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Old 05-31-2015, 09:40 PM   #4 (permalink)
bennelson
EV test pilot
 
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oconomowoc, WI, USA
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Electric Cycle - '81 Kawasaki KZ440
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Electro-Metro - '96 Ben Nelson's "Electro-Metro"
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I don't want to mod the frame on this. The bulk of the frame is just an aluminum box that holds the batteries, anyways.

However, I did think that a good place to start was just to take the seat off. Depending on how you measure it, the seat is over four inches thick.

I took the seat off and just sat on the battery box. It sort of turns into a recumbent just by doing that. I set up my camera on a tripod and a timer and scaled that photo to the same as a previous one I took, so I could see how tall I was in the standard position versus with the seat removed.

As I was playing with these images, I just started sketching what might be a fairing over the top of it. By the time I was done, I ended up making an animation.

Hope it loads right!

1. Cycle with regular upright sitting position. (Trunk was removed in this photo, shows attachment points for a custom tail.)
2. Seat removed (becomes sort of a recumbent position. Trunk is back in place in this photo.)
3. Imaginary nose-cone added.
4. Imaginary tail added.



Removing the seat sure feels like it drops me a lot. It seems to put my shoulders solidly BELOW the top of the windshield, but my line of sight is still over the top of the windshield. I rode around the block like this. It's real easy for me to tuck all the way behind the windshield, and air pushing on my shoulders seemed like a lot less. (Even though I was just doing a little low speed through my neighborhood. Maybe tomorrow, I can put some foam under my butt and try something a little faster.)

Down that low, the handlebars are just a little far away. I'm not sure if I can adjust them or not. Adding a piece of plywood/foam/cover over the battery box would raise me up a tad, maybe just enough to make reaching the handlebars better.
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