Kind of premature to announce this yet as I still am on the lookout for a suitable bike to start working on but what the hey...

So as you might know I like to do some slightly oddball projects, and often take the path less traveled. Well this one will be exactly that as to my knowledge there are about five of these in street legal register in Finland (proofs it's possible) and I've been in contact with one of the builders to get some pointers. In fact I've been tossing the idea for quite a while now in silence but the parts and tech have lately came down to mortal level in price and performance so it is starting to get possible to do. I know already seeing this through will probly take several years but I don't care as it is going to be a build where I can mash up together every idea I've been brewing, some for years. It will, when finished, be a somewhat crossbreed of steampunk, cyberpunk, googie style and cafe racers. If I can find one that I cannget registered the starter bike will be an early eighties-late seventies Honda CB, and once the bike is conversion inspected the model in the pink slip will say Honda CB-e.

That's right boys and girls, I am going to attempt to build a garage brewed electric motorcycle. I know it can be done but it is a helluva project that will require close documentation of every part modified since it will be legally converted to electric powered. The design will "loan" quite a bit from the Lotus c-01 motorbike, so a big part of the build will be the moudling and fiberglassing the fairings from scratch. Loan on quotes because I have had the plans in my head for so long that when I first saw the c-01 I went "Heey! That's MY idea!"

Currently the project is at the stage where I will be studying the subject, repairing and selling the Clio I still have laying around and with the money buy a suitable donor bike once a proper specimen comes by. I will be keeping a blog of the project as it will be posted on several forums so that way I'll be avoiding the "writers fatique" so to speak that I started experiencing keeping three slightly different build blogs with the Triumph, two in english and one finnish.
I have a few concept design scribblings at home that I will be posting on the blog once I get that up and running, there's only this one little catch: I suck at drawing. Frustrating really to have a crystal clear design in your head that you just can't transform to paper...

If you have any, tips and knowledge will be gratefully welcomed, as even though I am an electronics electrician by training I know precisely diddly about advanced high ampreage battery tech. Currently getting familiar with terms like bottom balancing the cells etc.

Other than that I guess just wish me luck!

 

Good luck with it Matti,

If anyone on this forum could pull it off, you'd be the man!!

Have a look at this website Moto-electro It's an electric bike company Downunder that has some pretty cool ideas.

I'll be subscribing and following your progress on the build thread.

Cheers, SB

 

I'll certainly be looking forward to seeing it!

 

Thanks for the support guys. As said probly not a lot is going to happen anytime soon other than getting the blog up at some point to store all the info and design pics and whatnot. It's gonna take a hefty stack of cash to finish as the motors are pretty expensive, I would really love to be able to use a hub drive for simplicity, less power loss and no chain to weigh and drag but those are so expensive I might have to settle for a conventional chain drive. The most expensive part however as you might have guessed are the battery cells, which would probly be the last purchase anyway so they won't get bad before seeing any actual use. That in turn creates another problem because I'm going to need to fabricate an aluminum case inside the frame for the cells without knowing what cells will I be using so I don't know how much space I need so I just have to make it as big as possible so I can start moulding the fairings around it. And of course I need the BMS unit, throttle control, special charger... oh, and a bike to work on which probly will need an overhaul itself even without the engine parts. For some reason parts bikes are really scarce ATM and what few can be found are ridiculously expensive. So might take a while to even find a rolling frame with papers at a decent price. Another option as a starting point could be an early eighties Kawa GPZ but I'd really want it to be a Honda CB for several reasons...

Anyway I probly will try to get the blog up this sunday IF I survive a weekend at my neighbor's cottage, gonna have a combined 30:s party as neither has had the time to celebrate the big three-oh yet so probly gonna feel pretty crispy in the morning gonna go see if I can find a few of those artist's curvy ruler things from some book shop today and redraw the scribbly plan pics to a more publishable form as well. I haven't drawn much at all in a decade and never been any good at it...

Seb, will take a closer look at that page later, been doing some research of readily available bikes and there are two Brammo Empulse R:s in Finland which I would love to have but the 15,000eur pricetag is just a wee bit steep. If I'd be rich I'd probly get myself a Vyrus for a petrol bike just because they look so quirky and a Lito Sora for the electric one. I did find a pricetag for it and the asking price is $44,000 but I didn't really find a straight answer is it really in mass production yet or still at the concept stage. A cool looking bike none the less.

 

Sounds like fun. I only have a little bit of E powered vehicle experience through some customer work so the only thing I can offer is to hold off buying "tech" as long as you can as its in a constant state of flux and improvement. That of course complicates R&D but that's the nature of the beast. Oh, and don't discount belt drives as an alternative to chain. Belt tech has come a very long way too and offers many benefits.

Best of luck.

 

Good points. What is the state of the art today is way cheaper a year or two later since new ones appear regularily. The electric motor as a concept has not seen ground breaking evolvement in decades but battery cells and management systems are developing at breakneck speed. For example, before I started digging into the subject I had not heard of a LiFePo4 cell before. I did think of a belt drive instantly but since pretty much no one uses them decided to do some digging to find out why. Since there's really only one liquid cooled hub drive motor in the market powerful enough for this purpose and it costs 1400$ without the controller I'm pretty much stuck at conventional drive. Batteries, BMS, controller etc will be another 1,5k at the very least, charger and supplies 500, bike itself 500max, fiberglass supplies a few hundred, paint 500... stacks up so gotta buy part by part starting with the motor so I can make the mountplate and see how much space it takes, then the controllers and whatnot and at the last the battery cells.



Here's the first non redrawn brainfart sketch about the fairings and proportions around a CB frame.Gonna be a three part, two halves for sides and one part tail. The gils are not gonna be like that, the rear swing is too long and the wheels far from round (I can't draw remember?) But shows what's cookin.

 

Oddball Garage

Blog up, although not any real content yet other than a short "test" text. Most probably the outlook will still change but the writeups won`t get any better...

 

Cb--- Druel!

I wish you good luck mate

 

Kinda reminds me of the Lotus bike............


Cheers, SB

 

Gonna be close-ish but still far enough to not be accused of copying. But that is the main direction that I will be aiming. ...when I can find the bike to work on that is, I've been watching nettimoto daily and laughed myself silly every time, even the rattiest junkers with fatal fails worth a hundred or two are being sold for over a thousand euros with a straight face! Definitely the wrong time of the year to be on the market...

A little side project will be emerging soon though since I've promised to build a crash cage for missy's bike as well so probly will be starting with that in a few days or so.