*waves back to everyone* For the newcomers and refresher for the oldtimers...
4 years ago I bought a 1985 750s with a blown engine, as a rolling frame with rubbermaids and shopping bags of misc parts and hardware from his failed attempt at restoring it, for $20. My goal was to turn it into an electric motorbike built entirely out of unwanted garbage. I got it mostly reassembled by trial and error, and working, and then paused to consider batteries, because my batteries depend on what my speed controller is, and I wasn't sure about my speed controller. I'm in Canada and things went slower than I hoped, and winter hit, so I lost enthusiasm. Then, my driveshaft came out the last time I went to work on it the next year. Then someone stole my favorite helmet (I bought 3 used ones cheap, just to see what I'd like). The reason I never finished it was because my battery source of good batteries dried up. Originally I planned on just old starter batteries, but then I switched to a seemingly bottomless source of lithium batteries recycled out of junk tool packs. That source closed down and combined with another city. Now I had plenty of batteries to build the bike. Maybe even twice as many as I'd need for the bike. But the problem was that... I now had almost enough for an entire car. But only barely. So if I used them on the bike, I definitely couldn't have a usable car. I hemmed and hawed for the next couple years, and recently moved it when they cleaned the parkade and thought... I need to finish this damned thing. In one of my first post I said: "I have issues with completion on projects, so, simpler is better" Indeed. Why am I working on my bike all of a sudden? Well because I've spent the last year working on my electric car (a 1970 Opel GT, or rather 2, that I rescued from the shredders and combined 2 cut up bodies into one). So naturally as I'm burning out on that, I'm procrastinating that work and starting to distract myself with other projects again. So back to the bike. Step 1: Just shut up get it rolling. Do what it takes. Don't care about optimum. Done is better then perfect. Blah blah is my 36v controller the best option? Will I even be able to hit 40mph with voltage that low? Who cares. See Step 1, get it rolling. Blah blah, how do I configure my batteries? See Step 1. I asked the local NAPA if I could buy 3 of the best-worst used starter batteries people had dropped off for the core charge, for the price of the core charge they said sure. Anything moderately serviceable. Maybe it'll die after 5 trips of being deep discharged. Oh well. Get it rolling. No motorcycle license? No problem. I'm going to register it as a moped. I doubt I'll hit 40mph anyway. I'll ride it until I'm comfortable and get my motorcycle license, then maybe upgrade to better batteries in the future. The gimmicky goal was "Build an electric motorcycle from garbage" and I've succeeded. It will work. I'm not quite as cheap as I used to be (restoring a 50 year old car has corners that simply cannot be cut, it's kind of beaten that out of me), so when I upgrade it I'll probably spend a few hundred on making it be not terrible. Also, some of you guys helped me out a lot with parts and advice, and the only payback you get from that is seeing that your contributions made a difference, so, I want to at least share that it eventually did. All it needs is: - 3 starter batteries. - Battery frame somehow. - Battery wired up. - Controller I already have to be mounted and wired up. - Maybe a different throttle (forklift throttle is sketchy) - Put the driveshaft back together or whatever happened to it there. - New mirrors - Probably new tires if I want to be safe. - Front turn signal indicator clamps (the par that grasps the bar is cracked at the back of the "C" shape on both sides). Any idea where to buy replacements? I'll just buy them now. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nighthawk_lovers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nighthawk_lovers/CALEp-WfwC7-ViKdJemqPYp%3D3jSKxwPNcw%2BPP8%2B3hbWUC1X7efA%40mail.gmail.com.
