1986 VFR700 conversion

[frodus]

I figure its about time that I start putting my project out there. I was recently featured on Autobloggreen, and I guess I didn't think that many people were interested. Then I found this place, and ecomodder, as well as a few other sites... so there's interest.

My website is: http://www.evfr.net and there are plenty of pictures, and a blog or two a week since I started last year.



About the project:
The bike is a 1986 Honda VFR700F that I found in Florida for $400 with no title, in like new condition. Brand new tires, been stored for 10 years with $4270 miles on it. I got it shipped to Oregon for $675, and parted out the engine, exhaust and electrical and just about broke even. The bike was essentially free. The title was lost, but it checked out, so I found another frame for $150 and swapped it after engine removal.

I'm currently working with a company in Portland on building a very robust 600A 156V fully programmable series motor controller. Its in test right now, and we're finalizing the design. We've got a PDA communicating with it for my display. It will display MPH (tach input to controller), motor rpm, battery side voltage and current, motor side current and voltage. It will display each battery voltage in the future. We're also working on battery balancing and charging designs.

A couple months ago I found an Advanced DC K99-4007 motor on a surplus website, and bought 2 of them. They are equivalent to the ADC K91-4003. They max out at around 50 or so ftlbs or torque and 18hp. Its 56lbs and has plenty of thermal mass. max RPM is around 5500. Just need to machine the shaft for a keyway and shorten the shaft.

I also scored 12 18Ah batteries (will do series parallel to get 72V) from another EV Motorcycle guy. They're about 13lbs a piece, for about a 36Ah pack at 72V, and 54Ah at 48V. Still working on how I want to charge and balance them.

Just picked up a Vicor 200W 48V to 12V DC DC converter for my accessories/lights/contactor for $20... score.

So I've got batteries, DC-DC, motor, controller, contactor, rolling chassis. I need to fabricate the motor mount (the Portland guys are helping me), make a battery cage and some battery/motor cables. I'm trying to pick sprockets and think I'll go with a 4:1 ratio. Some guys with eteks/perm132 go 5:1 up to 7:1. Other guys with smaller ADC motors go anywhere from 3.5:1 to 4.5:1. My motor is larger with more power, so 4:1 should be just right. I'm changing from 530 chain (#50) to #40 chain to make it more quiet. Sprocketspecialists have sprockets for me for under $100, and surpluscenter.com has sprockets and nickel chain. I need to start looking for a charger for short term, we're working on distributed charging right now, and its being tested.

So thats about where I am. Comments, critiques appreciated.

p.s. don't tell the VFR guys that I dismantled the VFR before I finish

Travis Gintz
1986 eVFR

[Link]

*drools*

[Frxdy]

Ohhhhh, You're going to have fun! Please keep the pics coming and update as you go. Cool project!

I charge my 5 batteries with 5 Vector smart chargers. It's not only fairly simple, it was cheap!

[frodus]

I might go that route, but with the bats (12 of them) it might be alot.

My plan is to to lithium within a year, but I want to get BMS situated before that.

I'm taking it to the shop to get mounts/cage made today (should be within a couple weeks)....

[barntechsolar]

sounds like you have it planned well. I have been working on a conversion project. will post pictures later. the motorcycle is a LS650 Suzuki Savage. I bought the bike with a blown engine. the fun began with removal of the engine. darn it was heavy. I decided to go with a series hybrid design. the drive motor is a Etek Curtis 1204 controller 48 volt battery system, 12 volt U1 agm. I made a change, I decided to also include a small engine (6.5hp) powering a 60's vintage Chrysler alternator with a custom built regulator. the charging system operates at 55.5 volts 32 amps without any problems. not alot of amperage, but I will be able to get home and plug it in for recharging. fuel and battery range to be determined later. the bike goes in for inspection next week. it has been a challange bringing all together. the original weight was 377lbs, now it weighs 330lbs.

[Jay64]

Nice donor bike. My first sport bike was an old VFR. That one you got there is a beauty.

[frodus]

So you see why I picked her up, I mean, yeah, it was almost 700 to ship it, but for $400 i couldn't pass it up. Bout broke even on parting the engine/electrical/exhaust out.

I'm still trying to figure out charging. I could just pop a Zivan in there and be done, but it doesn't balance. I could do individual chargers, but the current ratings suck. I'd like to get some individual balancers designed and a series charger... I've got a relay charger (switches to each battery individually and charges) so It'l do for now.

I've got a B&D (Vector) 12V 15/10/2 charger, but it goes into fault when I disconnect and go to the next, otherwise, its a nice charger. Put it on 10A and let her go. I wanna talk to the vector guy sometime soon, and see if I can defeat the fault modes.

[frodus]

So, I updated my Blog http://www.vfr.net and shot a video... here you go!

[Jozzer]

Cool

[frodus]

So, I think I can get her running this week off 4 batteries (small, but they'll work) and ride around the block. Then i can go to the OEVA (Oregon Electric Vehicle Association) meeting on Thurs and show and tell.

[frodus]

Well, didn't get it running on 48V yet... I figured it was POINTLESS to get it running halfway... might as well go all out.... right?

We started making the battery racks and have the layout all figured out. We have to have an inch above the batteries clearance for the battery monitoring/balancing modules. They're no that big, but they need airflow. We will be able to fit all 12 batteries in there and fit the fairings on. This is bike V1.0, so when we upgrade to lifepo, we'll throw this system into the other bike I've got (another VFR700F), and upgrade this bike.

