Need info to build a BIG Electric Motorbike

G'day Jerry,

Funny you ask about this, I saw on the TV the other day, a documentary about a bloke who drove all round the States on 3 electric homemade bikes! the first was a monster machine with lots of batteries, the next, a step through, and the smallest was a micro scooter! Very funny program, think it was called 'Driving around America on garbage' They have a website are are very friendly! give them a shout!

Cannot find the site. Any further infos, clues?

I've just looked through national geographic and cant find it there either! let me scratch my brains for a while and I will see what I can find!

This looks like the bike! play the video! It's a Harley conversion! Good luck mate and post some pictures! now to see if I can find any more!

Tanks, Truman, for the link sent.

Anyone heard about the famous electric motor of CSIRO, that was used for the solar challenge across Aussie some years ago? Where the stator and the rotor was arranged in radial orientation? to get slimmer integration dimensions and better efficiency?

Anyone offers that as a product?

Please info, thx

Jerry

Anyone heard about the famous electric motor of CSIRO, that was used for the solar challenge across Aussie some years ago? Where the stator and the rotor was arranged in radial orientation? to get slimmer integration dimensions and better efficiency?

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Can you give us more on this? what is diagram of structure. thanks.

Jerry; Try www.megawattmotorworks.com They have built a couple electric bikes for street use.

What's up y'all

I'm very interested in any option to internal combustion engines. I love to drive, but I feel guilty about digging our planet's hole deeper.

Here in Texas it's illegal to manufacture solar electrical products. I had made up a buisness plan and found an angel, until they found out about the legal issues. Still trying to find out the logic they use.

I can hear the same arguments being used about infrastructure that were used to fight against any type of horse and buggy transportation. Instead the status quo has caused us to destroy the planet and spend a bunch of our planets saving account at the same time.

Rereading this causes me to wonder how many folks on this board believe that our climate problems are natural?

An electric hub motor would probably power you as fast as you want to go. Regenerative breaking could cut down on the size of the battery you'd need. There are alot of other options that piss off "conservatives"

bill

Here in Texas it's illegal to manufacture solar electrical products. I had made up a buisness plan and found an angel, until they found out about the legal issues. Still trying to find out the logic they use.

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They wouldn't like me I got my patent installed in my golf cart and it runs great. As an option now it can charge itself off the solar panels mounted on top (yeah takes about 2 days but... still .. I think also the solar panel prevents the sulfation that occurs on the plates in the batteries which makes them disfunctional after time. I'm thinking that even though I got the whole roof and sunshade visor as solar that even one small panel would help prevent the sulfating process? any comments? A picture is at the end of the video on www.triplebatterylife.com _)

Texas has a thriving solar products industry, how can it be illegal?

to resemble those good old gays!

Mmmmm nice.

S that's the leather gear and the moustache then ?

Seriously, search the web for a decent motor first. It depends if you want to buy new of use an old traction motor.

These motors are really good but cost money... .

Del

I was going to suggest these Lynch motors too, they are essentially a modification of a car starter motor. They are used a lot for electric boats. they are great for Sailing boats that need a motor only when getting on and off the mooring. Briggs and Stratton manufacture them under licence in the US. Try this site for other sources:

http://energy.sourceguides.com/businesses/byP/ev/escoot/byB/serv/research/research.shtml

tHERE IS A gERMAN COMP. THAT MAKES A BIKE WHIT GENERATORS IN THE HUB BATTERY UNDER THE SET.

Try Tesla Motors, they have a sports car, electric 0-60 about 4 sec,

range 260 miles, cost to operate 1 cent mile, body by Lotus.

Buy wheel motors, so you can load power cells where engine used to be.

I am interested in this type of R&D, I am a Tesla fan and I also involved with high powered magnetic elements.

regards

Alex Rom

nortex@starhub.net.sg

Singapore

I'm not sure if you can use these but it's worth a try:

pancake motors

It is possible to create an electric motor bike, but it will look something like this...

Just Google "Electric Drag Racing" you will find all you need. Better be careful, you might get hooked on our racing and get to know some good conservative boys who burn 20 gallons in a quarter mile and make 5000 horsepower, how much Co2 does that make? Isn't Co2 good for trees? Better not have fun while breathing. Kill the SUN, it's causing Global Warming. Mars is heating up , BAN Mars Utility Vehicles.

