Lectra Conversion Diary

The curiosity I've been having for awhile is what is the actual power use on my motorcycle. The curiosity is partly due to the range I've been getting (actually not getting) since in the past it had a hard time delivering more than 10 miles range whereas other e-motorcycles such as on the evalbum are supposedly delivering more like 20 miles range with an equal size pack to what's on the Lectra. However a couple weeks ago I fiddled with the rear end, put a little bit of slack into the chain, and the performance improved dramatically and it's now easy to get 10 miles range. Given that my commute is 10 miles I'm breathing a little bit easier.

The bike came with an analog amp & volt meter pair. I had them installed for awhile but I began to doubt the accuracy, plus I've got both paktrakr and cycleanalyst units and want to use them. The CycleAnalyst is the external shunt model, and the instructions for it say to verify with some other meter whether the CycleAnalyst is giving accurate readings. I don't at the moment have any other meter hooked up so it's a little hard to verify.

I bought the CycleAnalyst with a 500A shunt .. the way electricmotorsport's webstore is set up for the CycleAnalyst it seemed to me that a 100A shunt would give readings up to 100A and a 500A shunt would give readings up to 500A. With the analog meter it would give a 300A reading on takeoff and back down to ~ 100A for cruising. That led me to believe I'd need a 500A shunt and that's what I ordered. After installing it the A reading was nowhere near what the analog meter read. I finally talked with Todd about it and he straightened me out -- they normally use 100A shunts for all their vehicles because the 100A shunt will work with the CycleAnalyst to give measurements well above 100A. In the meantime there is a setting in the CycleAnalyst to adjust it for the shunt being used. It is the RShunt setting in the advanced section, however the CycleAnalyst instructions doesn't tell how to calculate what the correct RShunt setting is. Todd did a little calculations in his head and we put an RShunt value in, and while the numbers became a little more reasonable they were still a bit off.

The only way I have to verify the CycleAnalyst is the Kill-A-Watt power meter. I can plug the chargers into it and measure the KWH's used to recharge the pack after a ride. That'll give a ball park figure to the AH's used during the ride. And since the CycleAnalyst gives an AH reading it's possible to validate that the CA AH reading is near the Kill-A-Watt AH reading.

For example the CA, with the 500A shunt and after Todd's new value setting, it consistently claimed 13.5 AH for my commute. 13.5AH * 60v = .810 KWH ... however, the Kill-A-Watt consistently claimed 1.7 KWH to recharge the pack. To be sure the RShunt value Todd calculated was a guess and neither of us knew precisely what to program as the setting. Obviously the guess wasn't right because .81 KWH is nowhere near 1.7 KWH.

Todd just sent me a 100A shunt, I just installed it and went for a spin. The readings were more in line with the readings shown on the analog meter before. 300A for a full throttle takeoff, easy to get into the 150-200A range, and cruising in the 50-100A range. On the ride I just took the CA claims 21.4 AH used * 60v = 1.284 KWH ... it's on the charger now and I'll report later what the total was to recharge. In the meantime I think this is more in line with what the Kill-A-Watt is about to say.

I'm also planning to get the Amp measuring shunt for the PakTrakr. That'll also give its own validation.

That leaves a different question. Todd felt the A's used, if accurate, were quite a bit high. He felt that 20-50A would be more reasonable for cruising. Is the above out of line?

I've been pondering the next major phase of my Lectra motorcycle. I'm sure the battery pack will croak "soon" because SLA batteries supposedly have a life of 300 charge cycles (or so) and every time I ride the Lectra to work it is two deep charge cycles and while I haven't been keeping count it's likely the pack I have has 70-100 charge cycles in it right now.

The Lectra has a funny battery compartment geometry. It was originally designed as an electric motorcycle so the area that would normally be a rounded off motor cage is actually a squared off battery compartment. It has two trays each 15x15 inches with approx 7 inches vertical space in the lower tray. Additionally there is a space within the frame behind the battery compartment where I have stashed a pair of batteries. This space is 10 inches wide, 6 inches deep, and 15 inches tall.