We also want to "pipe" in air to the motor from the existing side covers and use the venturi effect to suck air out, rather than push it in. There's a ton of room already without even cutting the gas tank! Its great. I'll need that space for the charger and controller and some interface wiring (for lighting controls). I want to trade my buddy for the square gauges, so I can put the PDA inside easily. I hope I can get the PDA to turn on automatically and run a program. Packaging that will be interesting.

Its a ways off from being road legal, but its closer to being ridable.

Controller is built at 400A @100 degrees C. I think I can keep it cooler than boiling! Both controller and charger are fan cooled, so I'll have airflow into the "control electronics" area. Its high enough to keep moisture out. I'll also be fitting an Aux battery for running the controls, so 13 batteries on this thing.

[frodus]

well, anyway... thanks everyone for hijacking my thread...haha

I got some more work done, we fabricated some battery trays, and should have them finished by next week. Then we can wire this b*tch up!

Click on the pic to read more:

[frodus]

Another little update:

Click on the pic...

[frodus]

So, she's actually running now. Click the pic below for the blog entry and some pictures. I posted a video, but its dark. I'll get more tonight and throw it up on youtube. I'll do a walkaround as well. Looks like frankenbike, but it'l be cleaned up. We just wanted to get it together so we can begin testing.

[frodus]

posted 6 new videos
http://www.youtube.com/frodus17

[frodus]

So last night, I dropped by Synkromotive to help Ives with some testing. We tried logging with the DataQ again, and it it kept failing, no matter what setting we used. Nothing seemed to help. We unhooked it, and I’m going to contact Customer Service. We need something to compare our measured values to.

We spent the rest of the evening getting the Old Tachometer (originally fed off the engine spark), to display the current on the motor side. Its pretty cool, as you give it gas, it displays current at a 50A per 1000rpm resolution. So 200A is 4krpm. I’ll likely print something to display actual A, but its great for testing. Its just a PWM signal to the original Tach line. I’m totally cool with keeping the stock look, infact, I’m HOPING to keep as much of a stock look as possible. Now I need to order a PB-6 to keep my original throttle, order a EV200 contactor and get the lights working.

David Boyd got the bike up to 60mph… wow! It was fresh off the pack, and pulled 300A or so up to 30mph, and then it started to drop… at 55mph, it was roughly half of that. Better gearing should help this, as less torque is needed. We’ll keep gearing what it is for now because we’re testing something new every day. I thought it felt kind of like a 250cc, but David said it actually feels more like a 500cc. I think the batteries are waking up a little too, so switching to new ones in the future, with higher current draw is definately going to help. This controller rocks!

I got a jacket the other day, and am going to pick up a Helmet this weekend. Insurance won’t be that hard (My agent has been really cool about helping me). Registering it should be ok, but I’ll have to have someone make sure they see it doesn’t have an exhaust/was converted to electric so I can be excluded from DEQ. I’m also going to get a Motorcycle instruction permit… and keep my riding limited to daytime, with a friend. Just need to take the Knowledge test.

[vanilla ice]

Nice, 60mph on affordable bats.. you've got me doin some ponderin.

[frodus]

I didn't say range was that good

its a 2500Wh pack, we're upgrading soon (middle of July) to a 120V 30Ah pack (3600Wh).

Alternately, a friend found some 55Ah bats, 5.5" wide, 9" long that I could fit... 6 of those would be perfect. I still need to get above 100V though, due to my DC-DC converter setup.

[frodus]

So, I decided to work my butt off this last weekend, and prepare the electric motorcycle for its first official public apearance. the OEVA was sponsoring an EV Awareness day downtown Portland on Saturday. I put everything together, cleaned it up, and went down there. Had a blast. It was one of the more popular vehicles there, because it was the only motorcycle, and the only electric sportbike that I know of in this area!

Read the blog article for details and some pictures!

Just thought everyone would like to see the finished bike. Still have to get it registered and get the lights working, but thats pretty easy stuff. Thanks everyone for the support, its been a long time coming, but the payoff has been great.

[Jay64]

congrats on finishing and on the positive reception by the public.

[mshue2]

Looks great, congrats on getting it done and making it look so stock. You are a great inspration, I'm glad you have documented everything so well on your website. I've got your website saved as one of my favorites.

[frodus]

Thanks a ton for the kind words. I knew what I'd like to see out there when I started out. Not enough out there was documented. I'm not trying to make a buck (well, I'm making controllers with Synkro, but thats another thing). I want the information out there for whoever can use it. Glad you like the website. Hope you can find some useful information within all the blabber

I have a logo that a friend designed that should be up soon, and I'll revamp the site to be RWB like the bike. I'll be posting weekly ride data once I get her registered, and get the charging situation figured out.

A guy offered to help me get my motorcycle endorsement, he's an instructor! Gotta love PDX!

I'll take some more pictures of what I did on the inside under the tank tomorrow. I had to rush through it the last few days.

[frodus]

Here's a video that my friend Jim and I shot earlier this week. We have all the fairings on it, and pretty much have the motor mount and battery pack design nailed. We'll be cleaning up the wiring, making some small changes to the mounts, and upgrading the rear sprocket to a 60tooth (ordered 7-18-08).

Right now, I'm working on the custom charging system that will be installed as well as the 12V aux system for lighting.

Real nice shot at the beginning and end of Jim hitting 50mph.

[Jay64]

Cool. That bike looks really sharp. You can hardly tell that isn't the stock motor in there. Kudos on a very clean build.

[frodus]

thanks, I didn't want it to look like I was a mad scientist running around with wires hangin everywhere