I don't see any reason an electric motor bike should have to be a 3 wheeler? I'm sure if you work at it you can use the wheel motors mentioned above to both generate torque and also generate power when braking back into the batteries. I think the regenerative braking systems drop out when the speed gets too low (like 10-15mph maybe). IN other words they regenerate electricity back into batteries from say 70mph down to 15 for example and they the regular brakes would take over.

The needed batteries can be stored where the engine used to be, as mentioned. etc. You'll lose the muffler, engine, gas tank, etc making enough room for perhaps li-ion batteries although I would try for Ni-MH . (the oil companies bought control of the patent to the Ni-mh and promptly make the prices too high for even Honda to afford ,.. Honda had to use hundreds of D cell flaslhlight size batteries to compose their first years production battery pack using the ni-mh. And why did Honda and toyota choose ni-mh..? Its because they are electrically unbreakable. You can even reverse charge them (i have heard) and they wont' go bad.. I tried the one in my cordess phone for example and after the phone was 'dead" actually connected + and - together with a resistor (be careful doing this it could overheat the resistor) and drained it further down to absolutely zero volts (0.0 volts. ) and left it that way overnight. Next day back in the phone and back on the charging cradle. It had to be charged twice but now works as good a new! long talk time. Lead acids would choke if you did that to them.. I'd like to hear how LI-ion works for that scenario. Toyota likewise has to use smaller Ni-mh's and string them together like 40 of them in a gang pack. Instead of what should have happened: is they buy them from cobasys for reasonable price in 12 or 24 big amphours and only use about 10 of them.

The evidence about Ni-MH:

1. Big Oil and Detroit are suppressing affordable use of Ni-Mh

2. Foreigners are making them as fast as they can

3. Toyota and Honda are using them however they have to.

4. A Ford VP was overheard saying : "Those Nickel MetalHydrides, you can't break the damn things.. "

5. Detroit and all the autoparts industry would lose big time if the Electrics catch on in USA as they are in Europe

6. Some towns in England have almost completely switched over to electric cars (the G-wiz) because its so cheap to run and they get free parking in london.

Verdict... Ni-Mh is battery of choice.

Yes Li-Ion has higher energy density and is lighter too but they also are more easily exploding (could ruin your ezrider bike tour).

BE CAREFUL with NI-MH: they have to be charged with an algorythimic method (IE 28 amps for 3 hours then 10 amps for 5 hours etc) Also DO NOT charge them in series .. use separate regulator for each battery. The Ni-MH has a peculiar chemistry that says basically that if you charge them to gether in series, one reaches full voltage first and then begins to suck all the power , overheating and catching fire or melting down. The separate circuit for each eliminates the problem. You could use a higher amperage tranformer to give you say 12volts dc and then just use 10 separate regulators for the 10 separate 12 volte batteries. Each of the 10 regulator circuits would start out at 28 amps for example and then cut it down to 10 amps after 3 hours.

Good luck ! Don't give up your dream! .. if you want to use your bike as a testbed for my patent www.triplebatterylife.com I could do that .. we'd install my patent for a week.. run it for a few trials and document how much further it wil go at same speeds on same batteries with the patent installed etc. If you did cooperate with this I'd be willing to give you a percentage of future profits.

Also I need an electric car for same purpose. Same deal!

I'm not sure where this 'Town in England' is that has converted to the G-wiz.

It's the first I've heard of it ... (I am in England folks!)

I'd be careful of perpetuating an urban myth unless someone can cite a reliable reference?

... It's certainly not Harlow! (I wouldn't mid if it was!)

Del

Quote from a friend in UK just came in.. this makes two different people saying similar things FYI:

The oil and automotive industies have a lot to answer for, here in the UK a lot of people drive a hybrid car or a fully electric car much to the anoyance of the oil industry, we also get 25% of our electricity from renewables ( wind power, burning household waste etc, ) but still we have a long way to go. This is where stirling engines come in, if you have a reasonable amount of sun then why not collect this sun and use it to drive a stirling engine to produce your power needs.

You are SOOOO cinical. We want to be responsible for those things that are under our own control, not the Sun and the Mars. I wish my grandchildren will not be blaming me, but our generation for being that irresponsively greedy for wanting all the resources converted into rubbish that quickly. That so much about guys who burn that 20 gallons.

