eBike

Given that two people are interested in buying the engine off the bike, I made a decision today to bail on the carb repair, and just start pulling gas parts off the bike. I got as far as separating the engine from the frame, but couldn’t stabilize it well enough to actually move it away from the bike.

I started by pulling the muffler and exhaust manifold. This was a real pain, because the muffler was stuck on the manifold, and the manifold was similarly stuck on the rear cylinder’s exhaust pipe. It took a lot of banging and prying to get it to come loose.

But it finally came free. There’s a kind of metaphor or symbolism there, I think. Something about how entrenched in oil the world is, how it refuses to budge, to change. It’s time Big Auto started making electric vehicles, but instead they hire operatives to run ‘bots combing the web for articles about electric vehicles, and pretend to be people posting objections, reasons why electric cars can’t work. Problem is, they’re wrong.

So, after metaphorically beating the shit out of these assholes (by beating the muffler ‘till it broke free), I accomplished the first real step in the conversion to electric.

Here’s the bike without the exhaust:

And the parts that came off:

Earlier today I pulled the forks and handlebars off:

After the exhaust system, I pulled the radiator:

I pulled a bunch of the emissions control stuff as well, along with the ignition. Amazing how much stuff is necessary to let an ICE run:

I also pulled the rear wheel:

Finally, I got around to lowering the engine (which you can actually see in the previous pic, too). Unfortunately, my little jack couldn’t support it properly, and it was too unstable to pull away from the frame. I ended up hanging it from the frame with some straps.