[toddshotrods]

I know, I need another project like I need a hole in my head but here I go anyway...

A while back, I purchased an old Ninja, with the intention of doing a little custom work and getting myself back on two (ICE-powered) wheels. Other than stripping the factory plastic off the bike, I haven't had time to do anything to it, other than the typical Todd artwork, to figure out where I wanted to go with it. Thursday, I had a kid from a local career-tech (high) school "shadow" me in the shop all day. As a reward for helping me with some of the more mundane fabrication tasks, I told him we could tear into the (partially disassembled) Ninja engine (which he had been eyeballing all day) after lunch. It supposedly just needs a head gasket to run...

About 15 minutes into it, I realized I wanted no parts of that mess! A motorcycle to me has always been a simple, deeply finned, air-cooled motor, under a nicely shaped fuel tank... This thing has pumps, tubes, hoses, wires, lines, and crap everywhere!

You guys have spoiled me, and won me over! I still want an ICE bike for long distance rides, but the plan for this one changed to an e-bike in the blink of an eye, after seeing all that BS. We finished by pulling the ICE, shoving it in a corner, and boxing up all the unnecessary crap that supports it.

Here's where I "think" I am going (this rendering is hotlinked to my site and will change as the project evolves):


The exact plan for this is still up in the air. All I know so far is it's going to be electric, I want to keep the budget as low as possible, and I want to use it to experiment with ideas. It will be the Todd version of Woody's Tractor Project. Range, practicality, racing, etc, are secondary concerns - the prime directive here is fun and learning.

The first task is going to be finding a motor. I want something interesting, kind of unique, and hopefully cheap.

[Woodsmith]

Very nice!
I see my little tractor has got to you a bit!

Hmmmm, motors. You could try that 11" for size....


Or maybe the 13", long ways, with a shaft drive to the rear wheel just for fun?

[Woodsmith]

Originally Posted by toddshotrods

It will be the Todd version of Woody's Tractor Project.

Arch says "Will it have a winch in the back and weigh over half a ton?"

[Tesseract]

The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the rendering was that epic picture of the guy planking on top of a Vincent Black Lightning while hurtling across the Salt Flats at 150mph. This, of course, well before planking became an internet phenomenon...

And, yeah, you might be spreading yourself thin there, Todd... How many projects do you have going on now? 5?

[toddshotrods]

Originally Posted by Woodsmith

Very nice!
I see my little tractor has got to you a bit!...

Thanks Woody! Yup! It's just too much stinkin fun - no worrisome practical this and that - just kick back and enjoy. Schism is close, but it still ended up being one of the proof of concept vehicles for our G-bucket line, restricting me somewhat with regard to total freedom. Of course maximum enjoyment, for me, means pure design - notice there's not exactly a lot of room for batteries?

Originally Posted by Woodsmith

...Hmmmm, motors. You could try that 11" for size....

Or maybe the 13", long ways, with a shaft drive to the rear wheel just for fun...

Lol! Ideally, I would use an Impluse 9" motor, but that violates my cheap rule. I've been watching eBay like a hawk, waiting to find something out of the ordinary... Contrary to the cheap rule, I do have a Soliton Jr in the rendering, mainly because I love those sculptured cases.

Originally Posted by Woodsmith

Arch says "Will it have a winch in the back and weigh over half a ton?"

Rofl! It's Todd's interpretation of Woody style fun project Arch - meaning it will be featherweight and need to be towed (due to limited range) more than be able to tug on something!

Originally Posted by Tesseract

The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the rendering was that epic picture of the guy planking on top of a Vincent Black Lightning while hurtling across the Salt Flats at 150mph. This, of course, well before planking became an internet phenomenon...

Hey, that's actually a compliment, of sorts - that it even brought to mind a Vincent - thanks! I might have to explore that idea - a 21st century Vincent E-bike concept (planking on it at 150 is optional, but highly desirable)...

