Thanks for the tips. I have 16 miles one way and while it may be possible to plug in at work, it will be a miracle if I can make it happen. It would be more likeley that I can lug 20 or 30 lbs of batteries upstairs to my cube and charge the removeable ones while I work so I have definately been thinking of removeable batteries, probably in saddlebags that I could use on shorter trips for storage.
I can definately keep it under 50mph, a lot of my trip is spent splitting lanes over the Bay Bridge. I don't really need a lot of handling, it is a comutter bike. I was wondering if the decrease in drag compensates for the weight and inconvienence of a full fairing. What no one has seemed to address is the issue of the transmission. Would I be able to increase range by installing a transmission or at least a centrifugal or planetary gear? I am not as familiar with the power characteristics of an electric motor, but looking at the spec sheets it looks like lower RPMs have advantages for torque, efficiency and power consumption. Or does the lack of horsepower start to suck amps fast at higher speeds no matter what RPM you run at? ----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Wowk To: ElectricMotorcycles Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 8:20 PM Subject: Re: [ElectricMotorcycles] NooB to Ecycles If you have 20 miles one-way than you just might be able to do it. You'll need a lot of batteries, though. Shooting for anything more at highway speeds is not a good idea unless you know how to build a BMS (battery management system) and have enough money to shell out for Nimh, Nicad, or lithium ion batteries. Most EM conversions will probably crap out at less than 15 miles at freeway speeds. Keeping speeds below 50 will really help. A Zivan charger, charging from a 120v outlet could probably completely charge the batteries in 2 hrs or so. With lead-acid you are pretty much stuck with a crappy range, or a slightly-better-than crappy range. In the latter case you have to pile the batteries on, meaning handling suffers, and the weight needs to be placed higher in the frame making the bike a lot harder to corner. A few ideas to play around with to maximize range: 1. Use lead-acid batteries with rectangular cells instead of spiral wound to fit more in a smaller space. B&B are a good example. http://www.bb-battery.com 2. Strategically pick the bike you wish to convert. The more space you have down lower the better. You also want a light frame, and a sports bike with plastic to reduce drag would certainly help. Design your battery supports to put the batteries as low as possible while still maintaining enough ground clearance. You could put batteries underneath the existing frame cradle. 3. Pre-heat the batteries before use. I have yet to see how well this works. An electric blanket might do the job well (running from a 120v outlet, NOT the batteries). 4. Removable range-extender batteries of some type. This way you can chose when your bike will feel and handle like crap to get the extra range. Adding battery capacity results in a fairly linear increase in range, i.e., doubling the capacity will double the range. good luck, Andrew
