Chris' Electric Motorcycle Build Thread

[captainslug]

Sketch #1

Cutouts in the fairings to match the pattern in the wheels. Underlighting under or at the edges of the panels.

[shiba]

awesome designs so far, ben gave me some ones he sketched by hand, i'll have to find someone with a scanner and scan them in...

i'm gonna do a poll with all the submissions to see which ones people like, and to give people other ideas they can work off of.

[bennelson]

Today was another EV build day, and time for more work on the cycle.









Today's fun was figuring out how the batteries fit in!
Chris and Rich welded in a couple of plates to hold two batteries, one next to the motor, and one in front of it.

A battery is just a little bit wider than the spacing of the two front down tubes, so they put a small hydraulic jack in there and used it to spread the bars just far enough to fit the battery in.

When I left, they were starting to work on the upper battery rack, and were thinking about making a cut in the front cross bar to make it possible to put one of the batteries in and out.

The good news is that the frame is pretty large, so it should be able to hold at least 60 volts of batteries, but 72 would be fantastic.

Shiba is going to have to continue this post with what else got done after I left.

Oh! We also ran a cable from a battery to the motor and spun the rear wheel. It spun well, no sparks, wobbles, or weird noises, so it looks like the coupler and alignment are right on! (I'll post a video clip of that soon)

[shiba]

alright, first, bne spells wrong sometimes....but dont we all

but yea, what he said, and after he left, we did make the cut in the frame to attempt to press the frame apart a tad to get the battery in and out, however the bottle jack wasent working, so we'll have to wait until next time for that!!

on thursday i will be picking up a controller (borrow only, darn!) to play with until i can find/afford one...(aka, a good, but cheaper one)

and yea, thats the updated progress thus far!!

hope you are all enjoying i sure am!!!

~Shiba

[bennelson]

Yeah, yeah, username spelling. Whatever.

Here's a video for ya.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9v6QspxrL0

[bennelson]

I found another great place for some body design ideas.

How about this one?



It's a sketch by Jim Shook (Shook Design | Industrial Design | Transportation Design | Product Design) who is on the Tropica e-mail list.

Here's some more:




See more of this designer's work at:
LINK

I know all of these designs wouldn't exactly fit the frame of the bike, but it sure is fun getting ideas!
I like the pointy blue cycle!

[bennelson]

More work was done on the cycle yesterday at the Milwaukee Electric Car Club meet.

Rich brought his big torch and fancy hydraulic tools.
Rich and Chris used a hydraulic spreader to force pressure between the down-tubes, and heated them with the torch, until they bent out a tad.

This allows for one of the batteries to be installed and removed through the front of the cycle frame.

Another member brought with an old Curtis 24/36V controller. A little bit of cabling, and a 0-5K throttle and we should actually be able to take the cycle for a spin!

[alohaspirit]

couple more

[shiba]

alrighty, this weekend i got nothing done at all....except get the bike running

all that is really left to do, is get all the lights wired up, and more instrumentation (speedo, and amp meter), oh yea, and brake fluid, thats important too...

well, heres a video of it running this weekend...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9lAduHpHx4

i also took some more photos, i'll post those once they are uploaded to my site...

and i'm also working on a body design....anyone else have any more for inspiration?! or ideas of your own work too!!!

Thanks again guys!!
~Shiba

[bennelson]

SWEEEET!
So wish I was there for that!

I like the sound when it's going - the bike has a good scream to it. Too bad there was no speedometer hooked up!!!