Mockup II Electric boogaloo

So much for my previous mockup - the bike shrank or something - so I had to reconfigure the batteries into an ugly configuration. Oh, well. I'll put some prettymaker over it later and make it look nicer.

The Etek clone fits into the nook created by my removing the long anchor bolt that used to go through part of the engine case - I've replace that bolt with 2 others to hold the swing arms. I am finding that fabricating a mount is more difficult than I had thought it would be. if I attach a faceplate type of mount on the shaft side - that is not enough to hold the thing in place - maybe when I bolt in the bottom sissy bars that tie in the front bottom of the frame with the area of the swing arm mounts, I can mount the motor to that. Maybe I need to visit a scrapyard and just get a bunch of material to work with and something will speak to me.

Gathered some more pieces today...

In my research, I found that sprockets for 7/8 in shafts with keys (like this Etek motor) are typically for #50 chains (5/8 in. pitch, 3/8 in. wide links, and .400 in. roller diameter) - not for 520 chains like on this Japanese bike. The difference between ANSI #50 and 520 chains being the link width is 3/8 in. and 1/4 in. respectively. That translates into a sprocket width of .343 in and .227 in. respectively. I have a brand new 520 pitch chain and rear (45 tooth) sprocket - and am allergic to spending money, so my initial setup will be a 10 tooth #50 ANSI sprocket turned down (by my awesome brother who managed to also taper the teeth at their ends so as to be more or less symmetrical) to a hair less than .227 width. I found this excellent chain reference on the Internets. I have no idea how well this setup will hold up - I'll make sure to include any dire warnings or raves about this setup in future entries as necessary.

I also picked up 16 ga. sheet metal and fasteners for my battery tray and 1/4 in. steel for my motor mount.

Gimme a brake!

Bought an 18" brake today to make the battery box - but took the night off from Project Dirtbike II Electric Boogaloo and had a date night watching a movie (approx 150 - 180w for 1:45 with stored solar power, of course!) The new battery (115ah pseudo deep cycle marine) health was lookin' good so I will let it run the low voltage lighting for the rest of the night. The battery gets "full" pretty quickly on a sunny day on the 90w worth of panels (4 or so hours of approx. 45 watts peaking near 90w at solar Noon - with a couple amps in the early morning and afternoon) - I'll grab another battery and 2 more solar kits soon so that I can charge the bike in the evenings and truly have a zero - emissions commuter. :-)

First draft total Mockup

Looks like everything fits like it did in my head. The battery mockups are a few mm larger in every dimension than the real thing. It is a tight fit, though. The motor will snug in there a couple inches because I'll replace the one trailing armbolt with two bolts on either side - this will give everything enough room to breathe. The onboard charger will fit under the seat - and so might the controller... we shall see... :-)

Finished the Battery Mockups

Laying out the parts

I have received almost all of the parts I need to get this bike going. Here are the most important laid out on the kitchen floor. Tomorrow night, I will fabricate cardboard mockups of the batteries, controller, (which was larger, heavier, and cooler than I anticipated) motor, and onboard charger and chart out where they're going to live. Then, I'll set to work on welding up some battery holders and motor mounts and tie the bottom of the frame together.

Started the transformation last night

I removed the engine in about an hour and a half last night. All of my parts are all on the way to change this bike over to a solar charged electric zero emissions commuter.

The "Stock" engine peaked at 16.7hp. The Etek clone on the way is rated at 10hp continuous and 16hp peak. I'm using an Alltrax AXE 4844 controller with a magura 0-5k twist grip and 4x Werker Deep Cycle 33AH batteries (lawn tractor sized.)