Electric Motorcycle conversion

[Daox]

The eteks are good motors, but a slightly better motor to look at would be the Mars PM motors (I guess they're called Motenergy now). They were designed by the same guy who made the eteks, but they're a later design and they fix some issues like the fast brush wear due to funky wedge design. I have a ME0708 motor on my riding mower and it is great. I also know a guy who did brush testing for Motenergy to make better brushes for it and he raves about how good a motor these are.

Either motors are good choices though. If you could find a used one that'd probably be ideal.

[bennelson]

Benfroggg,

I don't have plans for a fairing for my cycle. I'm actually pretty proud of how "stock" it's looking right now.

For a while there, I was riding around with my friends old front fairing and rear cargo boxes. It really changed the character of the cycle. Those the fiberglass fairing and boxes were actually pretty heavy as well.

My cycle is used in a couple of miles of 45 mph zone, and all the rest is in 25 mph zones. At low speeds a fairing isn't going to give me much difference. I only live a couple miles outside town, and the 20-30 miles I can get on the cycle is well more than enough.

The one style I do really like is called a "Dustbin" fairing. They look cool, should be pretty effective, and a person can still get on and off the cycle!

Also, as Daox said, there are a number of different motors out there that would all work well for a cycle.

[pletby]

That's a pretty sweet ride Bennelson. I like how you've kept it stock looking, and almost 'stealth electric'. I have an old Suzuki GS400E that's been sitting behind my Dad's shed for years because the engine blew and I never got around to sending it to the salvage yard. It's been covered the whole time, and is in great shape otherwise. I think that'd make a great start to an electric bike.

I like how you're willing to share both your victories and stumbling blocks along the way. Very encouraging and inspiring.

[pletby]

Thanks for the motor link there Daox. Much appreciated.

[bennelson]

I recently got to take apart a Mars motor. It's really nice inside. The brush design is FAR better than the original Etek. (It uses the more traditional way of holding brushes, but it's a very large diameter commutator. Nice springs too.)



So, for any of you who thought my last video posting showed how my motorcycle was complete..... you couldn't be further from the truth!

What I did was get the cycle "Show Ready" for the MREA and another event.

When an electric motorcycle is parked as part of a car show, it DOESN'T need headlights, turn signals, horn, tail-light - in fact, ANY part of the original wiring harness. (It did need a working drive system for me to drive it up into the back of my pickup truck....)

When I got my cycle frame, it was in pretty poor shape. When I converted it to electric, I completely replaced the original wire harness. Parts of the original harness were actually MELTED OFF! When I built the harness for the original version of the e-cycle, I didn't do a great job - it was a real mis-match of wires, and none of them were really the right length.

So, the other day, it was time to rebuild the harness, and do it right this time! Fortunately, my brother, Wayne, was around to give me a hand. He's much better at this whole "plan ahead, and be organized" thing... He even already made a wiring diagram!

Here's him popping in the headlamp, with the new color-coded and labeled wires inside.


And here's him working on the harness in general. I assure you the wires were much more tidy than that by the time we got done!

The main thing that kept me busy, while he was working on the wires, was the Dc/DC converter.



You see, my motorcycle does NOT have a 12V battery dedicated for the headlight and other traditional 12V items on the motorcycle. It just has the 4 12V batteries in series for the propulsion system.

So how does one get a separate 12V for just all the accessories? Just connect that all up to one of the four batteries? No, that's not ideal. That one battery gets loaded down a little more than the other three, but worse yet, it makes an accidental ground between 48V and the frame of the bike that much more likely!

So, I'm using a DC/DC converter to take the 48V and convert it to 12V (OK, 12.5 if you want to get technical....) to run the accessories.

This way, it's an even drain on all batteries and isolates the 48 and 12V systems.

Here's what I used.

It's a two-inch-square converter out of some computer equipment. It will convert anywhere from 36-72V out to 12. That's nice to have that type of range. If my batteries are low on juice, AND I gun it GOING UPHILL, at NIGHT, the low-voltage cut-off is STILL below what the batteries will provide.

(A few summers ago, when I was running the cycle on a 36V system, I WAS going up a big hill, at night, at the end of my ride.... The headlights kicked out! Yipes!)

The only real downside of this converter is that it has small pins for the power. Those were designed to go into circuit boards, not motorcycles! So, I crimped on some bare space terminals and then soldered them to the pins. Now I have quick-release connectors and can just plug and unplug the converter from the cycle.

The DC/DC converter is rated at 100 watts and 86% efficiency. The headlamp uses 55 watts, and the tail and turn signals don't draw much. (The tail light is LED)

Based on the efficiency, I would imagine that the device gives off the same amount of heat as a 14 watt lightbulb. It's mounted to the same alumimum plate as the controller and everything else. I think that should work as a bi, simple heat sink.

I also really like the Sharpie silver marker. It writes on black!



So, now when I turn the key on the cycle, it turns on power to the controller, and power to the DC/DC converter, which outputs 12V to activate the main contactor, which fires up the 48V to the motor.

One key does it all!

So, now the cycle is not just show-ready, but ridable as well! That means it's time to start teaching others how they can build their own.

I just started work on my BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE instructional DVD. If you have any particulars that you want covered in the video, let me know!

[pletby]

Originally Posted by bennelson

It's a two-inch-square converter out of some computer equipment.

What kind of computer equipment Ben? I'm about to chuck an old computer at a recycling depot. Should I be keeping it for spare parts? Is that from the power source? Don't want to be getting rid of something that I would have to buy later.

[bennelson]

I think that's from a rackmount server, or something similar. My friend Tom is a computer recycler, and always grabs any odd bits of equipment that look like they would be helpful for projects.

[bennelson]

(Above, one of the staffers puts a microphone on Eric.)

My motorcycle was officially on TV for the first time this morning!

It was on the Sunday Morning News on WKOW - Channel 27 in Madison, Wisconsin.

My friend, Eric, runs the Green Drive Expo (this coming weekend!) and was on the news for their "local events/soft story" segment.

Ahead of time, they asked him for any visuals he could provide, and he suggested an electric motorcycle. Even though Brammo will be at the event, they weren't able to provide a bike for a 3 minute news piece a week ahead of the event.

But I had one.

I drove the cycle right through the back door of the TV studio. No gas or oil to drip out onto the studio floor. The live broadcast was next door in the "A" studio. They were just going to cut over to the "B" studio for a few minutes for our little live segment.

It was kind of weird to see the weather report on the TV news, and then realize that the voice I could hear on the other side of the wall was the weather reporter LIVE, actually right there, giving the report.

So how about this? Instead of an electric motorcycle coming into the studio. What if we drove a GAS CYCLE into the studio B during a LIVE broadcast. I'm sure they would have LOVED that background noise.

Anyways, it was just a short little interview to promote the Green Drive Expo, but they did have a pretty good shot of the cycle between Eric and the reporter.

And I was excited that my cycle finally officially made it on television!



(Eric, the cycle, and the reporter, just before going live.)

PS - I also gave the reporter a copy of BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC CAR: CHEAP! Who knows, it's possible they do a follow-up story, mentioned it on the news later, etc.

[bennelson]

Here's a link to the video story:
http://www.wkow.com/story/15094756/g...clipId=6059229

[bennelson]

Recently, I've been cranking away on making the BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE DVD.

Who ever thought that me messing around in my driveway with some batteries and an electric motor would lead to me being an alternative transportation video guru?!?!?

Here's the opening to the video, as a promo I tossed up on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNsuRxlnw7U&hd=1