August 30, 2009
Why an electric motorcycle? I’ve become attracted to the idea of electric propulsion for several reasons:
- An electric drive train is very simple. There are on the order of 50 parts for an electric drive train versus 500 parts for an internal combustion one.
- Reduced emissions improve the air we breathe and reduce the effect of human transportation on the environment.
- Driving electric reduces dependence on foreign energy sources.
- A motorcycle makes more sense than a car or truck due to the low weight and resultant higher performance and lower cost.
- Reduced maintenance time and cost stems from the elimination of liquid cooling, oil based lubrication, liquid fueling, and brake wear (if regenerative braking is incorporated).
Why a conversion?
- Enough of a quality supplier base for conversion components now exists.
- Many have treaded down this road by now and one can build on and learn from their experiences.
- The learning experience is priceless compared to buying a readymade electric vehicle.
- There is a risk of buying an electric motorcycle from one of the many current startups that may end up bankrupt, leaving customers without support. By building my own, it will be easier to debug the system since I will be intimately in tune with the components and how they were put together. Once the big 4 motorcycle companies (Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki) start producing electric motorcycles, conversions may make less sense depending on OEM pricing.
- Help recycle and older, unloved motorcycle.
- It will be lots of fun! Right?
Below is an image of the donor bike I have selected. The purchase is in process; the agreed upon purchase price is $875 and I have left a deposit for the bike to be held while I transfer funds from one account to another to be able to pay for the bike in cash. I'm excited to get started on the project and the transfer should only take 2 to 3 business days. I will go into more detail about why this particular bike was selected as a donor in my next entry.
