would you buy an Electric motorcycle kit.
 

I'm hoping to build an electric motorcycle in the next year or two, my goal is to use off the shelf parts as much as possible and to make multiple parts when it comes to the custom made parts so that I can make a "kit" of sorts, it would basically be the machined parts that are needed then a shopping list for everything else I might try to weld multiple welded parts as well and either offering a battery rack that fits a standard size of battery or letting you weld your own for your own choice of battery, I realize this is going to sound like some lofty goals, but my goal is to have this electric motorcycle design be able to hit highway speeds and cost under $1,500 to build, granted for that price it might only have a 20 mile range, sure you can get a longer range but at a higher price, the speed is more what I'm after as I've ridden enough mopeds that top out at 30-35 that I want something that keeps up with traffic on whatever road you choose to take it on.
I'm hoping to start buying parts for this in the next few weeks and to work on it over the summer, I've worked with electric bicycles enough and have two electric cars that I feel pretty confident in this.
So what I'm wondering is, what kind of market is there for an electric motorcycle kit?

Build it, test it, prove the concept, and then get back to me...

Hopefully you meant to say "break the speed of sound", not "brake at the speed of sound" or (heaven forbid) "break at the speed of sound"?

I am by no means ready to sell anything, my questioning was if a $1,500 build it your self electric motorcycle would be something that there is a market for, I've already turned down one person who wanted to invest in my idea so I could turn it in to a business but I don't want to take any money from anyone until my idea and design is proven, but instead I want to know what the market for kit type electric motorcycles is asking for.

I couldn't help but notice that there's not a single "You bet, sign me up!" choice in your poll, it's all variations on "No I won't, and here's why".

Even though I can't afford even $1500 right now I think that's a pretty good price-also, one can always add more batteries. If I had the time and cash i'd probably pot your kit on a scratchbuilt Trike...

I think striking forward on the project now is a good idea because the price of petroleum will undoubtedly climb higher than it's ever been before, and those who have a head start on these kinds of projects will benefit for looking forward.

I realized that I should have added that 5th option to the pole after I hit save.
My ideas on making a kit that is cheaper are based off of using common parts, I thought about using fork lift motors but if I'm going to go through the work of making one I might as well make at least 3 of each part and sell the spares if it all works out, but finding three electric fork lifts at the scrap yard that are all the same would require alot of searching, then I realized that my electric car uses a golf cart motor! those are really cheap used, you can get them new as well and you can get nice high performance golf cart motors if you shell out the money and a motor that can propel an electric car should do fine on a motorcycle, only draw back is those motors are rather long and would stick out the side of the motorcycle unless... shaft drive! currently have three shaft drive motorcycles to look at, thanks to craigslist, ranging in from $100-500 in price, now the motors don't have a support bearing on the shaft end and they have a female spline on the shaft... lucky for me I have a brother that said he can make the splined shafts I need to fit the motor to the motorcycle, said he is also willing to write up a CNC program for me in case I wanted to make a small production of them, so it's going to be a few really odd parts that most people can't make so they can fit a common inexpensive motor to a common inexpensive motorcycle.

If the kit came with an adaptor/mounting plate for the most common motors (Golf cart, Etek, etc) Then, yes i would be very interested.

i would really like to see SOME TYPE of ev exceed 150 miles per charge.
this is likely a pipe dream for awhile.

Yep, that would be my plan, to make a kit that lets you bolt a common motor right on to the motorcycle frame, most people that would want to take on this kind of project either have a welder already, or have a friend who has a welder, so the simple, bulky welded parts I would want to leave to you to build, but the fussy machined parts, like the splined adapter shaft, motor mounting plate and a few other odd parts.
I looked at the Etek motor and found it to be underpowered and expensive so I thought about using two Etek motors but then it would feel cobbled together and expensive, I would rather use a motor that you can buy used from any golf cart shop for $100 and that peeks at 40-50hp.

Wait-golf cart motors can reach 40-50 HP? I had heard a peak of 6HP or less but i'd love to be wrong...

Does this mean you could actually use one in a subcompact car with the appropriate cooling or is there still a torque issue? The only motors I can afford so far go for $10 at the salvage yards and are half the size of a soda can, so needless to say i'm interested in powerful cheap motors, the cheaper and stronger the better!

