Electric Motorcycle conversion

[bennelson]

This past Sunday, a friend had his lithium motorcycle up from Chicago to the Milwaukee area.

I got to test ride it. Wow, was that fun. His is running a 450amp/72V controller through a big permanent motor with double brushes.

I chased him around the parking lot with a video camera on the handlebars of my bike.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzZ0gvJbm4s

In other electric motorcycling news... The Pizza Rack is Back!

I really hadn't been using my cycle all that much, and then spent a good part of the summer making the new battery rack and the instructional video.

One of my favorite things about the cycle is just hopping on and zipping into town without using a drop of gas. It's just about the ultimate errand-mobile, but it needs to be able to carry take-out food!

Previously, I had built a simple cargo rack out of some thin plywood. It worked fine, but was a little bit of a pain to put on and take off. I think I scrapped it out at the end of last summer.

Tonight, I was going to pick up a "take and bake" pizza for dinner. I certainly didn't want to start up an internal combustion engine just to do that. So, it was time to rebuild a pizza rack.

I looked around my garage to see what materials I had to work with. The best candidate was some 16" x 20" plexiglass. I had already drilled 4 holes in the corners of the plexi, when I found something even better.

A 16" aluminum pizza pan.

I had that sitting in the corner of my garage for some time. Originally, it was going to be an "aero-hub-cap", but turned out to be the wrong size for my rims.

It is, however, PERFECT to carry a 16" pizza!

I also didn't want to drill anything on the cycle frame or even mess with any type of clip. However, the grab bar on the back of the cycle is steel, which meant MAGNETS!

By setting the pizza pan on the back of the cycle, a SINGLE recycled computer hard-drive magnet will hold it in place.

Top that off with a bit of bungie net to hold the pizza on, and BAM! Pizza Rack ver. II.






The hard-drive magnet is flat, so the pizza just goes right over the top of it.

[Nevyn]

Epoxy the magnet fast to the bottom of the tray.

[bennelson]

Yeah, I was thinking about that.

The magnet already has a few threaded holes in it for small metric screws. Next time I'm at the hardware store, I'll get a few.

Then the magnet can be screwed onto the pizza pan.

[Low and Mean]

You guys are amazing!

[bennelson]

I originally charged my cycle with a cheap (made in China) 48V charger, but it never really worked that well (lower amps than advertised!) and it sorta crapped out on me.

Since then, I had been charging the cycle with four 12V battery chargers, which works fine, but it's not real convenient having to clip on 8 power leads every time I want to charge.

For a while, I have had a 48V UPS which I installed in my garage to experiment with for going off the grid, and battery backups during power outages.

I already had some batteries around from my electric car project and hooked some of them up to the UPS. But one thing I have thought about is how electric vehicles MOSTLY JUST SIT! And they are filled with batteries, just sitting there.

Well, a 48V UPS is two things, a DC to AC power inverter, AND a 48V battery charger! Since the motorcycle is 48V, why not charge it with the UPS?!

This is something I have thought about for a while, and I did a little test or two a while back, and it seems to work fairly well.

All I really needed is some sort of simple way to connect and disconnect the cycle and UPS. So, today, when I was at the Milwaukee Makerspace, I set to work on making a custom cable to go between the two.

On the motherboard of the UPS is a multi-pin plastic quick release connector, which goes to TWO red and two black 12GA power wires. These originally went to sealed PbA batteries mounted inside the rackmount UPS.

I needed to connect this special connector to something, and that something to the cycle. The easy answer is ANDERSON connectors - they are standard, easy to work with, and keyed, so you can't plug them in backwards.



I looked through the Makerspace's big box of cable and found a length of 6AWG power cable. 6 gauge is heavy enough for the power requirements, but the ends of the conductors still fit into the terminals for 50 amp Anderson connects. I gut two lengths of cable, about 10 feet long each, and crimped-on the Anderson connectors. I then did the same on the other end to make an Anderson Extension Cord!



I twisted together each pair of wires from the motherboard connector and crimped them to take an Anderson connector as well.

I now have a 10' long heavy power cord, with quick connects on both ends, and an adapter cable to connect to the UPS.



