Aprilia RS125 conversion, The Jozzbike

[Jozzer]

I finally got the Aprilia running, its taken a little over a month to finish, and finally I can relax and post some pics:)

She's a few years old, with a tatty fairing (I hope that means the same in USA as it does here ), but otherwise sound. The original engine had blown when the previous owner decided to experiment and see how far it would go without 2stroke oil I bought it for around £600, and after adding a Perm132 and an alltrax 300A controller will continue the experiment
Heres the whole bike as it came in, and an idea of the space available in the frame

[Jozzer]

Now, to power this thing, I'm using The all new LifeBatts, and the almost as new A123's in parallel.
I'm going with 2 blocks of 12cells, for a total 24s. Heres some lifebatt pics, first just joined together with copper bussbars, then strapped to a thick plastic sheet either end to hold things in place and protect the cell ends.

[Jozzer]

This pack I stuffed under the rear seat, and another like it drops down under the front seat/tank.

[Jozzer]

THere are balancing wires for each cell, so I can balance/charge them, and parralel them individually with the A123's, or any other cells that I add in the future (and I want that!)
The A123 pack has been lifted from my electric Cr85 honda for the moment, I will prpbably put it back there later and fit more lifebatts to the aprilia, so it is just temporarily set up for this (so excuse workmanship!).
Its mounted down low up front of the fairing..

[Jozzer]

And heres a shot or two of the Perm and its mounting plate.

[Jozzer]

From the front you can see the clear airway through the fairing directly to the bottom of the controller and the front side of the Perm. Should it become needed, a fan could be installed to help out..

[Jozzer]

Putting the pieces back together (temporalily, the frame needs a lot of polishing, and the fairing a good paintjob still..)
Theres loads of free space under the tank still, there was a plastic tank inside the tank skin that just popped right out:) Best of all, it lifts up like a car bonnet

[Jozzer]

Yes Ypedal, I DID tidy up afterwards!

Justins new CA with lovely large display was waiting for me when I got home, so next chance I get (thursday )I'll fit it and get some readings (Thanks Justin!Did you bribe the mailmen to get it here that fast?)
I'll take some video too, i'll try and arrange someone to follow on another bike with onboard camerawoman

It's maiden voyage got it to 60mph with more left in it, but didnt venture onto any roads where I could push it. Pulls very well indeed, and it felt great to be back on a motorbike after all these years! (15)
BEst EV grin yet....highly recomended for all ages!

[flip_normal]

I want one

[drewjet]

Very Nice. Will be interesting to see the final finished bike and top speed.

How is the acceleration?

[Link]

Very Nice. Will be interesting to see the final finished bike and top speed.

How is the acceleration?

+1

[Malcolm]

Can't wait to see the video Steve! The Aprilia looks ideal for a conversion with that wide open frame and pop-up rear seat. With such a light battery pack you should really fly. Glad to see that someone is even untidier than me

[deecanio]

Hey Joz,

Bike is looking very sweet mate - once you get the paint done it will look totally mint!!!
The good thing about the road bike is once your done everything is covered with the fairing giving some waterproofing from spray and rain to boot
looking forward to some video but hold off till you get some insurance - actually on that point how did you find getting on the road Malc??? any complications???
i always thought that with conversions you had to have a DVLA engineer to give the thumbs up for roadworthyness????
Anyway bike looks fantastic, waiting to see what the range and speeds are before i make you an offer!!!!!

good work mate!!!


Cheers,


D

[Malcolm]

how did you find getting on the road Malc??? any complications???
i always thought that with conversions you had to have a DVLA engineer to give the thumbs up for roadworthyness???

I made sure I didn't alter the frame at all, and I think Jozzer's done the same, so all you're effectively doing is replacing the engine. You just send your V5 back to the DVLA and tell them you've changed the fuel class. Get an MOT and then find someone who will insure you (how did you get on Steve?).

You have to go in person to the DVLA office to get a tax disc for some reason, but all they did was check my documents and give me a free tax disc Maybe I was lucky, as I know someone else who converted a motorbike had to get an inspector to come out and look at it, but all he did was check the frame number and engine number. I did get a visit from a couple of traffic police a few weeks later. They said something about the DVLA not knowing what they were doing, but all they wanted was to see my documents and check the frame number. I suspect that might have been because I waved to a couple of coppers in a van who pulled alongside me at traffic lights and were staring at my bike, until the lights changed and I left them standing

[fechter]

I want one too!

What's the total battery voltage/capacity?

[Jozzer]

Acelleraton is very nice, not quite full on sportsbike, but fast enough for now. I'll get the G-Meter strapped on for some 0-60 runs over the weekend!
Insurance taken care of (thanks Malcom, went with footman James as they were easier to deal with and asked less questions. Carol Nash were £20 cheaper, but the idiot on the phone put me off. Repeated all questions 3 times, and failed to understand WHY "someone would convert a nice bike into electric"!)