The golf cart motor in my electric car is rated at 6hp continues and while watching the watt meter on my paktrakr gauge, I've seen the watt draw of the motor peek at over 37,000 watts, that was from a near dead stop and braking the tires loose on dry pavement, doing that kind of thing also is how I've melted battery posts, vaporized the leads coming off the brushes and broke the leaf springs on the rear axle, it is also a good way to get the motor to kick out some heat on a cold morning and this was done with a fan cooling the motor.

Two weeks ago I picked up the bike this motorcycle is going to be based off, I haven't started taking it appart yet as it's still sitting out side down hill from the barn.
Today I called up a shop that is about 40 miles from me to ask what they have for 19 spline motors, as that is what I plan to use for this project, some older golf carts use 10 spline motors and Club car still uses them but there are fewer upgrade options, well it turns out they have 6 or so good used EZ-Go series wound motors for $200 (twice what I hoped they would cost based off looking on Ebay, but no shipping like Ebay!) each from 2004-2006 EZ-Go carts that were changed to hunting carts, they also have matching controllers, new and used for sale as well.
Found a YouTube video on making the 19 spline shaft for go-karts that use golf cart motors, my brother who is going to school to be a machinist said it should be easy to make.
So far I haven't found any reasons that this project will not work out perfectly.
Should I start a separate build thread?

Yes, gas motorcycles tend to get 50+ mpg, I think the one I'm basing this bike off got 60 if I'm not mistaken, so better then the average car.
I buy wind sourced electricity and plan to put solar on my house, I charge my EV's with solar and wind at my parents house when I stop there, it's pretty easy to make electricity, it's hard to make gas, even alcohol is hard, expensive and takes alot of space and energy to make.
But that is getting off topic.
My plan is to use as many used parts as possible, that is why I nixed the idea of forklift motors, there are so many kinds of electric fork lifts out there that finding a standard would be hard, so a motorcycle would end up being one of a kind, my plan is pick a common older motorcycle that has common engine issues that I can buy cheap ($100), buy a common golf cart motor that is used that came off a golf cart that got an upgraded motor so it could go off road (hunting cart) start out with a used controller and charger, then I'm left with making the motor adapter, the battery rack and wiring it all together, batteries will be new as well, but those are made out of materials that are 99% recyclable.

If you provide the exotic bits like the necessary end bell and bearings. Yes I am interested.

So I should be asking, how much you would be willing to pay? My goal is to have the whole motor set up be cheaper then just buying a Perm PMG 132 as those tend to cost $1,000 just for a motor, you still have to figure out how to make it fit the bike, I think I'm down to 4 parts to make it so you can bolt a golf cart motor to the motorcycle frame, with 4 bolts at this time that hold it to the frame and 4 bolts that hold the motor to the adapter, plus the battery rack, but that could be welded angle iron and is bulky, not something you want to ship.

Possibilities
 

Well, I think You need to quantify what you are supplying first... Do you include the motor and what level, The controller? How much support are you willing to provide for the testing. Or do you just want to provide the End bell and motor mount.... that's a wide range of value. Are they all used recovered parts or is there any warranty on some of them?

You have done a bunch of testing and engineering of parts and I would be willing to pay somewhat more for your work because of that.

I haven't done this before. Its been on my bucket list but I don't know if I should even attempt it.

I use my Motorcycle for short trips and would love to get away from gas and carbs. I would need 20 mile range and 50 - 55 mph capability for 5 miles of that as I live on a main highway. I would need to be able to complete a usable unit for under $2000 parts total to even consider the attempt it in my current financial position. I am capable of wiring and light welding.

I want to check with NYS motor vehicle this week on how to register something like this. So far its been all thought and planning/dreaming.

I'm only interested in streamlined vehicles, and seldom drive for less than an hour or so at a time.

