Vintage Cafe/Roadacer- R5e

[teddillard]

Some bondo and filler/primer, and we're at something that looks tank-like!




I'm lovin' this view:



Probably done for the weekend... I need to leave it alone to dry for a good time and give it a final blocking. Got some ideas in the works for the batteries- not quite ready to share, but stay tuned.

[Nuts&Volts]

Tank looks sweet. Can't wait to hear about the battery choice!

You're tank here has got me thinkin about making my own tank for future builds. I like that it allows you to design it for whatever you fit inside and what you wanna fit on the outside

[scouser-nick:)]

Nice looks really cool love the air vents

[SplinterOz]

Ted, Looking really good!!!

You have a nice eye for what makes a good looking bike.

[teddillard]

Thanks! ...but now I've seen a vision. ...and want to start a new tank:


('72 T3)

...it's a sickness, I tell ya, a sickness.

[northernmike]

Ted, haven't you finished your second tank yet?

When will it be battery time?

[teddillard]

HA! Well, funny you should ask... here's my "fun with saws" entry for this morning:



...another plus for working with plywood - er - cellulose composite.

[teddillard]

bored at work:

[teddillard]

Backtracking a little with some how-to, this is a shot of glassing my recut. To keep the glass saturated and excess resin from pooling I weighted what I could with flat scraps of ply, and some bricks and my granpappy's machinist jack. It's not vacuum bagging, but it's better than just laying it and hoping for the best. I put down some wax paper so it releases.



My teenage son's comment: "wait you're making the tank out of bricks now? old school.."

[teddillard]

Final tank:





I'll hold off on the final paint until all the body work is done... still have some holes to cut in the tank, too.

[northernmike]

Ted, we need a shot of the whole bike to get a sense of the proportions!

But it looks GREAT, man.

[teddillard]

oh, maaaan. You mean I have to clean up my shop?

Here you go:



The next phase is the real seat and tail. Still tossing battery ideas around.

[quarkdude]

Hello teddillard,
I just joined the forum yesterday and started looking around at what people are doing here and I stumbled across your R5 electric build. That is sooo coool! I own and ride a 1973 RD350 cafe racer. It is nearly complete, just a few more things to go but have ridden it around the neigborhood to know that Yamaha RD's mean serious buisness. I have another RD350 that I stripped down to the frame that I have been podering on making an electric out of - that is why I was just amazed that someone else had the same idea. I like what you have done with the bike already. If I get to the point of "electrifying" my RD, yours would definitely be the model for it. I love the cafe racer look and I agree that we will be seeing more cafe racers on the street as the price of gas goes up. Here is a pic of my bike as it is now. Still need to get the last few things ironed out and get it painted, but it is functional.



I'll get a close eye on your progress, it is just exciting to see your bike coming together. A big two thumbs up on your project.
quarkdude

[teddillard]

woah, that's AWESOME! Thanks for the kind words, anything I can do to help, let me know!

FYI, you may be interested in the train of thought that got me to this point- it started with the Hammarhead Volta
http://evmc2.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/hammarhead-volta-and-bigass-zev-hub-motors/

Not an all-out race bike, but here's what got me going, back in the '80s... my old '75 after a rebuild, boring, porting, like that:

[quarkdude]

Hello again, teddillard

Looks like the 1973 thru 1985'ish RD and RZ 350 frames would be a good platform to build into electric motorcycles. A natural with the old school frame shape that was ahead of it's time both back then and now for quick to build electric motorcycle frames. This might bring back the popularity (although it is already growing with cafe racer builds) for the Yamaha RD. Your ease of mounting the electric motor with a minimal motor adapter to the stock mounts is pretty cool. That was the inspiration I was thinking of for my RD Frame. To convert is over without cutting the original frame. With the newer cyclindrical LiFePO4 cells, it should be easy to put enough of them in the remaining combusion engine area to get enough amp hours and voltage to get a 40 mile range I would suspect.