I've just put Justins new CA onboard, so I will have some figures for range later. Now its insured, I'll also find a fun bit of road to find the top speed
So far Fech, voltage at 80v, and 20AH only. Still loads of room for batts, I've just got to talk Ian @ lifebatt.co.uk out of some more cells

I lied BTW, I still havn't tidied up, think I'll go for a ride instead! (fortionatly not got many customers to see the state of the place yet!)
More soon!

Steve

[frodus]

who did your insurance?

[Jozzer]

Footman James. (as stated above). They will cover converted vehicles for the same premium as the original vehicle it seems. Carole Nash will also cover EV motorcycles...

[frodus]

oh, sorry, the second part popped up at me...

I'll check into it once I get closer to riding mine.

Put your vehicle on evalbum... tons of EV Cycles there.

[Jozzer]

65mph with a reasonable headwind...can do better still..
Steepish hill @ 40 on 3/4 throttle, i'm happy with that.
Still no reading from the CA, I had problems with the current and speedo readings, but I believe I have fixed both (user error ). I'll know in the morn.
I've recharged it a couple of times, and it seems I am putting about 1AH per mile travelled back. That works out close to Malcoms 80wh/mile, which surprised me given the complete lack of throttle control I was suffering from! Perhaps its because its much lighter (must weigh it tomorrow!)?

Anyone who wants to come try it, feel free
*deecanio grabs helmet and makes excuses to Mrs Deecanio*

[Frxdy]

Sa-weet! Very cool.

[evmotorcycle.org]

Fantastic!

I am really looking forward to seeing some video on your Aprilia! A great choice bike for conversion. Bet it rips along too! Those lifebatts look complicated with all the wires. Does the bike have an onboard charger? How are you charging it? How long does it take?

Varadero Wheels and Rear Sprocket
This is the start of my Electric Honda Varadero Rebuild. My Alltrax controller looks much larger than the Aprilia RS125 version. It's gonna hog some battery space.

Varadero_wheels.jpg (148.88 KiB) Viewed 1968 times

[Ypedal]

WHOA.. how the hell did i miss this thread !!!

Lookin awwwwsome Jozz !!!! but daym... that garage need cleaning !

[Jozzer]

Those wheels look a lot better than they did in the video Andy Whens the motor due? Whats your budget on bike cosmetics?
I am going to build 2 500w CC/CV PSU's into the tank, giving me full charge in 3 hours or so (for the proposed 40AH pack, currently just 20AH, or 2 hour charge). I need to perfect the BMS first though, since they will be mounted together ultimatly. The PSU's weigh about 1.5 KG, anything more powerfull seems to more than double that weight, and i'd rather have more batts instead:P (for that reason I'm glad then I didn't get the bigger controller too!)

Jozzbike made it to 70MPH today, in a dazzling standing start race against my friend Tony on a 1400CC Harley Davidson roadking He barely kept up, giving it all he could before (thankfully) we ran out of road (or he would have eventually sped past at 100MPH!)

THe CA still isnt entirely accurate, the speed readings are bit screwy and I'm having to set the wheel size by guesswork, but I'm getting readings of 125wh/mile with hard use and constant acellerating/braking. Eventually i'll have to see quite how far it will go, but I'll need to be in a more sombre mood

Best of all, i I put on the G-Meter, and got 0-60 timed at 7.8 secs, 0-30 2.4 secs, and it confirmed the max speed on that run at 68MPH. I'll need to do lots of runs to confirm accuracy though, firstly these G-Meters get a bit confused on a bike, and secondly it was dark and I need to see what i'm doing, so I only made a couple of runs (grinning insanely as I held the throttle full on).

Ypedal, I'm beginning to like the workshop this way (actually, this is supposed to be the "lab", theres a big workshop on the other side of the door littered with bikes, M/C's, a sidecar and anything else I thought looked interesting!). I'm becoming fond of the system. No matter what you want, its always on the floor
Still working on the video side...trying to work out how to mount a cam, and how to bribe Tony's wife to sit on the back of his bike pointing a camera at me! Not to mention a nice sunny day..

More tomorrow!


Steve

[knoxie]

Hi Steve

Looks great!! and the spec sounds really cool! where is all the cash coming from for those batteries!! You and mark arent running other stuff in from China are you hmm what are those life cells costing per cell? would like a 60V pack of them in time.

That bike looks like it will fly, some video of it in action would be great!! the weather at the weekends looks poor so best you go and film some for us tomorrow!!

Cheers

Knoxie