The golf cart motor I'm using for my mock up is pretty standard and can be bought used for $100-200 from local golf cart shops, if you want you can also get the same type of motor off Ebay, but shipping tends to be around $100 on top of the $100-200 purchase price, that is why I want to do a kit that is based off common parts that anyone can pick up locally, why would you buy off the shelf parts from me? same with the batteries and controllers, they are all off the shelf parts that you can buy new or used from a golf cart shop, I plan to start out with my bike using the low priced good quality used parts to get an idea of what the performance would be on a budget build, but by removing 4 bolts and 4 wires you can swap the motor out, replace it with a 72 volt 15hp motor if you want, or a 3 phase brushless motor, with a design that is designed to use golf cart parts you have alot of options, but if you really want I can go to my local golf cart shop, buy a motor, mail it to you, charge you for my time, shipping cost and the cost of the motor, but what I would rather do is give you a long list of common motors that will work with the adapter plates I am trying to make.
If this works out like I hope it does, I want to make a motor end plate/end bell that bolts directly on to the motorcycle frame, with bearings and a shaft that fits between the motorcycle and the motor, it would have the 19 spline shaft on one end, that fits the electric motor in the same way that the golf cart axle did and the other end of the shaft is cut with 22 splines like the gas engine that was pulled out has, so to put this all together you just pull the engine (just over an hour with two people) fit the new 22 spline shaft in to where the gas engines splined shaft connected to the rear swing arm, reinstall the bolts that held the rear of the engine to the frame, then take the golf cart motor and slide that on to it's mating shaft, install 4 more bolts and the motor is bolted on without having done any cutting or welding and with a motor that is designed to move a vehicle, it also leaves the engine 100% intact, encase it's still good and you want to sell it or have other plans for it.
The electric motorcycle "kits" I've seen so far are mostly a motor and controller, they don't tell you what motorcycles it will fit or give you any of the other odd handmade parts you are going to need, they seem to figure "someone else figured this out so here, buy our parts and you can start from scratch just like they did!" I would rather someone say "this motor fits that motorcycle frame with this part" not that it might fit, or it could fit, but that it does and here's a shopping list just bolt it together.

If you're going to offer a kit to convert motorcycles, it needs to fit as many different motorcycles as possible and make the conversion as easy as possible. The best way to do that (IMHO) is to offer a hub motor, like enertrac does:

EnerTrac

Once you go with a hub motor, then most of the mechanical headaches of mounting a motor and matching the chain drive go away. It just becomes a question of where to put the batteries and the controller/bms. Perhaps you could look into doing a kit based off the enertrac? (buy them in quantity perhaps from the builder at a discount, and then package them up with the rest of the necessary components at a price around $2k... seems somewhat possible...)

Eric

That enertrac motor is just the motor and a rim, no rear brake, no controller, if I were to buy one of those I would budget $3,000-4,000 for the bike as it's going to require a $600 controller, a disk for the brake, a caliper for the brake, an adapter to give the caliper the right alinement to the disk, that is alot of parts to make, that is a big pile of custom made parts just so you can use a new motor, I like to reuse things, just like the people who are putting forklift motors in Geo Metros, only there are a wide range of forklifts out there with a wide range of motors, golf carts use a pretty standard bolt pattern motor.
I've also worked at a motorcycle shop and have seen some common problems in each brand and model of motorcycle, most have to do with the fact that they tend to sit over the winter, the motorcycle I'm using has this issue where after 30 years it's water pump tends to corrode enough that it leaks on the alternator, to fix either of these you have to pull the engine, to hire someone to make this repair is above the value of the bike in most cases, so craigslist searching it's appearing that this is a common non-running motorcycle.
So you have a common motor that doesn't tend to wear out or have any issues but is lacking a support bearing on the drive end of it so it can't just be bolted on to a project, thus it's really cheap to buy used and a common enough style of motor that you can buy them used in a wide range of voltages 36v 48v 72v you can even get them as three phase brush-less.
Then you have a motorcycle who's engine is complex and hard to work on that when it has an issue it tends to sit, I put an ad on craigslist looking to buy one for $200, someone called me up and only wanted $100 because the engine didn't run, someone else has one that is in great shape but also has a bad engine but they want the full $200.
If you want to try to do something in the same way with a hub motor I say go for it, I have a hub motor on my bicycle that can handle 45mph and I would not want that much unsprung weight.

"If you want to try to do something in the same way with a hub motor I say go for it, I have a hub motor on my bicycle that can handle 45mph and I would not want that much unsprung weight."

You asked for input, so I just gave some input. <shrug> I have zero interest in making or marketing an electric motorcycle kit myself.

Good luck with the project.

Eric

I think I'm done with asking for input on this project as I've had enough people show interest in an electric motorcycle of this type that I'm not even going to need to go out side of my local area to find people to help me work the bugs out, so far I'm well within my $1,500 budget altho that is most likely going to be using lead acid batteries rather then lithium.