Alternatively there are options like the GPR-S or Xtreme 3500li .. where I could get a lithium ION based motorcycle much more easily through an outright purchase rather than locating a suitable pack for my Lectra. Despite what I said the other day about Xtreme's shipping policies, it does appear they're delivering solid bikes that people are enjoying even with some of them arriving damaged.

One result I'd like with the Lectra is a higher voltage. 60v gives me a 47 miles/hr max and I'd like "more" and 72v ought to deliver "more" and I can do that with very little change in the bike. My current pack is 60v in 5 paired batteries meaning that the current pack could be reconfigured as a 120v pack but would mean a new controller.

LifeBATT:-

Their 12v20ah battery is exactly the same footprint as the batteries I'm using. 10 of them at $470 == $4700 (minus this current special discount offer) and it's not clear what to do about chargers. It's also not clear from their site whether these batteries can be connected in parallel. My lectra currently has 10 batteries where they are arranged as 5 pairs of batteries. In any case this would be 60v40ah or slightly less rated capacity than I have right now. This could also be arranged as a 120v20ah total pack.

Their 36v20ah battery is enticing. I could fit four of them in the main trays for a 72v40ah pack. $3500 for batteries. It's again not clear whether their batteries can be parallelized or what precisely to do about chargers. Similarly the 72v10ah pack is the same size and considerations.

Their 48v20ah battery might be possible to fit in the Lectra. Same discussion. Their 96v10ah pack has the same shape and could be interesting except it absolutely would require a new controller. These might also require some frame modifications such as removing the central tray to make one battery compartment. 96v40ah total sounds enticing but I think the total cost would be over $8000...!!!

I don't quite understand the pricing .. 48v20ah appears to be the same battery as 96v10ah (same number of cells, just a different cell arrangement, but at a $120 higher price.

Headway:-

Doesn't have several bits of important information posted on their site such as size, weight or cost.

They have 12v 30ah and 48v 20ah battery packs available. It's not known whether these will fit in my Lectra. The discharge ratings are a bit less than what I'd need in the Lectra. However they're really set up to sell to dealers rather than sell to individuals. There is a group purchase operation happening http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/lifepo4-purchase/ and I think Joshua has said the posted prices will change in the future.

Elite Power Solutions:-

Is selling packs made from thundersky batteries.

They sell a 60 ah 24 cell pack that looks interesting. Nearly $3000 cost. Each cell is 8.78X4.69X2.49 in and I haven't mapped it out completely but I could probably wedge these into the Lectra. The cost doesn't include a BMS and they do carry a BMS which appears to cost $1700 and then some more for a charger.

I'll have to double check on this but IIRC someone on "V" set up a bike with thundersky batteries and a different BMS.

Tradwin:-

Is also a thundersky distributor .. they don't have many specifics on the site but offer complete packs, BMS, charger, etc.

Electric Motorsport GPR-S or XM 3500li or waiting for the next model Vectrix or purchasing a current model Vectrix ... Any of these would get me on a higher speed longer range motorcycle with less trouble and maybe less cost than rejiggering my Lectra.

Recently I noticed some motorcycles w/ approx 100 lb battery packs are having the same range as I'm getting with the 220 lb pack on my Lectra. Namely 45 miles/hr and up to 10 miles range. Last weekend I showed the Lectra to a knowledgeable e-motorcycle builder and he thought I should be getting better range. So I'm wondering what's up with the range.

If I'm careful and don't hit the throttle real hard .. I can get 11-12 miles range. Hit the throttle hard, and the range is much less.

What I'm seeing on the ammeter is that cruising at 40 miles/hr consumes 100A current. This guy I talked with last week thought that was excessive, that the current should be much lower like 50A. And, I think y'all with the XM-2000 and other scooters are reporting approx 50A current for 40 miles/hr.

An interesting datum is the coast-down time as I reported earlier...

I also see this when I'm pushing the motorcycle around like when I'm backing out from being parked. It's a lot harder to push the Lectra around than the Rebel. So what this means is the Lectra has more rolling resistance. High rolling resistance should make the current draw higher to get the same speed.

Over the weekend I brought the bike into the garage and put it on the lift. This let me roll the wheels by hand. The rear wheel rolled pretty freely but the front wheel took a fair bit of effort. Hmm...

