New Guy - What about an electric Yamaha Morphous

WayElder

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Hey Folks. So I ride motorcycles and the old early "trainer' was a 2006 Yamaha Morphous (went to Japan, came home, bought one) It's only 250 cc and a cvt, so ...slow and kinda useless - but so fun/cool (if you like that retro future look). It's now worth max a grand, so I might have some fun with it. There's so much space "Inside" all the shrouds. With the CVT it's a twist and go, so no gears...Quick thoughts and I've just now found you guys ...so

Can I gut and put in new swing arm, or should I do a hub motor? It takes a 120/70 R13 tire so that's what, a 17 incher? I have the full manual. I'm only doing if I can get some speed. It's required to do over 80 KM for utility ...not sure shat power or HP that would be.

Thoughts? Where to begin? Or not a good choice?

THX
 

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Some things you'll want to determine and list for yourself:

What do you want it to do for you, at what speed, under what terrain and riding conditions?

How far does it have to go under those conditions / speed?

How much are you willing to spend on it?

Once you know the speed, conditions, etc., you can go to the ebikes.ca motor simulator and use it to make a guesstimate of power requirements. It doesn't really matter what parts you choose in the simulator as long as they will supply the power you need to do the job specified by the conditions (weight, slope, etc). Best guess you can simulate using the Cromotor hubmotor listed there, and the phaserunner (if it's not enough use a custom controller with few hundred A limit), and at least a 72v pack.

Once you have figured out the watts it will take to do the job, you can size the motor you need for it. It will also give an estimate of wh/mile, which you can use to determine wh required for hte range you need. Always overestimate, so you always have more watts and more wh than you need. ;)

For Wh, I'd add at least 25-50% capacity to account for detours, headwinds, pack aging, etc, so you always have at least the minimum required range. If you find you need more range than you can fit on the bike, you can install onboard chargers.

If you use a middrive motor (like QS120, 180, etc, or various others) you can keep your CVT/etc, just replacing the ICE with electric. It might require some DIY of building mounting brackets, etc. A midmotor, geared properly, is likely to be smaller and lighter than a hubmotor for the same power output.

If you use a hubmotor, it eliminates the above, but adds DIY torque plates / clamping dropouts / etc to ensure the axle can't spinout from torque (either drive or regen braking). It also opens up more space in the frame for battery...but it adds weight at the wheel which degrades the suspension performance if that's a factor.

For battery, if you are willing to do a lot of reading so you can then DIY one, you can get used EV cells from places like batteryhookup and the like, which are likely to be better than most of the completed batteries you can buy "new". (better matched, better suited to run an EV, etc., likely to perform better overall for longer). It's a fair bit of reading and doing, but for many it is worth it.

Otherwise, you can research the various companies that sell completed packs, and pick the best (probably one of the more expensive ones, but cost doesn't guarantee quality) suited for your usage and space/weight constraints.


I also recommend looking at the various other motorcycle conversion / build threads, as some of them detail out the above stuff a fair bit and may help you with guesstimates for your usage.
 
Thanks, just what I need. I'm a little out of focus as this is new (about a year) since the buddies and I started thinking about it.
The bike weighs say 350 lbs, plus me 200 so that's 550 lbs.
A 20 KM commute - all normal Windsor roads (no HWY) commute (so min. 40Km a day) typically around 60 km an hour.
I can put a grand into it if it looks like its capable.
love the motor ebikes.ca motor simulator ... open to all other good links.
Thank you for your help.
PS. I can see this is going to require more 'Beef' than the usual fat tire bike...Do you think it's possible for a grand? I'm now thinking 2K....
 
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“can put a grand into it if it looks like its capable”

Conversion costs aren’t cheap. The battery alone could easily come to twice that much.
 
Maybe sell your Yamaha and put the money towards something like this:


With the new US tax law it could become more of a realistic option.

And Sondors will be releasing a new Enduro bike later in the year if that’s more appealing.

Zero motorcycles are very good but much more expensive.
 
Conversions take enthusiasm time and skill.
There are some companies that have kits to reduce the learning curve.
A few that come to mind ...

 
Thanks...very attached to this old scooter. Would love to see new life in it as it's so underpowered. Reading everything I can. Thank you all.
 
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