelerating) torque. It may be possible to make a small enough parallel hybrid drive system to fit on a bike (or be towed by one), but I'm guessing that it would have to be very custom to get any real efficiency out of it. You can buy a gas generator today powerful enough to run a bike down the road at 60 mph (and still be able to haul it around with that same bike); but it'll have to be about 6,000 watts. With a run time of about 5 hours on 5 gallons of gas you'll get about 60 miles/gallon...right where you started.

[beachbikeron]

Would it be possible to add a car generator or altinator that would continuously charge the batteries as the wheels are in motion?

[android_04]

A generator or alternator would cause the electric motor to use more power in order to turn. You cannot recover most of the energy used to turn the motor by doing this. Otherwise, we would have perpetual motion machines :) So adding an alternator or generator would be a bad idea. If you want to recover some energy from the electric motor, buy a controller that supports charging the batteries when you decelerate or brake. In this case when you decelerate the controller makes the electric motor act as a generator.

[Thanatos]

I do want to build one but i need way more range If i got a hold of one of those controllers could i increase the range dramatically enough? I would need a range close to 100 miles if all possible... plzthnx

[android_04]

Kentucky-bum reports a 15-20 mile range for this design. If you used a controller that recovered energy when you brake, you might be able to go up a few miles in range. The controllers recover energy when you brake, but they are only efficient up to a small percentage. Look up "regenerative braking" for more information. To increase the range here are some options: 1. Put in more batteries (limited by space) 2. Reduce operating voltage (lowers speed) 3. Use more energy dense batteries such as Lithium-Ion (more expensive)

[Thanatos]

I found a site selling 16.8 volt lithium ion batteries how many would i need to get a motorcycle rolling and how dramatically would it increase my range. it is also pretty small roughly only 4" x4" 1/2"

[android_04]

What is their Ampere-Hour (Ah) rating? You can use 4 or 5 of these batteries in Series to give you 67 or 84 Volts, but they wouldnt last long. You would need to put more sets of 4 or 4 batteries in parallel with these to gain more power.

[joeybolz]

Let see. 700 dollar bike 900 dollar motor, pillow block bearings, jack shaft, DC to DC converter 8 59$? battery's, pricey solid state controller, battery charger, other misc stuff. So where it end up? Half of a Vectrix?

[Disc Dog]

Yea, a I am less than 1/2 the cost of a Vectrix, but you can buy a Vectrix knock-off out of China for less that 1/2 a Vectrix (about $4K). I probably could not get the Li-Fe ion batteries on the open market for less than the whole bike (from China) so for now I'm gonna stick to Pb acid.

[z7eightball]

What about if you added a top panier with extra batteries and also a solar cell of course it would run in deficit, but surely give a bit more range and a full charge coming home from work. also why can you not use old batteries with new. one last question no gear box is it possible to have a gear box Please understand this is not criticism Im asking in terms of wanting to know more.

[rabbidgoat]

Great bike !!! I need a little more range ... could I get that with 2 more batteries somewhere on the bike ? Simple idea .... I don't know that much about the details here ...

[Disc Dog]

She's full up with batteries as it is, but they are just plain old lead-acid deep cycles batteries. You don't need more batteries, you just need batteries with higher capacity (amp-hrs). You have keep the voltage constant (no matter what voltage you decide to run at) because everything else on the bike is set to that voltage (meter, charger, etc). If I wanted to simply add more batteries my only choice would be to double the battery pack (which is eight 12-volts batteries wired to run in series to make 96 volts); I would need 8 more 12-volt batteries and then hook them up in parallel to the original pack. BUT (here's the catch) you can never mix old batteries with new ones. Once the pack starts off as a single 'pack' (ie 96-volts) it must not be broken up or doubled-up; it will die a premature death if you do. The easiest way for me to extend the range is to buy some of the newer Li-Fe-Po batteries...but then again I don't have $4000 just yet. Any charitable types out there?

[M0rtii]

Now I realize this would take some design and engineering know-how, but just being creative here, what about covering the body in small solar panels. Better yet, drop the plastic shell and design a body made solely from solar panels. The total area still wouldn't be great but sitting in the sun all day from 8-5 would juice back up the batteries some. Maybe a light carbon fiber shell with small solar cells mounted to it. Weight could be an issue. (I guess it would look kinda geeky though.)

