Honda VFR EV conversion (In progress)
 

Just found this on ABG, but it looks like a great project (and a sexy bike), so I thought I'd post up: http://blog.evfr.net/

You may notice I posted in his comments to invite him over, :D

A 1986 Honda EV VFR. Very sweeet!

Thanks for the invite...

Its finally getting finished up, but yeah, its one sexy bike...

I'm going to do a single seat rear fairing, and dual round (RC30 style) headlights in front...

kind of a cross between this:
http://vfrworld.com/photos/data/2/88bl_extra3.jpg

and this:
http://vfrworld.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/7795

but electric :)

Welcome to the community.

Nice bike! :)

Welcome to the site, Travis! I'm excited to see some progress, :). Sending you an email in just a few minutes, :)

Nice project. I saw the ABG bit & dropped by your site as well.

I love how you're doing it with great attention to, um, minimizing cost. I can identify with that.

What are you going to use it for? I mean.. are you doing it as a science project, or will it become a commuting vehicle?

I was going to budget $3k for this project, but I've barely spent over 600, and All I have is welding left.... I'll have to get it street legal (register, get lights working), but it'l be under 1K for a classic 80's sport bike... one of the first actually.

Some people got upset at me for parting it out, saying that I was defacing it, but I think I'll do it justice.

This was just a project I decided to do after talking to some guys at work, and going to some OEVA (Oregon Electric vehicle association) meetings. I was approached by some people in Portland about helping with their controller/balancers/etc. THats All I needed to get hooked.

I've got a second bike as well, which was 100% free when I picked it up. i've got 1 and a half set of fairings between the two of them (bought some fiberglass), and 2 complete chassis. I picked up 2 K99-4007 motors at Surplus center for 230 a piece plus shipping and the ONLY difference between them and the popular K91-4003 motor, was the shaft. So I saved over 400 a piece.

Just having fun right now, its pretty easy to do, just gotta know who to talk to. In fact, I went to a forklift place and they gave me 5 curtis controllers that may or may not work, they were replaced with new ones. Its all who you ask...

THanks for the positive feedback guys...

Any updates for you project?

well, no physical change to the motorcycle. I brought someone in (he's got a VFR) and he's going to help mock up some mounts for the motor.

I ordered some sprockets (11,12,13 tooth) as well as chain and a break. Once I get those, we'll figure out where the motor needs to go, get some mounts fabricated and welded.

Then we move on to battery cages/boxes.

So a little update....

Me and a friend fabricated the motor mount and got the motor faceplate drilled and ready to countersink... then we can mount the motor to the frame and get the chain on there and some load testing done. We made it out of 3/8 Aluminum.

We're chosing to use steel angle iron for the battery box first revision... once we figure out what we want, it'l be copy paste. Plus, we can use it for the second bike we've got. Its coming along, but 6 hrs a week isn't much...

I picked up an electric Go-Kart for $200. Its got an ADC A89 motor, complete chassis, extra tires and wheels, 2 24V chargers, some gauges, contactors. Just needed a controller and batteries. Should be running fairly soon.

I trust you're taking & posting pics too? Don't be shy to link to your blog if you are, or if you're posting more info there. Nobody here will mind - and it may send a steady trickle of traffic your way. (Stick the link in your sig.)

How about that cache of Curtii you picked up? Have you had a chance to try any of them?

Nice find on the go kart, too. :)

www.evfr.net is the blog.. good idea on the signature...

I post pics from time to time, I'm taking in a camera because I actually have something to show... I'll take a pic of the frontend of my charger.

No go on the curtis, they were all dead/broken, but may be usefull for packaging later. The power boards look useable. Control boards are mostly shot.

I'm excited about the go-kart. Synkromotive said they've got some prototype boards that we could stuff for 400A instead of 600A and run at lower voltages instead of 144. So I might get it working pretty quick.

Oh, and I got some nice dual headlights... pic on the blog.

so, got the motor spinning the rear tire... just need to mount batteries and controller and I can start actually riding her for test.

Its in an industrial area, so we'll test and get her perfected before I register it.

So here's the video:
[youtube]D27TJUc1fK8[/youtube]

Woohoo! Congrats on the big milestone.

I got some more work done, we fabricated some battery trays, and should have them finished by next week. Then we can wire this b*tch up!

Click on the pic to read more:

http://www.evfr.net/coppermine/album...l_IMG_1834.jpg

Another little update:


http://www.evfr.net/coppermine/album...l_IMG_1846.jpg

Any estimates to first road test?

