Thoughts on my strange project idea

[Thunderbisciut]

Thinkng about picking up a 70's Honda CB or similar for putting around town. I'd like to do an electric conversion to it with a goal of 50mph top speed and roughly 30-40 mile range. I also want to keep it on the cheap. I think it could be a neat little project. We'll see, it's certainly not a top priority or anything. I'm itching to do something I haven't done before though.

[Kurlon]

Why not make a Hybrid? Get an inline 4, drop two cylinders, cut the air box in half (or go pod filter) and use the room for an electric motor and batteries.

[kamikaze]

I agree. I haev been playing with this idea too. Maybe make a cafe racer out of a CB 175 to start with.

[Thunderbisciut]

There would be nowhere near enogh room, and that would complicate the design many times over. The electric motor would need to drive the input shaft of the transmission which would require a completely new engine case among many other things.

Way more work for no real benefit. Not to mention it defeats the idea of a purpose built machine.

[Thunderbisciut]

I agree. I haev been playing with this idea too. Maybe make a cafe racer out of a CB 175 to start with.

Well I wanted to do a cafe racer-esque bike, and I wanted to try an electric bike. I don't have the funds or room for two projects, so the logical solution is combine the two into one.

I'm waiting for a return email hopefully with pics of a clean titalled 71 CB 350 for $200 that is very local to me.

[rg500]

My brother and I converted an '86 honda crx to electric about five years ago. Info about the car can be found at brownout.com » EV. My brother is in the middle of a rebuild. If you have an questions I can try to answer them or put you in touch with my brother.

Good luck.

[markbvt]

I don't think a CB would be a very good platform to start with (I'm near completion on a CL350 cafe racer project). Frames/running gear are pretty heavy. For an electric conversion, you might be better off starting with a 125 or 250 dirtbike.

--mark

[BLACK SQUIRREL]

Or you could go Faster

[rg500]

I would say that chassis choice is dependent on what you want to run for batteries.

Lead acid batteries weigh enough that the extra weight of the cb chassis does not matter. My brother and I ended up adding well over a thousand pounds to the weight of the crx we converted. We actually spent a bunch of time reinforcing the chassis to cope with the extra weight.

[Woodsy]

There would be nowhere near enogh room, and that would complicate the design many times over. The electric motor would need to drive the input shaft of the transmission which would require a completely new engine case among many other things.

Way more work for no real benefit. Not to mention it defeats the idea of a purpose built machine.

the range you are going to get out of moderately priced materials is 20-25mi at best.

here are some thoughts

Plan1:
throw a small displacement parallel twin in the frame with an electric motor behind the heads and clutch the motor to an aux sprocket driving the front sprocket. throw the bike in neutral and unclutch the motor and you are underway on electric power. the range you are going to get out of moderately priced materials is 20-25mi at best. at least when you run out of juice you could fire up the 125cc and drive it home.

plan 2:
similar to 1 in that you use a small displacement parallel twin but this drives nothing but an alternator. all of your drive is off of the electric motor which is controlled by a rheostat. when battery voltage dips below a preset value the motor auto starts and runs at a predetermined rpm charging the batt. as long as your alternator is enough to supply the motor it should be a wash untill you plug in again or run out of gas.