I'm at the very early stages of thinking of a project. I love my ST1300 as it is, and will keep it that way. That said, I am really interested in having an electric motorcycle, and am also interested in the project of making one. My thoughts were to find another ST1300 (ideally one that needs a new engine!), and use that as the rolling chassis for my electric conversion. I know that the electric conversion would not have the same range as an ICE powered ST1300, and that is perfectly fine with me. I don't really need it to be a long range touring bike. I just really like the whole machine and would benefit from the Honda build quality, as well as enjoy the aesthetics of another ST1300 chassis in the garage. That said, I don't have to stick with an ST1300, and could move to something else more suitable if it looked right.
The ST1300 is my goal though and will do some more research to see if that's an appropriate target, or if I should change my sights to something else.
If you have, or know of someone who has, already converted an ST1300 to electric power, I'm interested in pointers to their project. I've seen a variety of projects on the net, converting a variety of motorcycles. I even found one guy who started to convert his ST1100, http://st1100ev.blogspot.com/ which is great. It's a good start, but the project hasn't been updated in a while.
At this early stage, I am working on figuring out:
There are more issues to enumerate, but for the purposes of getting started, that's my list.
As I said, this project is in the early stage. I've just started thinking about it, but I can't quite get it out of my mind. So it's something I want to learn more about and see if it's something I will pursue. I know that I can purchase a production built electric motorcycle from Zero Motorcycles and Brammo. Those are some great products, and they are good possibilities. However, I'm also interested in making one, so I want to see if I can do that too.
If you have any input/feedback/suggestions/help/data/whereabouts of a rolling chassis, whatever, please share.
Thank you!
Joel
The ST1300 is my goal though and will do some more research to see if that's an appropriate target, or if I should change my sights to something else.
If you have, or know of someone who has, already converted an ST1300 to electric power, I'm interested in pointers to their project. I've seen a variety of projects on the net, converting a variety of motorcycles. I even found one guy who started to convert his ST1100, http://st1100ev.blogspot.com/ which is great. It's a good start, but the project hasn't been updated in a while.
At this early stage, I am working on figuring out:
- how many Watts the electric motor should be able to provide continuously to move me and the bike (bike - engine and associated parts + electric motor + batteries + motor controller + extras + rider (165lbs))
- what physical size and weight that motor would be, where it will fit, and how it will mount
- determining the volume available to hold the batteries, which will in part determine total battery capacity, which will determine overall range
- choosing a battery chemistry, either Lithium Ion or Lithium Polymer (I have extensive experience with both)
There are more issues to enumerate, but for the purposes of getting started, that's my list.
As I said, this project is in the early stage. I've just started thinking about it, but I can't quite get it out of my mind. So it's something I want to learn more about and see if it's something I will pursue. I know that I can purchase a production built electric motorcycle from Zero Motorcycles and Brammo. Those are some great products, and they are good possibilities. However, I'm also interested in making one, so I want to see if I can do that too.
If you have any input/feedback/suggestions/help/data/whereabouts of a rolling chassis, whatever, please share.
Thank you!
Joel