Just now I took it out for a spin to see if any part of the front wheel/axle/brake would get warm. The first time I stopped the front disc was pretty warm, but I'd been using it to stop quite a bit. I took it around the block a couple times, just using the rear brake for stopping. After that the disc was cool(er). Not sure what that proves.

I noticed the brake pad seems to be resting on the disc. But don't brake pads do that normally?

Another issue is the battery pack. I finally have the paktrakr running correctly. Until now I could only measure battery voltages after stopping and getting off and getting the meter out and measuring each battery individually. By the time I did that the batteries had time to recover their voltage, and I only ever saw the batteries having fairly even voltage. However I see now with the packtrakr the behavior while riding.

Battery #3 is much weaker than the others. Its voltage is dipping considerably during the ride and it runs out much earlier than the others.

This too is going to be affecting the range. Because the weak battery causes the other batteries to work harder.

I rode my Lectra to work today and had the most bizarre ride home.

It started before I took off -- two of my coworkers were in the parking lot having seen the bike and they told me they'd spent the prior 1/2 hour going over all the details of the bike, and saying that Dave (me) would love to see the bike. So when I came towards them wearing a motorcycle jacket they broke into cheers and waving and saying what an awesome bike. Ohmygosh.

I spent about 10 minutes going over it with them, and discussing various ins and outs of this vehicle. They were still very impressed .. so I musta said the right things.

Even though it's not highly polished or cleanly finished etc.. they just loved the various bits and bobs of the bike. Like the dashboard that's made of diamond plate and held on with those stainless steel straps with holes in them. I had to paint the dashboard black because the reflections were bothering me, and they just loved it.

Then... During the drive home I passed this accident scene. There was a 5x9 enclosed trailer by the side of the road with a fountain of water gushing from underneath it. What had to have happened is it got out of control and somehow hit a fire hydrant. An amazing amount of water..

Then... At one intersection I looked over and saw a BugE!!!!! It looked awesome. I'm gonna have to try and contact whoever has that and see if I can do a test ride.

Then... I stopped at an intersection and heard this voice yelling something.. I eventually realized it was this lady in the car next to me asking Where did you buy that bike? Replying that I built it, she wanted to know if I had a card, if I would build her one, etc. Then the light changed the guy behind her started honking and she had to drive away.

So, here's something that's interesting... I know several people who want to own an electric vehicle and they see my Lectra and they start asking about where they could buy an Electric Motorcycle.

The desire is there .. well, among people I know anyway. The desire is there for EV's, but the public is being stymied in owning EV's because other people made choices that prevent EV's from being sold to the public. Well, it's also battery technology.

Today I got the fairing out and tried fitting it to the Lectra. Last week I measured things and drew pictures on paper, but this week it was made a little more real.

First.. this is what the fairing looks like, the picture was taken the day I picked it up. We loaded it on my motorcycle trailer and strapped it down sitting in the rail.

Next.. this is what the Lectra looks like. The batteries are being held in place with nylon straps, they're sold as "battery straps", rated at 400 pounds, the upper batteries have two straps, and the straps are long enough to wrap around twice. It seems to be doing a good job holding the batteries in place.

I have been keeping the fairing beside the garage under a blue tarp. First thing I had to do was drag it into the back yard, unscrew it from the wood 2x4's it had been bolted to, then hose it off.

Then I used a jigsaw and cut off the flash from both halves of the fairing.

Then finally I brought the bike out front in the driveway and brought both halves of the fairing out and tried fitting it in place.

Right now it looks like I should cut the fairing in half, just behind the peak. The front half needs to be located such that the peak is at the same position as the handlebars. However that makes the nose quite a ways out in front. And there's a question how to have the headlight work through the fairing or whether to mount some kind of headlight on the fairing.

But I'm thinking to first do the back half because it looks like it will be easier to do the rear half. There are fewer problems with mounting the rear half of the fairing..

