Electric Motorcycle conversion

[bennelson]

I've still been riding my cycle and selling BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE DVDs.

Lately, I have gotten requests for DVDs from foreign countries that I know have such bad postal systems that I CAN'T get a DVD there. I've also gotten requests from people who don't even own TV's and DVD players, they just use their computer, and many new computers (curse you Macbook!) don't even have DVD drives any more.

So, I've been trying to figure out a good way to do streaming video, and it's looks like using Vimeo's On Demand service is a good way to go.

So, I've set up an online version of my BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE DVD as my official first ever indie film release!

Please take a look at it and let me know what you think. Thanks a bunch!

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/21223

-Ben

PS: I'm giving half off to the first ten Ecomodders who want to buy a copy! Go to https://vimeo.com/ondemand/evcycle and use the discount code "ecomodder", all lower case, no quotes.

[bennelson]

Well, it's been seven years since I first built the bike. Time for a new battery pack.

I found a Ford Escape Hybrid battery pack at a junk yard, bought it for $150, and brought it home.

Yesterday, I finally got to crack it open. Once I pulled out a zillion screws and DIDN'T zap myself with 300VDC, I was able to start pulling the cells.

Inside the pack is 50 sticks of 5 1.2V Sanyo NiHM "D" cells. So, those are 6V sticks. It's about 120 lbs of cells.

Full write up on my personal blog - Deconstructing a Ford Escape Hybrid Battery Pack for the motorcycle

[Daox]

That sounds fun Ben. What is the total capacity of the Escape pack? How does that compare to what you currently have on the bike?

Ah, found it on the blog:

Theorically, this battery pack has 300 volts at 5.5AH, or about a 1.6KWH capacity.

That seems pretty small, even for the bike?

[bennelson]

Yep, relatively small capacity. But most of my trips are pretty short, so I think it should all work out fine.

It's just a matter of figuring out the best way to charge and some sort of BMS to make it all work.

[bennelson]

Hi Folks!

It's been some time since I last posted in this thread.

For the Kawasaki, I never got around to actually installing the NiHM batteries in the bike. I happened upon a dead Vectrix electric motorcycle, which is a big scooter design. I fixed that up with used Nissan Leaf cells and rode it 1,276 miles AROUND Lake Michigan!

So, I ended up making the jump to a bike with lithium batteries, fast charging, regenerative brakes, and even reverse gear!



I ended up removing all the EV components from the Kawasaki, and selling the frame. It was very bitter-sweet. The Kawasaki was the project that started it all for me, leading to building the electric Geo Metro and into other projects like installing a 6.24 kW Photovoltaic Solar Array on my garage. I'll probably re-use the guts of the motorcycle to power a mini-bike.

The reason why I'm posting again is to let everyone know that I've converted everything I did on the bike to YouTube.

I made an instructional DVD, teaching how I built the bike, step-by-step. The entire contents of that DVD are now on YouTube for you to watch, in full, and for free!

Please enjoy watching it. If you know anyone interested in getting started with an electric motorcycle conversion, please let them know. Share the heck out of it - Faceplace, Tweeter, Pictogram, or whatever the most popular social media is right now!

Here's the playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...vhxPkLKW0b_mfk

[mechman600]

This is awesome, Ben. You were a great inspiration years ago when I was building my Electric Booger. Thanks!