I love the concept of electric motorcycles and am happy to see companies such as Zero Electric Motorcycles, Lightning(Currently the fastest production electric motorcycle), Harley (with their LiveWire concept), etc gaining traction in the market dominated by internal combustion engines.
I have been having dreams lately of building my own electric motorcycle out of a basket case 1991 Honda Cbr600 that I traded for years ago. The story of how I acquired this motorcycle is that I purchased some car rims for $100.00 from my best friend, and then later that same summer trading for the motorcycle. I have had nothing but problems with this bike however, it kept dying on me leaving me to walk the bike miles back home. Unfortunately the worst happened to me when I was driving the motorcycle and with a loud-- POP-- the bike came screeching to a stop. I still do not know what exactly happened to the bike, but I was never able to get the motor started again. So that same winter my best friend Tony and I pulled the motor and replaced it with a 1994 Honda CBR 600cc motor, but same problems the bike kept dying, had horrible compression, and just was not a very wise investment.
So now I am left with two motors, a frame, and a dream.
Tonight I glued up some pink XPS insulation foam and started sculpting a "gas tank" to replace the existing Honda gas tank which will eventually be used to hide the electronics and batteries for the electric conversion. I initially started by using a fiberglass form that I crafted last summer as a base form for the contours, but intend to give the gas tank my own styling that will update the look of the old bike. After I get the contours closer to what I envision I will apply some joint compound and sand and manicure the form to the intended shape. The next step will be to apply a resin, or polyurethane to protect the form and prep it to fiberglass the new form.
I will keep you all posted on new updates to the design and prototyping.
Some truly inspiring people that I would someday like to meet and discuss my ideas are Ben Nelson who seems to be a major player in DIY electric vehicles and is a Wisconsin native! I guess I have no excuse, maybe next Milwaukee Maker Faire I will have to seek him out and pick his brain. Check out his blog:http://300mpg.org/
Harley LiveWire:http://projectlivewire.harley-davidson.com/
Lightning Motorcycles:http://lightningmotorcycle.com/
Zero Electric Motorcycles:http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/
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