I also bought some PVC tubing for mounting the fairing following the general idea outlined on these pages:

http://www.biketcba.org/TRICORR/projects/fairing4/fairing4.html

http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/pauljones/

With the rear half of the fairing I'm planning to use two struts on each side, take off the seat and plastic that's there right now. I'll attach the t-joints to the frame using hose clamps but it's not entirely clear how to connect the PVC pipe to the fairing piece. I've also bought a trunk and am planning to mount that to the frame in place of the rear part of the seat area.

Today I studied the Fairing and the Lectra and am looking at ways to attach the Fairing to the bike. To remind y'all -- Along with my Lectra came a "full" fairing whose design was derived from a motorcycle which achieved 470 miles/gallon efficiency in a contest in the mid 1980's. The fairing is sold by Craig Vetter.. the idea is one way to achieve long(er) range is to increase the aerodynamic efficiency, and that link takes you to a page that shows approximately what I have and what I'm trying to do.

What I have in my back yard is a bubble made of ABS plastic. It is approx 80" from end-end, 45" at the highest point, it's black, etc. There's no obvious way to mount it on the bike, but it is in a very aerodynamic shape and I really want this to work.

The first question is.. how to mount a fairing on a motorcycle. Craig sent me a nice drawing and I also found some other resources about bicycle and motorcycle fairings. It seems the velomobile crowd have tried a lot of ways to achieve this same sort of goal. Here's a few links

http://www.wesleychurch.info/bike/bikepro/PROJECT.HTM

http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/pauljones/

http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/bubblemounting/bubblemounting.htm

http://www.biketcba.org/TRICORR/projects/fairing4/fairing4.html

The idea for mounting the fairing to the frame is .. you use pipe components, modifying them for the purpose. A T-joint provides a nice base. You cut in half the main part of the T and strap that to the frame using hose clams. Then into the remaining part of the T you insert a pipe and cut that pipe to the length necessary to connect with the fairing. You attach the fairing to this pipe via a mount of some kind. And make sure to have enough of these to hold the fairing in place. The above links show some recumbent bicycles with cloroplast fairings ...

At Orchard Supply I found the following kinds of pipes: a) Galvanized Steel, b) ABS Plastic, and c) another kind of plastic. The ABS plastic seemed the strongest but the narrowest pipe is 2" diameter and is larger than needed for this project. The Galvanized steel is stronger than the ABS plastic, but it's also pretty heavy. There was some narrower plastic and copper pipes but these seemed to be real flexible, and it seems to me the fairing should be held by rigid tubes.

The diagram below is an attempt to show the rear portion of the fairing. I am planning to split the fairing in two halves, and I'll sit in the middle. For the rear I plan to buy a motorcycle trunk and mount that on the back half of the seat, then mount the fairing such that it covers the wheel and meets with the trunk to form a smooth seam. The grey rectangle represents the fairing and it's see-through only so you can see the underlying parts. The actual shape is not rectangular but I couldn't figure out how to get Illustrator to deform the rectangle right. The wheel is also not bright red but it gives you an idea of the size. The motor is mounted on the swingarm just in front of the wheel. The components are drawn to scale FWIW.

I'm thinking to do the rear half of the fairing first. The front half of the fairing needs to surround the front fork and front wheel and looks to be a more complicated job to get mounted.

Phase 2 of my Lectra project is coming. Phase 2? Read back in my blog in previous Lectra Conversion Diary entries for more details. In Phase 2 I have a full fairing which is meant to make a shell around the entire motorcycle and make it extremely aerodynamic. The idea is to explore vehicle efficiency as a way to increase range.

I've been doing some research .. Cabin scooter and faring design resources from around the Internet .. Go-one Velomobile .. Velomobiles .. 5th generation civic hatchback - improving aerodynamics .. Basjoos Tells All About His "95 MPG" Aerocivic .. and it seems that there can really be a lot of gain from aerodynamics. I came across a couple forum websites where people are discussing ideas on improving aerodynamics of gas cars and other ways to increase gas car efficiency, and they're getting good results. Yeah, they're still 100% addicted to oil but at least they're doing something about the underlying problem and they are getting good results.

