eBike

Yesterday, Naber Trucking delivered my bike at about 2 pm, right at the time he said it would be there. Total cost of delivery: $395.

Last night I washed the bike, and tried very unsuccessfully to remove a broken bolt from the frame. I tried heating & cooling and tapping it around with a punch, and then I tried using an EZ-Out extractor, but the initial drilling is going very, very slowly. I’m also drilling way off-center, and no amount of angling seemed to get back toward the middle. Hers’s hoping I’m close enough when the time comes. I’ll probably just keep squirting WD-40 in there over the next several days.

I ordered a new set of tires today for it, from Accessory International. I’ve never heard of them, but they came up high in the Google search. I probably should’ve shopped around a bit more, but I just wanted to get a set of tires less than 15 years old onto the thing. I ordered an Avon Roadrider 110/90-16 for the front ($94.80 ) and Avon Roadrider 120/80-17 for the rear ($73.81) for a total (with $30 shipping) of $198.61.

My plan is to pull the rims off the bike on Sunday and take them to Fremont Honda, where they can put the new tires on for $25 per wheel. However, I don’t yet have stands for the bike, so that may hamper efforts.

Posted by Rick at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are a handful of major new parts that will be added to the bike: an electric motor, battery pack (made up of 23 cells), speed controller, charge controller, hand grip control, and main cutoff switch. Most of these items will be coming from Electric Motorsport, a supplier in Oakland, CA.

All of these parts, except the charge controller and batteries, are available in a kit, with some additional wiring and connectors, for $1195. Electric Motorsport's price for the motor is a little higher than getting it directly from Mars Electric, but I can pick it up instead of paying shipping.

The Alltrax speed controller, however, does not do regenerative braking, something I'd like to add. That may not be possible until I design my own speed controller, but I’ll be keeping an eye out for an off-the-shelf solution.

The charge controller is designed to plug into a standard North American A/C outlet. When charging from solar panels, this is an ideal application of maximum-power-point tracking. I will probably have to design my own charger to support both 110 VAC and MPP tracking.

Posted by Rick at 07:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Welcome to my electric bike conversion project’s log. I will be converting my old 1988 Honda VTR-250 Interceptor motorcycle to be 100% electric. Like almost every other project blogger out there, I will attempt to post frequent and detailed progress about the conversion here.

Currently, the bike is en route from San Marcos, CA, where it has been sitting in my parents’ garage for over 10 years. It should arrive sometime this week.

I'm a little bit worried about the current registration. It was registered as Planned Non-operational (PNO) years ago, but I don’t think my parents kept that up. I’ll have to make a thoroughly enjoyable visit to the DMV to straighten that out. I hope it doesn’t end up costing more than the bike is worth!

After it arrives, I will give it a thorough cleaning, and attempt to get the gasoline engine running again. Even though I will be removing it and selling it, it will likely be easier to get it running while still installed on the bike, and this will give me a chance to check out the rest of the vehicle.

Then begins the disassembly.

Everything gas-related will be removed: tank, engine, transmission, starter, radiator & water pump, emissions control system, muffler, clutch, and even the battery. (The tank will be modified to make room for batteries, and will eventually be put back on the bike, because it’s an essential part of the bike’s appearance.)

That will be followed by another cleaning, as well as any cosmetic or corrosion repair and painting.

Then a bracket must be made to hold the electric motor, as well as re-connect the portions of the frame that once held the engine. Additional brackets will be made to hold batteries, the speed controller, charge controller, and various accessories.

Next I’ll add a DC-DC converter to provide power for accessories like headlights, taillights and turn signals, as well as illumination for the speedometer and other displays. Somewhere in there I'll make a cool system status monitor.

The brake system will need to be disassembled, cleaned and have the fluid replaced. New brake pads might be necessary.

Finally, I'll repaint the new plastics (I bought a used set from a guy named Seth in Massachussettes, hopefully he'll send them soon), and reinstall them on the bike.

As a last step, I want to make a portable bike port with a couple solar panels on top. I can store it in my office, and bring it out each day to charge up my bike (and keep it cool). Since I can’t put panels on my roof (stupid HOA), I can at least do this!

Check back for updates, but this project will take at least a couple of months, if not longer. (For example, one step I haven’t mentioned above is to build a nifty work bench and storage in my garage!)

Expenditure so far: $450 to transport bike.

Posted by Rick at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)