[downgrade]

The solar panels would not actually add enough of a charge to be worth the cost, time, bulk, ug-o factor, etc. Solar panels aren't really good until you have a LOT of surface area... maybe if it was a truck or van but then it still would maybe add a few miles a day tops...

[paddlinphil]

Nice job and really nice explanation. It is good to see a shaft drive electric cycle. I am converting a 79 Honda CL500 shaft drive to 48 volt. I mounted an ETEK motor on the swing arm in front of the rear tire. A chain connects the motor to the shaft. There is room for 4 - 12 volt RV batteries where the engine transmissions use to be. Friends have warned me that I will lose too much power to the shaft drive. What has been your experience? When you drive, do other drivers have problems "seeing" a silent vehicle? Did you use a motorcycle horn or opt for something bigger? I was working on wiring today and am always looking for ideas on control positioning. You page had great ideas. Thanks again. Phil

[Disc Dog]

Phil, You loose a bit of efficiency using a shaft drive instead of a direct (chain) drive and it adds weight so all in all you might loose 10%-15% range but not much more. Sneaking around parking lots can be colorful. I usually just beep the horns once in case I see somebody walking around clueless.

[snoopy101]

Do you think it would be possible to do this with a scooter? (more specifically, a Yamaha BWs) Since I don't have any knowledge of how I would do this, where should I go get information (internet, what books could be good,...)?

[Disc Dog]

Snoop, it's a little tricky as you don't have a lot of room to stuff batteries in, but using a scooter does have it's advantages; only use 36 or 48 volt system (less batteries) and use an E-Tech type motor (it's a pancake motor so they are smaller & lighter). You don't need all that much power to drive a scooter (vs. a full-blown motorcycle). Also go to www.kta-ev.com for books and EV parts. They sell entire kits (sans batteries) for converting everything from a scooter to a pickup truck. They're a good place to start when getting familiar with the mysterious world of EVs!

[LancePenney]

Excellent build man. If I had a bike,a short commute to work and more than 2 months out of the year where there's no snow I would do the same thing for sure. I really like the decal you have there also. Keep up the good work! PS: If I did a build like this I would also invest in a decent sized solar power system to charge the bike (I said this to Stryker also). That way your transportation would be totally green!

[Digitarius]

I would be building one of these right now if we can get the range up. I need a similar top speed but a range of 60 miles (or 30, if I could figure out a way to charge at work. Which I doubt I could manage) , with some hills and stop-n-go. I'd like to see the numbers on adding solar panels where you can. Could we boost range that way? Charge in the parking lot? I have the feeling, though, that you probably couldn't add enough panels to get anywhere near the amount of juice a 110 house line is giving you..

[LancePenney]

I ment that I'd have a large solar array fixed to my home so I could charge it there. It's not realistic to drive around a portable solar panel to charge the bike. I bet the increased weight and drag would waste more energy than you are getting from the sun. Also, solar panels are very expensive and if you set one up and left it there someone would probably steal it.

[mikegraham]

Do you currently have a large solar panel array attacked to your house?

[LancePenney]

No, I ordered about 120 watts worth of solar cells from e-bay and I was going to build my own solar array but fred480v is a douchebag and wouldn't send them. Pre-built solar panels are too expensive for me right now.

[juicestain75]

Awesome build! How long does it take to charge all of the batteries?

[mrom]

In stage 3: Why can't the electric motor be installed in line and directly to the drive shaft? Could you leave the transmission and use the gears of the original motorcycle? Very interesting project!

[uglymike]

You could install the motor directly to the shaft final drive, but by installing it the way it is here, you can alter the gear reduction ratio. You can "tune" it for acceleration, range or top speed by changing the gear reduction. The transmission on this motorcycle is integrated into the engine, so once the engine is removed, the trans goes with it. If you wanted to use a transmission you could use one from a big twin Harley or an old brit bike. Transmission are not usually use for E-Vehicles because the torque output of electric motors are usually very high and remain consistent through out the RPM range.

[loader]

Love the build! How does the weight compare to a normal ride?