Yesterday I did a bit of measurement so I could have a baseline to compare future performance. I found a simple way to ... Measure the drag coefficient of your car ... If you click through to the instructables site you'll find formulas and a spreadsheet. I haven't run the calculations yet, but I've got some numbers. The process is very simple. You take your car or motorcycle or whatever, accelerate up to approx 70 km/hr (45 miles/hr) speed, and then start coasting (in neutral) and measure how long it takes to coast to a stop and speed at various intervals during the coast-down. The formulas in the spreadsheet are able to tell you the actual drag coefficient number. But there is an interesting pattern even without having yet done the number crunching.

I went out with three vehicles (below) and made several runs with each. I have an ipod with a Belkin voice recorder attachment, and during the coast down I called out the speed at 40/35/30/25/20/etc miles/hr intervals. This afternoon I listened to the audio and wrote down the time points for each of the speeds. Making several runs lets me get an average and to account for differing wind conditions (there was little wind) or terrain (it's very flat around here) etc.

1999 Chevy Tracker: 40->10 miles/hr takes approx 60 seconds

2004 Honda Rebel 250: 40->10 miles/hr takes approx 40 seconds

Lectra: 40->10 miles/hr takes approx 25-30 seconds

The idea is that the more quickly the vehicle coasts to a stop, the greater the wind resistance, or put another way the worst the drag coefficient. But this also measures rolling resistance.

I'm a little surprised the Tracker came out the best here. It's shaped a bit like a box, with very little in the way of aerodynamic niceness to it. But on the other hand motorcycles do have these bits hanging out all over the place ..sooo...

The Rebel has a windshield.

The Lectra, since it doesn't have a transmission, that may have introduced some electrical or mechanical drag. With both the Tracker and the Rebel I could put them into neutral (both have manual transmissions) and coast properly, but the Lectra doesn't have a neutral because it doesn't have a transmission.

I think the weight of the Rebel and the Lectra is comparable. The Lectra is a lot shorter than the Rebel, but it has 220 lbs of lead acid batteries on board.

Oh yeah, doing more with less...

That is a phrase Craig Vetter said during his DVD discussing the motorcycle efficiency contest and the fairing I have .. he says he got the phrase from Buckminster Fuller, who he 'followed around' for a couple years. When I heard that phrase come out of Craig's mouth it crystallized for me an idea I've carried for years.

What makes compact fluorescent light bulbs interesting is they emit the same number of lumens by using less electricity. That is doing more with less.

A vehicle that's more aerodynamic can move and use less energy to achieve the same end. I think the Honda Insight, for instance, gets most of its fuel efficiency gain from being small, light, and aerodynamic. The Geo Metro after all got 60 miles per gallon without having a hybrid drive train. Mini-experiment: the wrath of roof racks is a meditation on the negative effect of roof racks on fuel efficiency.

I wanted to ride the Lectra over to the EAA meeting... y'know, show it off, etc. ...but... On my way over the chain broke.

I've had a couple instances where I go to take off and the chain slips off the sprocket and there's no power. It's very surprising when that happens 'cause I'm accustomed to this bike having lots of get up and go power, and when this happens it's zero. It's happened twice, the last time two days ago on my way to work.

This time I'm riding down El Camino Real in Palo Alto and suddenly have no power and pull to the side of the road. Find the chain has slipped off, so that makes the third time it had happened. I put the chain back on and take off again. Immediately again there's a sound and then no power and I pull off to the side of the road. And see the ends of the chain dangling. Soooo...

I hoofed it on to the meeting so I could hear the presentation. Also I knew 'Alias' would be there and hopefully she would be kind and generous and help me haul it home after the meeting. BTW she has some interesting pictures that I hope will get posted. Anyway we ended up taking the bike to a Honda motorcycle repair shop, and the guy says they have a policy of not working on any alternative anything motorcycle. He did take a look though and asked "is that a bicycle chain"? It's a lot smaller than a normal motorcycle chain. Hooboy. But I also took it to two bicycle shops and they don't carry anything that large, which is what I thought, that the chain is larger than bicycle chain.

The chain has '41' stamped in the side. I recall vaguely that bicycle chain is #35...? So is this #41 chain? I'll have to ask Lawrence if he remembers.