Originally Posted by Tesseract

...And, yeah, you might be spreading yourself thin there, Todd... How many projects do you have going on now? 5?

Well, technically, "I" only have two active projects - this one and Schism. Scratch is on hold until I can afford to spend a lot of money on something completely unnecessary, to do it how I want to to do it. Schism may actually end up belonging to the Inhaler Project.

The original Inhaler, now the Model E, is no longer my personal responsibility and a majority of the work being done on it is by that business' team, under my supervision, as managing partner.

That's work, this is play! . So, the correct answer, on a personal note, may soon be "one!"

[toddshotrods]

Originally Posted by Tesseract

...a Vincent Black Lightning...

Back to this thought, I was working on a version of this theme with the e-Vtwin I had come up with for Scratch, using two small motors and a customized shaft drive motorcycle rear diff as the "crankcase". It looks absolutely killer, IMO, but I stopped myself because it was taking me there (the land of Todd style excess) again. Now, I can't stop thinking about it!

[DavidDymaxion]

For those that might not know about the famous ride:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollie_Free
http://explodingdinosaurs.com/saltfl...inibikemadness

I want a pit bike for restroom and food jaunts -- boy was that fun cruising around on the Salt Flats 2 years ago on borrowed pit bikes (one was Mike Willmon's mini electric chopper, another an electric scooter, and a 3rd was a gas minibike).

Originally Posted by Tesseract

The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the rendering was that epic picture of the guy planking on top of a Vincent Black Lightning while hurtling across the Salt Flats at 150mph. This, of course, well before planking became an internet phenomenon...

And, yeah, you might be spreading yourself thin there, Todd... How many projects do you have going on now? 5?

[toddshotrods]

Out with the ICE...

[Tesseract]

Originally Posted by toddshotrods

Out with the ICE...

Wow - you can certainly see that the engine is a "stressed member" on these bikes, eh?

Oh, and yeah, it's never a bad thing to be compared to the Vincent Black Lightning... Not in my book, anyway.

[toddshotrods]

You had to know this was coming...

I decided to take a second look at the V-motor idea. When considering it for Scratch, which is purposely an over the top project, I was planning to either machine a custom case to hold dual pinions on a common automotive ring gear, or cut and splice a second pinion carrier onto a motorcycle differential. Either way was a lot of work, a lot of CAD/CNC, and custom fabrication. I wanted to see if I could reduce the cost and time to something reasonable.

This idea uses two complete motorcycle rear differentials facing each other, and mounted to a simple (as possible) fabricated structure. One of the differentials would be turning in reverse but, again, this isn't a race bike - it's for fun. Worse case it wears the gears prematurely and I have to replace them once in a while, I think. A fringe benefit in the idea is the offset created, which (along with the additional height of mounting the motors on top of the pinion supports) allows me to run a narrow, American V-twin style, 45-degree angle. In Scratch, I was also going to machine the pinion gears to allow me to mount the motors directly on the housing. That was to fit in Scratch's ultra low profile, but it also increased the angle of the motors to about 70-degrees. The radial triple version was a massive spread.

Here, the two diffs would turn a common sprocket, that would turn a jackshaft. With a little creative fabrication, I may be able to make that whole setup mimic the Harley style separate transmission.

I prefer permanent magnet motors, so I can have aluminum cases. Brushed motors might be more fitting, especially if a little arcing can be seen through the openings! Of course Mars motors would be ideal, but they also add a lot to the initial cost. I might be able to find some old PM motors on eBay, and replace them with Mars motors later or make my own aluminum cases (with lots of fins) for them later...

Originally Posted by Tesseract

Wow - you can certainly see that the engine is a "stressed member" on these bikes, eh?...

Yup. That's what all the black around the motor in the rendering was for - a frame structure to replace the stressed engine, and mount the electric drive components - stylishly, of course...

Originally Posted by Tesseract

...Oh, and yeah, it's never a bad thing to be compared to the Vincent Black Lightning... Not in my book, anyway.

Agree 100%.