Elixxer - An Electric Motorcycle is Born
Posted 02-03-2009 at 02:32 PM by mattW
I have been researching Electric Cars since September last year, in that time period I have gone through many plans and thrashed out many budgets as I worked out how a student could make a satisfactory EV. I have planned an RX7, CRX or Civic and pick-up conversion, even to the point of being outbid on eBay for a donor. I started my own mini EV project as documented on this Blog, but since it was going to be just a toy, that I couldn’t fit in and didn’t feel comfortable giving away without testing, I decided it wasn’t worth putting money into and donated the peddle car to family friends. But recently I’ve been planning a project that was easier to do well, while on a budget but was useful enough to be worth investing in… An Electric motorcycle. And two weeks ago I became the proud owner of this 1984 Suzuki GSXR 400 off Ebay for the grand price of $495.
I've decided to document my conversion as a part journal, part guide to the conversion process. So hopefully this bike will make it easier for others who wish to follow a similar path. I'm certainly not the first to do it, but I have seen the influence that sites like EVconvert and kiwiEV on helping people see the viability and ease with which a conversion can be done, so hopefully people will be able to see the same thing by following my conversion. I'll try to keep the practical workings a little ahead of the blog so that I can be more consistent with my posts but as a student I often work in sudden energetic bursts rather than consistent plodding so you may need to be patient at times.
I'm going to nickname this bike the Elixxer, since the GSXR is often called a gixxer and this is the electric version, I guess it is a working title but I like it so far. As a current update I have picked up the motorbike, removed and sold the motor and am waiting on my parts to arrive from the US, but to keep the content flowing I'm going to start off the blogs with this introduction followed by a guide to planning an EV so that the content doesn't dry up in the middle fiddly stage and to keep you in suspense. My goals for this project are a 60-80km range (~40-50 miles), a top speed of 80-100km/h (50-60mph) and the performance of a 250cc bike. Perhaps the best inspiration/proof of concept for this build is emoto's bike pictured below. My budget is around $8000 Australian, the majority of which will be taken up by batteries, I will be going out on rather uncharted waters with a LIFEPO4 battery pack. It all should be good fun, and a great learning experience that I will document as much as I can. I won't be doing it alone, and will be enlisting the help of as many skilled friends as possible to get this bike on the road. So if you are interested in electric motorcycles or EVs in general and would like to see one come together live, then pull up a chair, subscribe to this RSS feed and watch me make mistakes so you don't have to.
I've decided to document my conversion as a part journal, part guide to the conversion process. So hopefully this bike will make it easier for others who wish to follow a similar path. I'm certainly not the first to do it, but I have seen the influence that sites like EVconvert and kiwiEV on helping people see the viability and ease with which a conversion can be done, so hopefully people will be able to see the same thing by following my conversion. I'll try to keep the practical workings a little ahead of the blog so that I can be more consistent with my posts but as a student I often work in sudden energetic bursts rather than consistent plodding so you may need to be patient at times.
I'm going to nickname this bike the Elixxer, since the GSXR is often called a gixxer and this is the electric version, I guess it is a working title but I like it so far. As a current update I have picked up the motorbike, removed and sold the motor and am waiting on my parts to arrive from the US, but to keep the content flowing I'm going to start off the blogs with this introduction followed by a guide to planning an EV so that the content doesn't dry up in the middle fiddly stage and to keep you in suspense. My goals for this project are a 60-80km range (~40-50 miles), a top speed of 80-100km/h (50-60mph) and the performance of a 250cc bike. Perhaps the best inspiration/proof of concept for this build is emoto's bike pictured below. My budget is around $8000 Australian, the majority of which will be taken up by batteries, I will be going out on rather uncharted waters with a LIFEPO4 battery pack. It all should be good fun, and a great learning experience that I will document as much as I can. I won't be doing it alone, and will be enlisting the help of as many skilled friends as possible to get this bike on the road. So if you are interested in electric motorcycles or EVs in general and would like to see one come together live, then pull up a chair, subscribe to this RSS feed and watch me make mistakes so you don't have to.
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Newsvine
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Total Comments 8
Comments
-
Yeehaaa, let the fun (and bloody knuckles) begin
E-lixxer obscure but cool if your in the know
I never twigged to what Gixxer referred to..... (Thought it was the name of a crazy German with a mental gokart) what a dumbass
Posted 06-11-2008 at 08:43 AM by DVR 
-
Sooooooooooooo?
Hows it goin'?Posted 07-29-2008 at 06:10 AM by DVR
-
you're lucky you've got that motorcycle of yours at ebay... so how's ypur ride going?
Posted 08-08-2008 at 12:20 AM by summer09
-
Moving along slowly, I have just moved in the last couple of months which made it difficult to get any work done but I just moved the bike into a friends garage on Wednesday which will make it heaps easier to work on. I'll hopefully be getting started on fixing up the bike itself and then doing the motor mounts in the next month or so.
Posted 08-08-2008 at 07:56 AM by mattW
-
Gixxer if your talking about what i am taking about is just 4 letters pronounced as a word, a GSXR which is a motorcycle made by SuzukiQuote:Originally Posted by DVR
I never twigged to what Gixxer referred to..... (Thought it was the name of a crazy German with a mental gokart) what a dumbass
only if im thinking of what you are though
Edit: i guess i should have read the rest of the main article lmao.Posted 08-08-2008 at 12:52 PM by zemon1
-
Well done for your new bike! I like it, it's nice, it reminds me my days with my Honda Super Four 400cc.
The way i see it, you 'll definitely have to find the Service Manual for this bike or if you can't, try to find another one for a look-like moto so as to see how the big steering stem nut up to the front is serviced. It needs greasing every two years. You should also try to service the front fork, filling with new oil, changing the oil seals and maybe springs... After that you might have to consider taking out the swingarm for its main axle greasing and maybe have the rear shock repaired too.
You could also clean and then paint with primer first and spray colour afterwards the frame, swing arm, front fork etc...
Another thought is maybe tearing apart the lowest section of the fuel tank so you can put some batts or anything else you want under that. Don't know it's safe though, it's just a thought. If you need instruction on how to paint the fuel tank let me know. It's easy.
A good advice is to put down the bits and bolts you remove and put them in seperate boxes naming them. You will need it.
That's for start, might think anything else later and post it to help you.
Tell us your plans about this bike and its future specs if you have decided...
Good luck mate!Posted 10-19-2008 at 04:31 AM by jason72
-
being an old fogie, I figured I can't wait(or struggle) to have an EV, so I have managed to purchase an almost brand new "electric bike"(which is like a scooter but only has a 500 Watt maximum, hub-motor to propel it. I had the governor taken off it so it can do 40kms per hour, it has an average range of 40 kms, and has all the luxuries a modern bike should have for $700 CAD (or approx. $600 USD). It has scads of carrying space, and is super-stable when driven. 48 Volts and a 4 hoiur charge will get me to work and running around for approx. a week, all for less than $2. Later; when the supercapascitors become cheaper I will change over.
Posted 12-05-2008 at 08:25 AM by Ron Atkinson
-
I came out to go to work and saw 3 cars in the process of getting started, I hopped on my electric bike/scooter and zoomed off down the road, looking in the mirrors to see if any of my neighbors had got started, but no movements to my rear. This kind if thing and less than $1 a week in electricity "makes my day" folks. When the batteries wear out I will replace them with a DeWalt pack, and later(hopefully) with supercaps!!!
3 cheers for Mr Edison and Mr. Tesla.Posted 01-21-2009 at 09:14 AM by Ron Atkinson
