EV Awareness Day
Last Wednesday I found out that the OEVA was having an EV Awareness Day on Saturday, so of course I wanted to get things all ready on the bike. Jim came over and helped cut out the bottom of the tank. Since we have another bike, we cut that tank first to test.
The paint bubbled a little when Jim cut it with the Plasma torch, so he used a cutting wheel for the rest. He cut the new tank and we fit it on the bike. We were up until like 1am. I came in Friday the 4th of July and worked on mounting the contactor, fuse and controller. I was up on the roof of Synkromotive when the fireworks started in Portland…. It was pretty cool. I finished putting everything together, but when I wired it back up… it didn’t power up. It was 2am, so I decided to get some rest and come early the next morning. I was completely beat. Here’s a pic of her on the trailer around 2Am:
I went in Saturday morning and called Ives. The Busbar on the prototype was marked wrong. I put the + and – backwards, but since its got the precharge resistor built in, it never got pack voltage. I changed the wires around, and it started right up. David was also there in the morning and he got the Sparrow running. Here’s a pic of him on the bike just before we left:
He and I got to the EV Awareness Day around 1130, and stayed until around 4. I wore a Synkromotive shirt, and passed out a few business cards for Synkromotive to those that inquired, but I didn’t try to advertise. There was quite a turnout though, tons of people came by and looked at the bike. To my knowledge, there’s nothing like it in Portland. Here she is all pretty at Pioneer Square on Saturday:
The first question out of everyone’s mouth was “How far does it go”… to which I replied “15-20 miles on crappy used UPS batteries I got for free”. I initially wanted to go with larger lead, but since these were free, I wanted to develop/test the mechanical first, and then upgrade to lithium in the fall. Its all working and now I can shop for alternatives to lead. Most people scoffed a little, I didn’t care, Its quite a feat in a motorcycle, especially keeping it stock looking. I know what the end result will be…. LiFePo and AC will eventually find their way into that bike. It will perform well, and range will be 30-40 miles. Overall, the event was great. At the end of the day, I drove the sparrow to Synkromotive (that thing is fun), and David drove in front of me on the motorcycle. It wasn’t far, and we took backroads to be safe. Its not registered yet. That happens this week. It got home safely, but batteries were dying. Right now we’re aroung 16 miles on a charge off the tripmeter. Not bad. Especially since another guy named Travis stopped by and took it for a spin, and me, Loni and Jim did speed runs earlier in the week.
We still have to get the charging system functional, and install lights and a new aux battery for the lights, but its 95% done. I ordered Ev200 contactors (one extra) and will install next week. I’m going to order a 60tooth rear sprocket to help the acceleration, and hopefully help the battery life (lower amp draw at lower rpm). I’m starting to look at distributors for LiFePo, but will decide in a couple months. I can afford 1/2 a pack right now, but I’m going to wait and see what goes on in the next few months. Right now, I’m fine with it. At least now, she’s not naked anymore. I sexied her up!
Click here for some more pictures in the eVFR album.
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Conversion | Travis | 
July 7, 2008 10:11 am
10 Comments
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By Darkwing Duck, July 7, 2008 @ 10:54 am
Freakin RAD! Well done sir, well done.
By Andy, July 7, 2008 @ 11:58 am
Nice one! She looks great and deserves some lithium to get that mileage up! Sweeeet
By Lon Hull, July 9, 2008 @ 6:03 am
Excellent work getting her ready in time to show. I can’t wait to get lithium in this thing!
By Chris, July 13, 2008 @ 5:05 pm
Kudos! That is quite a remarkable achievement. I have been wanting to do this for a few years now…life keeps getting in my way. I hope you plan on productizing the controller setup and/or publishing a detailed spec sheet to help those of us who hope to follow in your path!
I have one suggestion for your next iteration – a belt drive. The belt drives (common on harleys and other cruisers) have much lower friction loss than traditional chains and are virtually maintenance-free.
Good luck!
Chris