Thanks, quarkdude - Albuquerque, NM

[teddillard]

Had to work yesterday, and the weasels kept me pretty busy this week, but I've been stewing about the seat the whole time. Got this roughed out today:



quarkdude, I think the only thing that these frames kind of limit you on is the volume and weight of batteries you can run. That's why I'm going with the lipo idea, to get the most back for the (weight and volume) buck. My priority isn't range, though, it's power-to-weight. If I can do more than 20 miles I'll be happy...

[quarkdude]

I like the rough seat design. Your fabricating skills are awesome. This weekend I went and test rode a ZERO electric motorcycle to see what they are like. Not a bad bike but the motor control is programmed to give a "roll on" start. Not full power start, maybe like 10-15% up to about 8-10mph then the power to the motor kicks in gradually but quick. I was at a stop light getting ready for a left turn and the guy in the car next to me kept looking at the bike. I bet it was weird to hear no sound of a running engine. Can't wait to build my other RD350 into an electric now. ha ha...
quarkdude

[teddillard]

Thanks! Yeah, not a big fan of the "roll-on" start. I'm considering a "clutch" lever that is a simple on/off to the throttle, so you can peg the throttle wide open and dump the "clutch". Electric Nitrous.

[gogo]

woah, that's AWESOME! Thanks for the kind words, anything I can do to help, let me know!

FYI, you may be interested in the train of thought that got me to this point- it started with the Hammarhead Volta
http://evmc2.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/hammarhead-volta-and-bigass-zev-hub-motors/

Not an all-out race bike, but here's what got me going, back in the '80s... my old '75 after a rebuild, boring, porting, like that:

Is that the cafe racer seat from JC Whitney?

[teddillard]

No, I can't remember the maker of that seat, but it was awesome... for some reason the name Guilerri "Spa" sticks in my mind, but there's nothing showing up on the Googs.

[quarkdude]

I like your idea of "Electric Nitrous" ha ha... I always thought long ago about using a parralleled circuit of capacitors that you could "momentarilly switch in" for electrical boost. Sounds like your clutch lever idea. Just Awesome. Us gear heads need that kinda stuff to put our machines over the edge.
quarkdude

[northernmike]

Thanks! Yeah, not a big fan of the "roll-on" start. I'm considering a "clutch" lever that is a simple on/off to the throttle, so you can peg the throttle wide open and dump the "clutch". Electric Nitrous.

Interesting idea...

Maybe try it first in a foam-padded "bumper room" of some kind. And with a kill-switch tether..

If you have the Alltrax programmed for linear response and zero throttle-up delay, it >might< kick a little.

But please let us know..

[teddillard]

heh...

The idea is to give me a kill-switch where my clutch lever normally is. The only time I almost hurt myself was slow-speed, off-balance, and my instinct (habit) was to grab for the clutch lever, which wasn't there. So my first thought was to rig a low-voltage break in some part of the circuit, and the throttle immediately came to mind. It gives you another failsafe- one more place to interrupt things if all hell breaks loose, and a low-voltage one at that, without having to add relays or run high-voltage to the bars.

...the fact that this safety feature could be twisted to some other (pointedly UNsafe) practice is just gravy. Plus I really like the sound of "suicide clutch".

But you can be sure I'll report...

[teddillard]

I've been stealing a few minutes here and there throughout the week to get the seat ready to shape this weekend, and this morning laid the glass inside. Here's a shot showing the underside, the plywood weighted on the main pan to both squish out the excess goop, (technical talk) and keep the side rail glass bent into the corners. There's also a piece of angle you can see under the rear brick, holding the wrap there at 90º. The wax paper worked well- you want to peel it off before it's totally cured but even if you don't it's not a big deal.





On the epoxy issue. I've got to say- this has been the fifth or sixth time I've done the layup with this stuff and it's starting to get to me. The smell is really noticeable now- not nearly as bad as polyester, but still pungent, and I got an instant headache. I swear, it wasn't the bourbon last night. Luckily this is the end of it for now, I'm out of resin and I think I have it all done anyway... nuff's enough.

[teddillard]

Weekend goals accomplished. Time for... beeeer.