Electric Motorcycle conversion

[bennelson]

Saturday, I took the cycle to the Milwaukee Hybrid Owners Group meeting.
http://www.milwaukeehybridgroup.com/

In the morning, hybrid cars ( and my cycle) were out in the parking lot, where people could come see them and ask questions.

The meeting was at the Oak Creek (Milwaukee area) Public Library.
We were allowed to bring the cycle right into the meeting room. (rolled it on a tarp to keep the tires from dirtying the carpet)

I got to talk for 10 or 15 minutes about the cycle to the entire group.

The TV producer and cameraman showed up as I was most of the way through my presentation, so they did get some footage of me talking.

A day or two earlier, they already did long interviews with a few key members of the group.

They didn't get any footage of me zipping around on the cycle, but the producer did grab one of my electric cycle business cards. I got to chit-chat with him just a tad, and he mentioned something about maybe having to do a story on me sometime.

[MetroMPG]

Sounds like a good event. No such groups closeby here - if I wanted one, I'd have to start one. (Got enough on my plate, thanks!)

[bennelson]

Ecomodder electric cycle material?



The weather was actually nice today!!!

I took a look at the cycle again, to see what makes the most sense for cramming battery #4 in to achieve 48 volts.

It looks like the easiest way to do it is to put two batteries side-by-side with each one sticking out a bit.

Can't put them where the motor is, can't put them in the lower battery position, because that's where my feet go. Can't put them in the upper rear battery position because that's where my knees are.

That leaves the upper front battery as the only reasonable spot to put two batteries side by side.

If I actually build some real battery brackets (you will note that it currently uses plywood and a tie-down strap...) the batts will be nice and solid side-by-side, but they will still look funny sticking out a bit.

I have two motorcycle floor mats from when the local cycle shop went out of business (right as I was getting into cycling!!!). Both mats have a bit of "tread-plate" aluminum on the one end. If I cut out this piece of deck plate, I could bend it around the front of the part of the batteries that stick out to make a cool curvy "armor-plating" for the batteries.

Then it will have a little character and not look so stupid with the batts poking out.

[bennelson]

Ever since I installed the 36V contactor from the forklift, my smart charger has not been working right. It just doesn't "get smart" and shut off when it is supposed to.

When I installed the contactor, I removed the old battery cut-off key.
I think that because the contactor has a diode and resistor attached to it to keep the controller happy, it may be effecting the charger.

I just re-installed the cut off key in addition to the contactor. We will see if on the next charge, the magic green light on the charger comes on.

[bennelson]

I checked the charger today, and the light was green! The smart charger got smart again!

Only used 0.44 KWh after being on charge 24 hours, meaning the charger stopped charging when it was supposed to!

Yesterday, I took the cycle to the BOONDOCKERS Street Rod Show.

Got lots of good comments on the bike. Real good conversations with a few people too.

At the end of the day, I realized they had an amatuer motorcross track hiding in back. I HAD to try the cycle on that.

Yep, me, the cycle, and its 129 lbs of lead flying over the dirt track. I was WAY to chicken to try any of the jumps, especially without a helmet, armor, and better suspension.

Still it was the first time I went off-roading on a motorcycle, if you don't count my front lawn.

It was a blast! I might have to look up when the next closest National Electric Drag Racing Association EVent is!


Also, a while back, I took the cycle to the Milwaukee Hybrid Group meeting and got to make a presentation about it. We actually drove the cycle right into the library meeting room! There was a TV crew that showed up WHILE I was presenting. The news piece they were shooting for is supposed to be on the news tonight. I have no idea if I will be in it or not. I will let you guys know. We get a couple of channels of TV, but not that one. My wife and I are going over to my parents to use their TV and VCR to watch it.

[MetroMPG]

Glad your charger is smart again. The original 24v "semi-smart" charger we were using in the ForkenSwift before we got the "really smart" 3-stage 48v unit was only shutting off intermittently. I opened it up and saw a burned looking component. One of the EVDL members identified it and even sent me a link @ digikey for the replacement part - which I ordered & soldered in. Fixed it.

[JV-Tuga]

Since I own a Forester I'll transcribe here a post I made not too long ago about converting a Subaru Forester to Electric AWD, since I think that is cool at so many levels...

I think this technology is more feasible because the 4 wheels are independently powered and controlled and each wheel is a motor/generator, which improves the efficiency (no drives to transfer and lose power along the way):

PML Flightlink

Check these figures:
Hybrid electric cars, electric cars UK, electric vehicle conversions, hybrid motor vehicles

Now take a look around the main page
Electric car motors, electric boat motors, 12 volt brushless motors

You will notice how elegant and logical this approach seems to be. Compared to it all else seems to be somewhat back asswards. I just wish I had the money and I would do it in a heart beat.

[bennelson]

A couple weeks back, my friend, Steve, came to see the electric motorcycle when I had it at the Oak Creek, WI public library for the Milwaukee Hybrid Group meeting.

I hadn't realized he shot video with his digital camera. He just e-mailed me these and I posted them to YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkCBgY57CBU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsng1qC2qGA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKeVSQcK1yE

[bennelson]

I was just over at the local landscaping place.

I ran the cycle up onto their drive-up scale. The cycle (without me) weighs 360 lbs.

[bennelson]

I gave my wife a ride last night to the local landscaping place, which was doing a "Ladies Night Out". (And then I went and used their dump truck scale)

I noticed the tire pressure seemed low.
The rear tire had about 5 psi in it!

On a car, the driver makes almost no difference in the weight on the tires. On a motorcycle, the driver (and/or passenger) can double it!

Since it's the rear tire, I can't even see it while driving, but could feel that it was low.

(Yes shame on me for not checking, but I hadn't been on the cycle for a bit and then was out of town for a week. The rear must have a leak.)

I ran the tire pressure up to 40 psi in back and 42 up front.

WOW DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

There is a very slight downhill direction out my driveway down to the neighbors house. I coasted all the way there, picking up speed.

Electric pulse-and-glide here I come!!!!!