DaveAK's blog

Here's a mock up of the motor and battery layout:

There will be another row of batteries above this, and the same configuration on the other side. The motor mount will be welded to the battery box and the whole deal will bolt to the original frame mounting points. With the vertical mid plate of the battery box I should have sufficient stiffness without having to weld gussets to the frame. Final dimensions/layout might vary, but this is roughly what I have in mind. And of course the large plates will be shaped accordingly.

This layout gives plenty of space for the controller/BMS/charger/DC-DC converter to be placed above the motor or elsewhere.

Actually I'm going with 26 cells, so it will be 6 on the bottom and 7 on the top as shown, on each side.

Here's a couple of pictures of the frame without the ICE, and a mock up of the sepex motor. It's a little close to the back brake, but I never use that anyway. :D

So tonight I weighed the bike as a starting point. Totally non-scientific using a couple of cheapo bathroom scales, but it will do for what I need. It was 240lbs on the front and 265lbs on the rear. This will give me an idea of how much weight gets removed/added.

I also ran the bike for a couple of minutes, but it rattled quite a bit. I don't think I'll bother putting any effort into the motor, I'll just sell it as is. So next step is to remove all the junk I don't need and weigh it again.

Front tire went soft over night, so I'll have to add two new tires to the project cost. I bought my first piece today - a replacement front brake lever. Woo hoo!

Well I'm about to start my own conversion and I'll do my best to keep this blog up to date. Since my computer is also in the garage it might not be too difficult. :)

Right now I've just taken delivery of my donor. It's a 1984 Kawaskai Ninja 900R. In good shape for an EV conversion, but pretty crappy otherwise! But for $350 it can't be all bad.

Here's some pictures that the guy who sold it to me sent:

Right now my intention is a D&D Sepex motor with an 84V LiFePO4 battery pack, probably using Headway cells. It's going to be a long build as funds allow, so don't expect daily updates! The first job is to check how well the engine runs so that I can sell it. And then it will be time to strip it all down!