Thursday, August 27, 2009

golden opportunity


After staying up to the wee hours of the morning with my laptop researching various motors on the internet I decided to go with this one right here. It's a 5000w brushless motor from Golden Motor Company model number HPM5000B. Apparently the company got its start in the electric wheelchair business and for the past few years has made a name for itself making ev motors, mostly of the hub variety. From what I've read people seem pretty happy with the product but all I saw for reviews were on thier hub motors. None with the power that I wanted for this project. Then I noticed this high power brushless motor on thier web site www.goldenmotor.com . It compares nicely with the mars brushless motor I was also considering and seems to be built with much higher quality. The motor weighs about 25 pounds and has an impeler fan on the opposite side and I just love the big ol heat sink going around the whole thing. I still dont know what I'm going to use for a controller, the company that makes the motor also sells controllers, though the heavy duty one they have is bulky and does not support regen braking. They have a small one they call the "magic controller" and it has a bunch of bells and whistles in addition to regen but I dont know if it can handle that much power. I'm currently looking into alltrax and kelly controllers but they are quite pricey.

stripping

I stripped all the paint off of the frame to prep it for welding. Though I don't have a welder or a place to do the work I was bored and feeling productive and had a couple hours before work so I busted out my grinder and wire wheel. I must say bike looks way cooler now and I think I will clear coat the bare metal when this whole project is done. It just has that bad ass "get the fuck out of my way" look now. In addition I also took off the chain guard as it looked corny and made a bunch of racket when riding, I flipped the handlebars, got rid of those girly streamers on the grips and switched out the seat for a springier, and more importantly more stylish saddle. Funny part about the seat was that at the local bike shop the had almost an identical seat for $130. I found this one online for $39 with shipping. I would like to give more support to them but this project is working out to cost a pretty penny so saving money whenever is possible has to take precedence in this situation.

So as long as we're talking about switching stuff out next up on the hit list is going to be the rear wheel setup. I first thought I was going to go with disk brakes on the front and back but being as this thing is going to be belt drive I cant put disks on the back as the axle will have to move along the horizontal drop outs to put tension on the belt. I remembered seeing scooters that had disk on the front and a drum brake on the back. I found a company, sturmey archer that makes a decent one that fits a freewheel and the local shop quoted me at $115. It only comes in 34 and 36 hole style so sigh...those pink 68 spoke rims are gonna have to go. Surly makes a 65mm wide rim I want to pair with a maxxis hookworm tire.







The forks and the front wheel are gonna have to go too as they are both uncompatable with a disk brake setup. Taking a little inspiration from old school choppers I would like to go with a double crown dual springer fork for added suspension as this is goiong to remain a hardtail. I dont know if anyone even makes such a thing as so far I've only been able to find them for motorcycles. But I'm sure something can be worked out

So after some extensive hunting on ebay I found this greenline bikes stretch beach cruiser on ebay for $200 shipping included. And let me tell you, the picture does not do it justice. It's frikin massive, it has an eight foot wheel base and 26" rims. Though I must say, I did not realize it had pink rims untill after it was allready on its way here from california and my friends have been relentless in giving me shit for it. But hey, real men wear pink. Riding this bike makes me feel like a kid again and there is a part of me that will miss pedeling this beast around so I've been riding it as much as I possibly can this summer while I still can. Thank god boston is a mostly hill-less town because I must say this thing is an absolute bitch to climb up hills with.

lets get started

I got tired of waiting for an affordable and stylish two wheeled electric vehicle to come on the market so... I'm gonna make one myself. Right off the bat I was inspired by an instructable I saw where this kid converted a beach cruiser to electric motorcycle here http://www.instructables.com/id/48V_Electric_Flat_Tracker/ . I'm really impressed with his EV-12, the battery setup and the low slung saddle gives it that classic V-twin look. This thing is really cool and goes about 50mph which seems plenty fast for me being as I live in the city.

I'm not looking to copy that build though, I find the chain noise horrendous and I just cant hang with those heavy, short lived lead acid batteries. I know harley has been using belt drives as well as a few others and chopper builders, though some efficiency would be lost the gain from getting rid of that chain noise would make it worth it. And lets just face it, lithium phosphate batteries are just the best you can get at the consumer level and in the long run will make the initial investment well worth it. I would like to work in some regen braking and a led light setup but thats going to take a bit more technical research. So hopefully with some ingenuity and a couple lucky breaks I can make a comparable EV with not too much more money having to be spent.