General Thanks and Shameless Plug

Hi all!

I've been working on an electric conversion of a dirtbike (Honda CRF450) for the last year and a bit and this forum and its members have been a great help and inspiration while doing so. The conversion is now finished and we've just returned from a test trip in the Sahara where it performed really well. After a few further modifications I'm planning to take it on a new challenge to trace the 6,000km Dakar rally route in Argentina and Chile next year. Not many power-points out there right? The idea is we'll be recharging from a portable solar array packed on the bike essentially making the journey emissions free and without being constrained to the next fuel stop.

My hope, if we're successful, is to give the EV's reputation a bit of a boost and raise a couple of dollars for some great causes. Having proved out the bike itself the next step is the tough part; raising some cash to help fund a battery upgrade (Kokams hopefully) and the purchase of the solar array and charge controller. Expensive bits of kit as I'm sure you guys are aware. So far it's all been off my own back which I don't regret for a second as it's been a blast and any expense that I can recover after the trip's complete will go towards worthy environmental charities. Anyway, again I just wanted to say thanks and if any of this tweaks your interest then my blog will cover the progress so far in some more detail.

You can find it at:

http://www.desert-ed.com

or the FaceBook equivalent at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/DESERT-ED/157408614356272

Here's a vid (amateur ) we made of our test trip!

[youtube]mzVdT9Bo1fE[/youtube]


Thanks a mill!

Ed

You must have a huge solar array in mind?

Are you going to charge by day and ride by night?

True! The array will need to be over 1kW which equates to an area of around 20ft x 20ft. We're still investigating options here but we're pushing the balance between a workable packing size and decent power output so we can make respectable progress. Hoping to get two charges in per day (or possibly more depending on the final batt pack) so we'll try and time the rides as best we can.

It certainly sounds like you know what you're doing - it will be interesting to see what solution you come up with

Nice video! I love the trip idea and I wish you the best.

What is the capacity of the battery pack on the bike? Are you going to carry flexible panels that can be rolled up to transport?

Wow ! ... this will be some challenge !
Is your route planned yet ? ( actually i see that you may even reconsider Africa ?)
But where ever it is , i assume you will try to stick to roads or at least tracks, rather than the extreme "Dakar" off road stuff.
And even that way, you must be needing 50Whr/km ?... thats 300 kWhrs for the trip
Even with a 1kW solar array...thats a lot of charging time !
I am intrigued to see how this goes.
Good luck.

Hillhater:

Yep you're not wrong. Nice math by the way and I'm glad to see that it comes out to be ball-park within my own :lol:

You're right it won't be all slogging through the dunes. That's been part of the decision in moving from the original plan of doing the trip in north Africa. It won't be all road and track, we'll be spending a considerable amount of time out in the middle of nowhere. It does take it's toll though. The battery pack (currently 74V 40Ah for the test) depleted to safe lower limits after only around 20Km of deep sand dune bashing. We've got some to go from here though as there will be revisions to the batt pack, motor cooling and the drive system (which was a bit last minute and VERY inefficient). The route is still being planned and we'll have a better idea after a reccy ride we're doing in the next few months.

Who knows, the whole plan might fall over but it's got some good motivations behind it so we'll give it a go. Plus it's not bad fun too

liveforphysics:

Thanks for the kind words about the video! I knocked that up over the weekend when we got back. Just made me want to go again to be honest!

As above, the batt pack is currently 74V 40Ah (Turnigys, cheap-ish test run stuff) but we'll be looking to modify it considerably. Packaging is a big problem though. The solar array/s are the flexible type which means we take a hit on efficiency but they can be surprisingly compact when stored. We've considered transporting the array separately with the support crew but that really takes away from the whole idea I think so we'll keep pushing for this solution.

Cheers,

Ed

Great vid - those bikes look like fun, but I still like to pedal.

WOW! Dakar on solar. No setting the bar high for your eh? Even if you take a week longer it will be an amazing feat to just finish that one.

Haha, I think it's what they call in the industry a stretch target. We're definitely not expecting to be posting a competitive time. In fact it will be much longer than a week extra but, as you say, completing the route will be a real challenge in itself. Actually, the first challenge will be getting to the starting line and we'll go from there! :wink:

Now with video of the EV bike being binned in the dunes! :lol:

You can see it at http://www.facebook.com/desertedmain

That was the fun bit. Now I'm spending all of my time running around trying to get sponsors on board so we can get this ride off the ground. Not much fun but we won't stand a chance without them!

Thanks for your support guys.

Ed

Crazy and I love it! Obvious you folks do too. Thanks for the vid...

Cheers! There'll be much more to come. Next big step is the all important reccy ride if the funds hold together.

We'll be sure to get some good footage of that!

Hi all,

Some more footage from the Sahara test trip. This time it's a point of view ride and there's no music so you can clearly hear the bike.

We're starting work on the bike again next week to sort out some issues with the chain drive and address the motor cooling. Let's see how we go! :wink:

Cheers,

Ed

[youtube]b7rPJ8f4_h4[/youtube]