That gives me enough cable to roll up and hang in the garage so that when I pull up on the cycle, I have plenty to reach and plug into the Anderson connector I built into the tank on the cycle.

Plug it in and turn on the UPS, and it starts charging!




I also made a special cable to back-feed the UPS to the garage circuit breaker box to power the garage from the motorcycle. In event of a blackout, I could even feed it back to the house, and run my house from my electric motorcycle.

Not that we have blackouts a lot, but it sure will be interesting next time we have one!



PS: Yes, I am familiar with the term "anti-islanding". The electric company guys are my friends and I do NOT want to jolt them. The system is currently completely manual, and grid power must be disconnected (flip a breaker) to the garage to enable UPS load-side input. I also have an automatic transfer switch from an RV generator setup that I plan to instal to automate the system, while further increasing safety.

[hzoltaan]

Hi,
First of all hello for everybody I'm new here.
Second, I hope I found the closest topic for my question... which is:
Would I be able to build a small electric scooter/commuter bike using a truck starter motor?
I made some calculations using equations and methods from another EV motorcycle builder and I'd need something like 2-3 kW continous power. (the speed I should go on the road to work is about 70 if I do not want to end up a grill-ornament on a truck. It's a an expressway nearly all the way to work, 13km. )
the truck starters I could get from local dismantlers are 24V 4-5-6 kW beasts.
Would a starter which is designed to provide huge torque for a short period be capable of giving me 1-2 kW continous power withouth overheating, melting the brushes, so on...?
Maybe with controlled field-current?

Thank you for the answer.

zoltan

[bennelson]

As far as I know there just aren't any starter motors that are designed for CONTINUOUS use. They have plenty of power, but are designed to have plenty of time to cool down between uses.

If anyone has experience with TRUCK starters, please chime in, but if they are ANYTHING like car starters they are not the right thing to use.

If you are looking for an affordable motor that could work, you might be able to find a used forklift motor of the right size.

[hzoltaan]

More or less this is what i found too apart from a few diy electric bycicle.
I can get used 24V pumps for trucks, lifts from dismantlers. The power range is about 2-3kw. Do you know of any diy motorbike which has such low powered system? I'd be interested of it's performance.

another question. I saw some brilliantly airstreamed bikes on internet, and I wonder, should i go for a scooter frame or for a normal bike/moped? The bike will be used mostly in city, however on the way to work i use something like an expressway between cities. The speed there should be around 70. A nicely airstreamed scooter would do the trick, what do you think?
On the other hand, a moped might offer more space for batteries and a stronger frame for extra weight.... which would be more stramlined in default?

[bennelson]

While I haven't done any aerodynamics work on my motorcycle, there have been some people that have done great work on theirs.

One I thought looked fantastic is right here on Ecomodder: 214 mpg with DIY aerodynamic fairings on a Honda 125cc motorbike

Also, look up Craig Vetter. He has been working in motocycle aerodynamics longer than anyone. Craig Vetter, designer and inventor of the Windjammer fairing,Triumph Hurricane Motorcycle and fuel economy motorcycles

[mechman600]

Originally Posted by bennelson

If anyone has experience with TRUCK starters, please chime in, but if they are ANYTHING like car starters they are not the right thing to use.

Most truck starters 'till recently (before they switched to tiny gear-reduction style starters) have been made by Delco. The motors are approx 5" diameter and 12" long and they are 12V, not 24V. They can handle a TON of amps, for about 30 seconds, and by then they are about 200 degrees F. Most are rated at 8500W, which equals about 700A @ 12V. They are not cooled in any way other than conduction through the case, as they are sealed to keep bad things out. They also spin fast, about 2000 rpm at 12V at 700A, so they would have to spin ridiculously fast if you wanted to over-volt them to 48V or whatever. They have a ball bearing at the tail end but only a bushing at the drive end. And they are very heavy, approx 40-50 lbs.

I am sure they could be modified to work in a motorcycle:
-Cut holes and add a fan or make a water jacket for cooling
-Remove the Bendix drive and solenoid and add a proper drive-end support bearing

Obviously these mods would cost 10X more than a decent purpose built motor. Even then I doubt it would work very well.