Lookin' good!

We're finalizing the battery cage tues hopefully.... crimping cables tues/thurs and then hopefully wiring the wholedamnthing on Saturday.....

It'l be fun fun fun! You'll all get to preview the PDA/Controller link

BMS still needs finalization on the board layout.

So, she's actually running now. Click the pic below for the blog entry and some pictures. I posted a video, but its dark. I'll get more tonight and throw it up on youtube. I'll do a walkaround as well. Looks like frankenbike, but it'l be cleaned up. We just wanted to get it together so we can begin testing.


http://www.evfr.net/coppermine/album...l_IMG_1871.jpg

Woohoo! Another EV comes quietly to life! Congrats.

Thanks... Its been a fun week!

Posted 6 new videos:
http://www.youtube.com/frodus17

So last night, I dropped by Synkromotive to help Ives with some testing. We tried logging with the DataQ again, and it it kept failing, no matter what setting we used. Nothing seemed to help. We unhooked it, and I’m going to contact Customer Service. We need something to compare our measured values to.

We spent the rest of the evening getting the Old Tachometer (originally fed off the engine spark), to display the current on the motor side. Its pretty cool, as you give it gas, it displays current at a 50A per 1000rpm resolution. So 200A is 4krpm. I’ll likely print something to display actual A, but its great for testing. Its just a PWM signal to the original Tach line. I’m totally cool with keeping the stock look, infact, I’m HOPING to keep as much of a stock look as possible. Now I need to order a PB-6 to keep my original throttle, order a EV200 contactor and get the lights working.

David Boyd got the bike up to 60mph… wow! It was fresh off the pack, and pulled 300A or so up to 30mph, and then it started to drop… at 55mph, it was roughly half of that. Better gearing should help this, as less torque is needed. We’ll keep gearing what it is for now because we’re testing something new every day. I thought it felt kind of like a 250cc, but David said it actually feels more like a 500cc. I think the batteries are waking up a little too, so switching to new ones in the future, with higher current draw is definately going to help. This controller rocks!

I got a jacket the other day, and am going to pick up a Helmet this weekend. Insurance won’t be that hard (My agent has been really cool about helping me). Registering it should be ok, but I’ll have to have someone make sure they see it doesn’t have an exhaust/was converted to electric so I can be excluded from DEQ. I’m also going to get a Motorcycle instruction permit… and keep my riding limited to daytime, with a friend. Just need to take the Knowledge test.

So, I decided to work my butt off this last weekend, and prepare the electric motorcycle for its first official public apearance. the OEVA was sponsoring an EV Awareness day downtown Portland on Saturday. I put everything together, cleaned it up, and went down there. Had a blast. It was one of the more popular vehicles there, because it was the only motorcycle, and the only electric sportbike that I know of in this area!

Read the blog article for details and some pictures!

Just thought everyone would like to see the finished bike. Still have to get it registered and get the lights working, but thats pretty easy stuff. Thanks everyone for the support, its been a long time coming, but the payoff has been great.

Congrats on the showing. (Was that Wayland's blue Datsun EV parked next to you??)

I like your reuse of the tach, too.

yeah, that was Blue Meanie! He was there around 12 and left before I did.

It was funny, when I had the bike on the centerstand and gave it some throttle, he about **** himself! We had a good laugh, he loved it.

He did a great job on that car conversion!

Travis: nice ABG update!

Honda VFR conversion to electric power now complete - AutoblogGreen

yeah, thanks. They talked with me yesterday about the bike.

Great exposure, a few other blogs picked it up.

Here's a video that my friend Jim and I shot earlier this week. We have all the fairings on it, and pretty much have the motor mount and battery pack design nailed. We'll be cleaning up the wiring, making some small changes to the mounts, and upgrading the rear sprocket to a 60tooth (ordered 7-18-08).

Right now, I'm working on the custom charging system that will be installed as well as the 12V aux system for lighting.

Real nice shot at the beginning and end of Jim hitting 50mph.

YouTube - eVFR

That's awesome! I love how you managed to keep it cheap + stock at the same time. What is the top speed on it?

Is this your only vehicle? Or do you have a car that you hypermile as well?

top speed right now is about 65mph, changing gear ratio this week to gain some top end, but also going higher voltage soon to gain top end.

I don't have another "car", I drive a durango.... so I'm hoping to offset some of the gas I use. Its my only EV though.