Anyway thanks all for the hints guys, the pancake motor looks to be the best choice for now at least.
Tesla is an interesting venture, I hope they willl succeed. There is another interesting finding (at least for me) that is a so called HI-PA motor. at http://www.pmlflightlink.com/motors/hipa_drive.html.

How about controller and best voltage? 36 ? Maybe 72 ? Any hints?

Thanks for TrippleBatteryLife for the encouragements and for the details. The coment cinical went to CFECO, of course, sorry.

Jerry

"I've quit biking some years ago,due to bad feelings like: how can I have fun while emitting Co2 ???

And you call me cynical? All we hear from the left is the sky is falling so we need to pay more taxes, global cooling doom in the 70's, global warming doom now,end of discussion. Then the mouthpieces of these "truths" inconveniently fly their private jets to their mansions and emit more Co2 than my SUV does in a year. I've lived OFF the grid for 13 years, drove a 50mpg pick-up, and am designing a 100 MPG car for the Auto X-Prize. If your interested in electric motorcycles go to the Electric Drag Racing Association, the racers are always on the leading edge of performance. We all need to quit blaming someone and just do the right thing, that bad feeling will go away.

OK.. I read it somewhere on the web from someone who lives in england (must be near london possibly in the suburbs of london) who did say his whole town had mostly switched over to EV's (he probably meant at least as a second car). FYI:

The Going Green web site lists a host of perks for cars like the G-Wiz:

• Average "fuel" costs of £40 to £50 per year
• Exemption from road tax
• Exemption from London congestion charge
• Free parking in Westminster and City of London proper
• Free parking and charging in Covent Garden
• Discount on MasterPark season ticket
• Free parking in 7 City of London car parks
• Discounted car insurance
• 100% year one tax write down
• 9% company car tax

CFECO, I'd rather take it as like naivity than cynicism, what you suggest to say about my comment. I am sorry about you being so negative, but hope you are doing fine otherwise. I do really think with beliefe, blame on those who just ride around with no purpose other than feeling fine. We got a job to do here and it is irresponsible to waste what we got from our age for almost free.
I have been thinking drag racing is for crazy people who really do not understand what world is all about, but having seen the video on that site you sent makes me think a bit different now... The acceleration of the bike is amazing.
Nevertheless all I am interested in is to be back on the bike and regain the feeling of relaxation with her at the back seat, moving around in a way that we can listen to the birdies and can do that all day with no recharge of the batteries, UMM, so not necessary performance, tyre burnings but safe, sustainable, and responsible mobility.

Cheers

Jerry

Me negative? As a conservative ,I pride myself as being optimistic about life and our world, nothing is perfect, but we have the ability to do great things, and this century if it follows the advancements of the last, should be amazing. If the religion of peace can control it's radical element, and join the rest of the world, that would solve a lot issues. I repeat it's the left that is gloom and doom, just watch the major US media, or listen to the liberal leaders, I guess you do, man (the USA) is destroying the earth, killing everything...etc. You never hear about the trillions in aid we have given around the world, the amount of food we produce and distribute around the world, even to our"enemy's",and for all it's faults the best health care in the world...etc. Back to battery bike, if you take that amount of energy and use it " conservatively"it should relate to increased range, in my X-Prize car I plan on battery's, capacitors for acceleration-regen storage and a small diesel for highway cruise and generator.

Get active in POLITICS.. your grandchildren are depending on you to stop the perpetual war!

Are you friggin' nuts!!! We live in an uncertain world where peace could break out at any time, destroying the American economy!!!

Our number one export is arms!!! Don't you know that?!

Yes , you are right, if peace broke out ! Then it could spread like a virus destroying all wars in its path! UGH! And the public might discover they don't need much OIL at all! (Electric cars scared OIL and DETROIT so bad they bought patent on the best battery and sat on it. thankfully their 10 years is almost up, 2010 is coming fast. )

"All we hear from the left is the sky is falling so we need to pay more taxes, global cooling doom in the 70's, global warming doom now,end of discussion."

