When my dad and I started to build ElectroCat in 2007, most people had never even imagined that it was possible to build an electric motorcycle. Two years later, it is an electric motorcycle boom!
Electric motorcycle companies are popping up like mushrooms, there are electric motorcycle competitions and hobbyists are switching their focus from expensive electric cars to much less expensive (but much more challenging) electric motorcycles.
<< Denver Electric Vehicle Council – electric motorcycle cluster >>
DEVC – Denver Electric Vehicle Council, my local EV club – had their monthly meeting last Saturday. It could almost have been “Denver Electric Bike Council” meeting. Out of seven vehicles, six of them had two wheels. Two where highway legal motorcycles, one was a “moped”, two electric powered bicycles and one a mini bike/pit bike. 
Picture: No, it isn’t ElectroCat, it is Bill Ruzinsky’s 1990 Suzuki Katana “Electrovoyageur”.
One of the shown motorcycles – Bill Ruzinsky’s “Electrovoyageur” – could almost have been a sister to ElectroCat: ThunderSky 90 Ah lithium-Iron-Phosphate cells and a Mars ETEK-RT motor. Electrovoyageur has a Kelly Controller, which ElectroCat will have soon too. In a former version, Electrovoyageur had an Alltrax controller, which ElectroCat has know. 😉
Bill Ruzinsky has a very clever solution to get more space for the batteries (but you have to like a traditional BMW motorcycle to like it…) He has mounted the motor _outside_ the frame/swing arm, and balanced the motorcycle by letting the batteries stick out on the opposite side. It gives much more space for batteries in the frame. The configuration gives a look similar to the old BMW motorcycles with the cylinders sticking out on each side. Bill Ruzinsky isn’t the inventor of this idea, but this one is a very nice conversion.
Pictures above: Bill Ruzinsky’s 1990 Suzuki Katana “Electrovoyageur”. More information: http://www.evalbum.com/1665
Pictures above: John Bidwell has a similar motor solution in his nicely converted 2004 Kawasaki KX125 “El Moto”. Read more at http://www.evalbum.com/1425
John Bidwell also has the converted 1987 Kawasaki Ninja 750 named “El Ninja”, with the same motor solution: http://www.evalbum.com/703
John has even written a book about his conversions: “Secrets of El Ninja – Designing, Converting, Operating, and Maintaining Electric Motorcycles”
Picture: Classic Honda converted by Ken Hall. A nice conversion with 30 Ah lithium cells from the company Hi-Power, a Mars ETEK motor and a Kelly controller.
<< TTxGP – electric roadracing >>
June 12th is the world’s first really high-profile electric road racing competition – the TTxGP on Isle of Man www.ttxgp.com. 23 motorcycles and riders have signed up for the competition, but only the future will tell how many that will make it to the starting line and how many that eventually will make it to the finishing line… The 36 km long street track with a height difference of 400 meters are extremely challenging for an electric motorcycle. The energy consumption at a decent speed will be closer to 10 kWh, which means a battery pack of 70-100 kg, or more. To fit that into a motorcycle and still make it behave well is a real challenge. ElectroCat with its battery pack of less than 5 kWh pack wouldn’t make the track at more than scooter speed…
The official list of participants can be found here: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/04/09/officially-official-ttxgp-releases-full-list-of-participants/
<< Boom in manufacturer >>
You have probably heard the joke about the electric vehicle converter that won on lottery. The very excited reporter asked the winner what he would do with all the money. The converter answers: “I will stay in the electric vehicle business until it’s all gone!”
To make money in electric vehicles are extremely difficult, but despite this electric motorcycle manufactures are popping up like mushrooms after a rainy week. Here are the ones that I can think of right now (alphabetic order). Some of them are producing, some of them aren’t producing yet, and some of them will probably never come to production…
Brammo Enertia www.enertiabike.com. Commuter motorcycle.
Electric Moto www.electricmoto.com. Electric off-road motorcycle named “Blade”
Electric Motorsport www.electricmotorsport.com. A nice little conversion, perfect for commuting.
Mission Motors www.ridemission.com. Sports motorcycle with a projected top speed of 150 mph. Claim that they will compete of Isle of Man. So far we have only seen a mock-up…
Quantya www.quantya.com. Swiss off-road and supermoto motorcycles. The model “Strada” is street legal (at least in some countries…)
Vectrix www.vectrix.com. Electric maxi scooter.
Zero Motorcycles www.zeromotorcycles.com. Off-road motorcycles, now also with a street legal model.
Rumors of a couple of more are spreading, but I don’t have any real information yet. There are of course also hundreds of manufacturers of electric scooters and electric bicycles, preferable in Asia. A few hybrid motorcycles are also on the way out on the market, for example from Piaggio and the really weird eRockit www.erockit.net – an electric-human hybrid…
If you prefer to build your own motorcycle, somebody has published a small builder’s guide here… www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-72Volt-electric-motorcycle/
May your electric motorcycle always keep the rubber side down!
// Eva 