1986 VFR700F electric conversion

Streetbikes, yes.

 

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.

 

Very nice. I'm particularly interested as I've been sloooowly prepping an old '82 Kaw 750 frame/running rig for an EV conversion. I'll have to take a closer look at your website when time permits for ideas :^). LiIon is the way to go based on the Killacycle project and some commercially viable auto's. Time to focus on EV is a problem for me, I have a VF and a VFR to play with ;^).

Anders

 

OK I'm intrigued by this idea! Another geek question-do you have a way to do anything with regenerative braking?
If I had enough guidance, I'd like to try something like this as well (good mechanically, not very electrically competent, but able to follow directions). Keep posting your updates on here if you can, Frodus!

 

80-100lbs lighter than stock with lead batteries.

15-20 with used lead acid batteries. We got them free and wanted to get testing done on the controller then upgrade batteries when they fell in price.

65mph is top speed recorded right now

accelerates like a 4-500cc bike

~4hrs with lead batteries and a 2500Wh pack

We're going LiFePo this Fall.

Not a ton, the bike minus engine/exhaust was 140lbs to begin with. Its mostly alum. We might be able to get a newer bike, but this one was VERY cheap to start, and full fairings help. Not sure a lighter bike would change a TON, but we could definitely use more room inside the frame.

 

Series wound motors cannot do regenerative braking with the controllers that are out there. There's "problems" when you try, so its generally better to skip and go to AC.

It was mostly mechanical work, the electrical is fairly easy. Just a bunch of batteries in series, charger, and controller hooked to a motor. I'll try to post a schematic when time permits.

 

i have one question ..... ? is it for sale or are you going to build more ?

 

I have 2 complete chassis. This one is getting revision 1 equipment. The second one will get the rev 1 equipment, and I'll upgrade this bike with AC.

The second bike will be up for sale eventually, if there is interest. PM me or email me and we can talk. I am also interested in people purchasing "kits" from us... again, if there is interest. Judging from the feedback on here, VFRD and my website (and some other EV sites), I think we might make one kit, and see how it goes from there.

 

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.

click below:

YouTube - eVFR

 

wow, that really is something cool i wanna know more ?

 

go here: www.evfr.net

 

The range WILL go up... to roughly 40-60 miles (once I upgrade the batteries this fall). Just need to get funds.

Someone on another forum said maybe have a donation paypal for new bats...might not be a bad idea... and I'll put the donors names on the bike.

 

nice cant wait to see the finished object

 

meant project

 

Frodus,

Burning question. To increase range, why not use and external transmission, ala HD?

Larry

 

1) it'd be hard to adapt, or impossible to find something that'd couple to a motor like this

2) the RPM range of the motor isn't like that of an ICE, the total usable range is 6krpm, and all the torque is at 0rpm, so at 6krpm, i might be going 70mph or faster, but at 0, I get all my torque. This is usable for me.

3) HP is HP, you still need a certain RPM and Torque to overcome wind resistance. The original engine had 75 or so HP. This is just around 30Hp peak. I won't likely be able to go any faster.

4) the range depends on total power used per given time, so if I have a transmission, the RPM's may be higher allowing more torque,but the average power output would be very similar if I were to have just the motor/sprockets.

5) Simplicity. Its much simpler to have 2 moving parts (motor and wheel with chain coupling them) than it would be to have a transmission/clutch. Its also less lossy.

Hope that answers some Q's.

 

Transmission

I'm not doing a good job on asking this question.

OK, 6K rpm range. Does power consumed go up as rpm rises? Thats the question.

My thoughts are a simple transmission (since HD uses an external trans, easy) bolted, belted, chained, geared to the motor, would allow good acceleration as well as low power consumption at road speeds? I looking for a way to get that 70 MPH crusing speed and 60-100 mile range and I don't know enough about electric motor power consumption, but most ICE take more gas at higher rpm's. All I remember from EE is volts X amps = power. But is power consumed a function of RPM's turned?

I understand its simpler being direct drive, but sometimes the goal cannot be reached with just a single mechanical object.

Larry

 

depends on how you're doing the throttle. There's a power curve, and its fairly flat. It very slightly increases. As RPM's increase, the voltage increases, but the current decreases, so power is more constant. If you hammer it, it uses more current, RPM's increase so you're power useage is increased. If you had a transmission, you could lower it a little, but at what cost? You add weight and inefficiency and take up room that could be used for batteries.

You keep saying HD, What is HD? What kind of external transmission are you talking about? You only have so much room for motor and batteries.

I'll have 120V soon, so 70mph isn't going to be too hard. 70mph shouldn't be hard if you chose the right gear ratio.

60miles might be doable with some lithium batteries, 100 miles might be a bit of a challenge. The big question, is why do you think you NEED that much range? Is it because you're commute is that far? or is it because you think you need to be able to go that far? Maybe electric isn't for you then, mine is a commuter bike and fun bike, not a long range cruiser. Volume needed for batteries is the big issue. Cars are a little more flexible.

somewhat, each motor has a power curve like this:
www.evfr.net/synkromotive/components/motors/K91.pdf

my goal was reached

I'd likely not get much more of an increase in range. If i had a transmission, and had it in 1st gear, the amps would be lower, but the RPM's would go higher. Then you shift to 2nd, and the rpm's start low, current goes up and then they both start to increase/decrease respectively as your speed increases. Volts x amps = power, so your gains are going to be minimal. Again, you're limited to the HP of the motor.

Keeping the mechanical drag low is important, and keeping extra weight down is equally important. If there was an off the shelf solution that is optimized for an electric motor, I might have used it, but it still isn't as efficient, which is what I need.