Just joining the site

[braunicus]

Hello to everyone. I've been researching and thinking about converting a motorcycle to electric and kept running across the site. Seems like a whole lot of information here so *poof* here I am. I don't know how much I will post since I will not have a whole lot to contribute to any tech topics and I do know how to use search.

[Brentis]

Welcome aboard.

What type/model of motorcycle are you interested in converting/building?
What is your terrain like? Hills?
How fast / far do you want to go?
Whats your budget?

Good luck

[dogman]

I was determined to build a converted electric car. Then saw how expensive one would be.

I became determined to convert a motorcycle, or get an electric scooter. Then I saw it would be expensive. Dang cost of a huge battery.

Finally, I decided to forget having 50 miles range, and built my first electric bike to go 10 miles. The idea, a good one, was to learn more about motors and batteries on a small , afffordable scale.

The rest is history. I soon had ebikes capable of my 30 mile daily trip to work, followed by more battery to take 60 mile fun rides on the weekend. A 47 mph track racing bike followed, and after much experimentation I found motors that worked great on trails and steep dirt terrain for dirt riding fun. The last addition was the longtail bike for cargo hauling or really long rides.

I'd still like the electric car or motorcycle, but the bikes have the EV grin so big I can wait.

[Brentis]

I was determined to build a converted electric car. Then saw how expensive one would be.

I became determined to convert a motorcycle, or get an electric scooter. Then I saw it would be expensive. Dang cost of a huge battery.

Finally, I decided to forget having 50 miles range, and built my first electric bike to go 10 miles. The idea, a good one, was to learn more about motors and batteries on a small , afffordable scale.

The rest is history. I soon had ebikes capable of my 30 mile daily trip to work, followed by more battery to take 60 mile fun rides on the weekend. A 47 mph track racing bike followed, and after much experimentation I found motors that worked great on trails and steep dirt terrain for dirt riding fun. The last addition was the longtail bike for cargo hauling or really long rides.

I'd still like the electric car or motorcycle, but the bikes have the EV grin so big I can wait.

+1

I contemplated a vehicle conversion (s10, tacoma, ranger, Karmann Ghia) long before I got a ebike.
The cost(10-20k+) & my inexperience with the world of electrics prevented that happening.
"I could do a motorcycle a lot cheaper" but still was looking at 3k-10k, & same inexperience.
Then I found ebikes
This is the way to do it.
Light, efficient, & cheap enough that if I blew everything up, I wouldnt be paying for it on a line of credit, 10 years later.

A nice outlaw eBike/moped is a great way to cut your teeth.
Learn about batteries, C rate , peukert effect, varying chemistry, etc
Then there is a ton to learn about Motor windings, widths, weights & the relationship between controller & motor.

If purchased with caution & future proofing in mind, many of the bike components could then be used on a moto project.

Do you have much electronics experience?

[Lessss]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=&feature=player_embedded

[braunicus]

Sadly, my budget for the project is pretty much a big fat 0. Reading is free so I'm scouring the web for information to give myself a better understanding of all of it. So far it looks like it will be around an $8k investment for a full on conversion going lithium out of the gate for between 72 to 96v 100ah and all the rest. I currently work for a battery shop but it's old school and not a single person there understands amp hours, pretty sad since the owner has owned it for 34 years. I'm currently working on signing on for electronics engineering classes once I figure out what my current schedule will allow.

Haven't figured out the donor bike as of yet but more towards the cruiser style
range around 50 miles
being florida there are no hills to speak of lol

As I learn more about it, I'm sure plenty will change. Originally I was going to use golf cart parts for the cycle since the battery shop does golf cart repair. I can get all the golf cart stuff at 1/2 price and lead acids at a good break. Just the thought of the weight of those agm batteries had me cringing though

[The fingers]

I went electric cruiser because the forward-leaning posture on longer rides was hurting my neck, seat, and shoulders due to old injuries. My commute also increased from 3 miles to 12 miles each way and my cruiser was heavy to begin with, so I needed to save commute time also between day and night jobs as pedaling became more difficult. Electric assist was a God-send and saved money, time, and my weary legs!

[John in CR]

Sadly, my budget for the project is pretty much a big fat 0. Reading is free so I'm scouring the web for information to give myself a better understanding of all of it. So far it looks like it will be around an $8k investment for a full on conversion going lithium out of the gate for between 72 to 96v 100ah and all the rest. I currently work for a battery shop but it's old school and not a single person there understands amp hours, pretty sad since the owner has owned it for 34 years. I'm currently working on signing on for electronics engineering classes once I figure out what my current schedule will allow.

Haven't figured out the donor bike as of yet but more towards the cruiser style
range around 50 miles
being florida there are no hills to speak of lol

As I learn more about it, I'm sure plenty will change. Originally I was going to use golf cart parts for the cycle since the battery shop does golf cart repair. I can get all the golf cart stuff at 1/2 price and lead acids at a good break. Just the thought of the weight of those agm batteries had me cringing though

I started with an electric moto. That pig really sucked. If you can learn from the mistakes of others, do yourself a favor and forget the moto thing. Reasonably priced batteries just aren't there yet. Go for a high power ebike instead. The difference is 100's of pounds less weight, and the result is better performance and better handling. The cost is far lower and you'll learn what you need for a proper emoto once batteries catch up. Plus along the way the mistakes are cheaper and work-arounds easier.

Welcome to the e-revolution.

John

[kevo]

Even an expensive commercial or well built plug in car has severe range limitations. Therefore it is a vehicle specialized for limited distance commuting usually owned in addition to one or more regular ICE vehicle for longer road trips. Given that specialization, doesn't an electric bike satisfy a large percentage of those needs?

Searching through ES you can find several examples of bikes/trikes or other vehicles that will more than satisfy the ability to haul groceries or do a large percentage of those daily chores we all end up doing.

[hodgie]

I was confused as heck when I started reading in this forum. Kinda have a handle now.

Found a great book that organizes and describes most of the basics.

"Build Your Own Electric Bicycle" By Mathew Slinn; you will have to order it from a book store and it costs $25; the author acknowledges the huge contributions to his book from This forum;

Worth every penny - you can easily throw away much more on mistaken purchases and spend tons of time figuring out what the folks on this forum are talking about.

Also, look to buy from vendors mentioned in this forum. Watch out for China vendors - only a few can be trusted enough.

Batteries are a key. That is where is the cost is and where you can make the most expensive mistakes.

Good luck

[braunicus]

I see it was a good choice signing up/announcing my noobness here. Good information all around, one of the reasons that I signed up in the first place, and thank you for it. I had already planned on getting that book as I've seen it referenced and recommended multiple times so far. The bike is temping along with not having to pay another registration/insurance for another vehicle especially with Florida's registration fee's. From the 4qd calculator, it seems like there's a good bit more to learn. Any build will still be a long ways off so the research will be going for a while to come.