Russ Gries has built a forklift based motorbike, and in the video says he's
30 bucks ahead of the game after the scrap refund.
I interviewed Russ for an
article about his project on the EcoModder Blog. For the sake of brevity, I couldn't include all the information he provided in the blog, so I'm including it here in the forum instead. Watch the video if you haven't seen it yet, then scroll down all the details....
First test ride...
Photo slideshow of the build progress...
http://www.youtube.com/v/ISzpQWREZME
Fork truck details: - Raymond model 20 reach truck, a stand up fork truck
- 3,440 lbs scrap weight (that's with all the non-steel stuff stripped off already)
- 24 volts / 350 amp main fuse (gives you a hint of the controller rating)
- SCR controller (same kind that came with the Baker we stripped to build the ForkenSwift)
- motor rated 2.3 HP at 3000 rpm (resurfaced commutator before using it in the bike)
Motorcycle:
- 1976 Hond CB550
- stock "highway bars" (where the front batts are mounted)
- scooter seat
Build details:
- Russ did all the fabrication, so far about 120 hours worth
- original transmission is retained
- electric motor belt drives the former alternator shaft into the transmission
- where the ICE used to be, he bolted a plate (to keep the transmission oil in) and mounted the electric motor to the plate
Costs to date:
- $50.00 - motorcycle
- $63.34 - tires, front & back
- $2.25 - wire loom
- $3.17 - indicator bulbs
- $10.11 - oil, 3 quarts
- $3.07 - oil filter
- $28.59 - gates belt 720-8mgt-30
- $75.77 - pully p44-8mgt-30
- $46.80 - pully p22-8mgt-30
- $13.95 - taperlock 1012- 1&1/8"
- $8.00 - taperlock 1008- 1&1/8"
- $8.99 - female plug for charging
- $7.16 - male plug for charging
Parts subtotal to date = $351.21
Less... $335.60 scrap refund from recycling the forklift chassis, battery & copper.
Total cost: $15.61
What's left to do:
Of course the price is going to go up more. One problem Russ ran into was the manual for the bike listed the wrong ratio for the alternator shaft, so he ended up buying the WRONG size pulleys to get the ratio he was after. He was aiming for a 60 mph top speed, but the pulleys he's got limit him to 35 tops. So he's going to have to probably get at least one new pulley and a new belt.
And there's brake work, speedo fix, DC/DC converter, cosmetic work ... all the other stuff that's never really finished on an EV.