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Ryland · 06-28-2013, 09:59 AM

My ideas include making and selling just the parts that connect a low cost golf cart motor to a shaft drive Honda motorcycle, that is the $300 low cost kit allowing you to build up an electric motorcycle using a $100-200 used golf cart motor, a much more powerful motor then the Mars or Etek motors and with a total motor + kit cost of about the same or less.

The $1,500 kit or full motorcycle would be with lead acid batteries, so reduced range and short battery life, I haven't priced out bulk prices on lead acid batteries yet but my hope is that with an assembled motorcycle the bulk prices would allow me to sell something at slightly above combined retail price of all of the parts and still pay my self for my time.

The $3,500 version would be with lithium batteries, very close in design to what I currently have put together, bulk prices on batteries can bring the cost way down but it'd also be a decent sized investment.

The AC20 motor and maybe even some of the larger brushless 3 phase motors bolt on the same way a standard golf cart motor does, 4 bolts and 2-3 wires and the motor is swapped out! so upgrade options are nearly endless with pretty much any of the parts.

I'm not interested in putting a gas engine on this or making it a hybrid, the added cost and complexity is to much for me to want to deal with, however if someone really did want to put a gas engine on I think a trailer would be the way to go, a 10 mile range at 35mph could easily be done with a 48v 20 amp hour battery pack, not really possible with lead acid at that voltage because of the high discharge rates so a higher voltage would be needed, but it could be done, but at that point a very small lithium pack would work too of course the lithium cells are cheap enough that putting a larger lithium pack on is not going to add that much cost because the big cost in a small pack is the charger and battery management system so the only real savings is in space and weight.
I also don't want to bother with a hybrid because I don't ride more then 30-50 miles per day on a motorcycle and batteries store plenty of energy to do that, if I want to go farther then I want to listen to the radio, take other people along and be enclosed inside of a vehicle.

06-28-2013, 09:59 AM	#6 (permalink)
Ryland Master EcoModder Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Western Wisconsin Posts: 3,903 honda cb125 - '74 Honda CB 125 S1 90 day: 79.71 mpg (US) green wedge - '81 Commuter Vehicles Inc. Commuti-Car Blue VX - '93 Honda Civic VX Thanks: 867 Thanked 434 Times in 354 Posts	My ideas include making and selling just the parts that connect a low cost golf cart motor to a shaft drive Honda motorcycle, that is the $300 low cost kit allowing you to build up an electric motorcycle using a $100-200 used golf cart motor, a much more powerful motor then the Mars or Etek motors and with a total motor + kit cost of about the same or less. The $1,500 kit or full motorcycle would be with lead acid batteries, so reduced range and short battery life, I haven't priced out bulk prices on lead acid batteries yet but my hope is that with an assembled motorcycle the bulk prices would allow me to sell something at slightly above combined retail price of all of the parts and still pay my self for my time. The $3,500 version would be with lithium batteries, very close in design to what I currently have put together, bulk prices on batteries can bring the cost way down but it'd also be a decent sized investment. The AC20 motor and maybe even some of the larger brushless 3 phase motors bolt on the same way a standard golf cart motor does, 4 bolts and 2-3 wires and the motor is swapped out! so upgrade options are nearly endless with pretty much any of the parts. I'm not interested in putting a gas engine on this or making it a hybrid, the added cost and complexity is to much for me to want to deal with, however if someone really did want to put a gas engine on I think a trailer would be the way to go, a 10 mile range at 35mph could easily be done with a 48v 20 amp hour battery pack, not really possible with lead acid at that voltage because of the high discharge rates so a higher voltage would be needed, but it could be done, but at that point a very small lithium pack would work too of course the lithium cells are cheap enough that putting a larger lithium pack on is not going to add that much cost because the big cost in a small pack is the charger and battery management system so the only real savings is in space and weight. I also don't want to bother with a hybrid because I don't ride more then 30-50 miles per day on a motorcycle and batteries store plenty of energy to do that, if I want to go farther then I want to listen to the radio, take other people along and be enclosed inside of a vehicle.