In other news I have bought a 60v charger, the one carried by MonsterScooterParts.com. This should make it a little easier to do opportunity charging on the road. This weekend I plan to redo the pack wiring - install rubber booties and install a terminal block for connecting accessories such as bank charging and paktrakr and batteq (which should be arriving wednesday).

One of my coworkers has his last day at work today - and he's one who has been very interested in EV's and following my progress on the Lectra conversion. That makes today the last day he could easily see the Lectra, so I rode it in today. Um, gosh, it's 45 degrees out with dense fog ... and for example my helmet kept fogging up, and at every stop I had to be a manual windshield wiper, wiping off the fog with my hands. But I made it in.

Over the weekend the ammeter became nonfunctional so it's not connected to the bike. That made the only gauge the voltmeter. At the beginning of the ride it read fully charged.. it's a little hard to be accurate with the needle but it looks a bit over 66 volts fully charged. The paktrakr isn't permanently mounted either.

The ride is 10 miles down Central Expressway, a 45-50 mile/hr road that goes through Mtn View, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara. I kept my speed down because on my last long ride (Mtn View - Palo Alto and back) it ran out of juice during the last half mile. I stayed at 40 miles/hr most of the way and the traffic around me didn't seem to mind.

All the way the bike had plenty of power available and rode fine. Importantly the voltage generally stayed 58v and above. The last two miles there are a couple overpasses which gave a little challenge, the voltage dipped to 50v on one of the overpasses. And then the last 1/4 mile it was like the power fell off a cliff. While resting voltage stayed around 60v the voltage under power dropped easily to 50v and I think I saw it go as low as 40v. I took it real gentle that last bit getting to the office.

We have outside charging facilities for EV's -- these are left over from the 90's during the time CARB still had effective ZEV requirements. The chargers are two of the paddle units that worked with the EV1, two of the AVCON units that work with a larger set of vehicles, and there is a 120v EFI protected outdoor outlet. I've been using that outlet for 5+ years with a variety of vehicles. The others rarely see any use.

There used to be an EV1 plastered with Duke images which regularly came to the office. Duke is the mascot for Java, and my day job involves Java quality. In any case that EV1 hasn't been seen around here for several years, of course.

The question I've been working with the last couple weeks - other than Holiday activities that is - has been what to do for the dashboard on the Lectra. The Lectra design has a piece of molded plastic which kinda sorta maybe resembles in an odd way the gas tank in a gas motorcycle. If you squint your eyes just the right way, that is. It woulda been obvious to reuse that piece to cover that section of the bike, but I've been looking at a different idea.

Because I've chosen to use a manual disconnect (a big red switch) as the main contactor (manual contactor) I've also been pondering where to mount that big red switch. It doesn't really fit in anywhere else but that area where a gas tank would normally be. And to reuse this molded plastic thingy I'd have to make the big red switch compatible with this molded plastic thingy. And they didn't look terribly compatible which is why ...

The other idea I've been working on is... a) an aluminum plate (diamond plate), b) drill holes for mounting any switches or gauges, c) somehow mount this aluminum plate to the bike. I worked up a method for mounting it involving angle brackets bolted to the plate and bolted to the bike. It looks to be very solid etc. ..but.. I've not been satisfied with the final look of it.

Yesterday I took a look at the plastic thingy again and it appears to be sturdier than I thought. There was a metal plate screwed to the plastic thingy, this plate held the instruments originally meant for the Lectra. Last night I detached that metal plate and started looking at it. It fits the bike very well, duh.. it was designed for this bike so of course its going to fit. And I could take the aluminum plate I'd already done and trim it down to fit this plastic thingy.

The other issue I've been pondering is weatherising the battery pack. You may have seen some news reports of storms pounding northern california. Well, yeah, it's been helping me consider how to make this thing ridable in rain. On the bike as it is the parts are all exposed, especially this dashboard area. I just ordered some rubber booties for the battery cables. These fit over the cables and form a cover around the battery connection. They don't look like they're perfect but they should help (some) to prevent water from getting to the pack. That means this weekend I'll be rewiring the pack (again) to install the booties ... and I might as well rewire the way the paktrakr is installed similarly to how usatracy has done it.