You need to get out more often if all you're hearing from the the so called "left" is doom and gloom. Things are not so black and white, Mr.CFEFCO. Your statement is as about as goofy as me thinking that all you "conservatives" are walking around with red and black swastika emblazoned underpants under your 3-piece suits plotting and dreaming with the leaders of the military industrial as to the best way to nude this planet of life while simultaneously legislating everyone into gray clad automatons who will march about singing hymns and lynching all who differ from the Great Leaders vision.

Well said! But the problem is that both left and right are blinded by stupid splinter issues that splinter apart the main stream into bickering goups (while the super rich sit back and laugh at their foolishness). The main issues are economy, getting out of iraq, providing good health care, schools, education. But they would have you focused on gay rights or pro choice or pro life or homophobia.. etc ect on and on.

The TRUTH is that there are super rich who don't care who wins because they control congress so tightly that they don't have to care. They control both parties. They donate to both left and right and whoever wins they control (money to get reelected is the leverage). Thats why we need a true blue third party that everyone should join. 1st order of business in a clean sweep of all incumbents would be to outlaw lobbyists forever !

I built an electric scooter over 50 years ago.

I was given an old Cushman Scooter without a motor.

I put a "6D" 12VDC battery in it, (big sucker,) an old Ford 6VDC starter with a centrifugal clutch and sprocket. Hooked it all up with 2 Ford starter solenoids, a heavy duty toggle switch to select which solenoid would accurate when I pushed the big old horn button I used as a throttle. I had tapped the battery so I could pull either 6VDC 0r the full 12VDC.

It went like the proverbial Bat out of Hell. I was clocked at 52 mph by our local police. It would either wheelie or burn rubber when leaving from a stop.

It was good for a couple of hours of fun before it needed charging. considering how young, dumb and fast I rode it probably had a 30 mile range. Mainly because I would be coasting a lot thanks to the centrifugal clutch and not wanting to go 50mph all the time.

It was "Rude, Crude and Socially Unacceptable" but great fun.

So think about how simply and cheaply you could convert an engin-less bike to electric power and go for it.

(I also built one with a golf cart motor and towed a small trailer with the batteries in it.)

PR, must have been tons of fun on that piece of iron, right? Any pictures? I am now thinking to get a Suzuki Across with dead engine. (This is the one with 250cc and a helmet compartment instead of the fuel tank.) Maybe a good base #1 before the real one.

Let me come back to the item of capacitor pack...

Allegedly big ones are experimenting with it, calling the thing as supercapacitor. They do not have a measurable lifespan, since there is no chemical reaction taking place when charging and discharging. Anyone with any experience with them? I have no clue how they behave relative to batteries, and have also no idea how a combination of battery pack and capacitor pack has to be controlled.

Thanks guys for the attention to the topic.

Capacitors have the ability to discharge all at once.. (shocking the hell out of you). Be careful. Try to keep the voltage below 70 for safeties sake. But you can drain them slowly if you do it carefully. Interesting idea. I'm thinking maybe since they can discharge all at once.. maybe they can also charge up all at once too??? WOW !! What a thought.. instant recharge at "gas station" for EV's. Drive thru recharge stations? YEah... give me frys and burger , and don't forget the recharge too !

I agree you need to be careful, but there are a lot of capacitors that can't discharge all at once. A lot of physics-freaks stay away from, say, electrolytics because they're too slow - They want capacitors that will dump their charge in less than a heart beat, and electrolytics can't do that!

Guys'n'Gals,

Thanx for all the useful comments, thanks for the political ones as well, though they are ok for another forum, I guess, luckily they haven't ruin this thread so far.

I am expecting some answers from Lynch about behaviour of their LEM-200 (thanks to Del de cat for guiding me to their site.

I have been thinking to create a site on high power e-biking, to place stuff there for the greater audience, but for now I want to dedicate some time to jig up a design at least how the powertrain will look like. I am still fuzzy about the controller, the capacitor pack will be left for some other pioneer to struggle with, at least for the time being.

Please don't stop posting ideas and links, I am enthused that the first thread in my life here in this site has generated so much discussion (even deducting the political ones) so keep shooting stuff, dare to dream, that is what I am doing as well.

Cheers, Jerry

Cheers...be sure to post some pics if the project gets going!

Have fun.

Del

I will post some scans of drawings here very soon. Your comments will be appreciated.