Blogs

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.

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.

See this is why I love Oregon ;)
Portland was ranked #1 for America's greenest city

http://www.katu.com/news/15716742.html

"The PopSci folks looked at electricity use, transportation habits, "green" living, and recycling habits".
"It says half its power comes from renewable sources, a quarter of the workforce commutes by bike, carpool or public transportation. And it has 35 buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council".

I am suprised that San Francisco ranked number 2 on the list!

One of my vehicles is a three wheel motorcycle...

I got it 1 1/2 yrs ago through an ebay auction, meaning I did not build the thing. I started to register it last year but during that process the thing stopped working. So for the last 9 months it's been sitting idle while I've focussed on the Lectra. It's been this big white elephant sitting in the driveway to walk past and occasionally think about and get frustrated. I tried several times to get it running but.. no luck.

Feb 8, 2008
I've started a project that I hope will have me commuting to work, when spring arrives, on an electrified motorcycle. I've owned a couple motorcycles and now ride a Triumph Bonneville 750cc. The Bonnie is a great bike, but I'd like something 'greener'.

I began by buying a Kawasaki 400 from someone here in Syracuse.
It has a disc brake up front and a moderately heavy frame which I think will accept the weight of the batteries. I've removed all of the ICE parts and gas tank hoping to sell bits and pieces. so far I've recouped 90% of my purchase cost.

There is an old experiment. You take a bunch of students one at a time and give a them two boards and a rope. You tell him/her to cross a room as fast as possible without their feet touching the floor. Most students tied the ends of the rope around the boards, held the rope in the middle, and shuffled across the room. Some tied the boards to their feet and walked across the room. The average time for these students was a little over two minutes. Then they performed the experiment again with a different set of students. This time the experimenters provided one board and a rope.

HUGE thanks to my friend Arden for helping me assemble the drivetrain. A fellow member of the Oregon Scooter Club, Arden has an amazing shop with machining and welding capabilities. He probably saved me over $100 in machine shop costs, as well as providing some of the raw materials.

The Vespa 50S Special originally had a 6V 15W headlamp. The old lens was partially obscured with overspray from past rattlecanning, but the previous owner gave me a brand new headlamp when I bought the scooter from him.

I figured it would be a good idea to check the function of all the major components, so yesterday I hooked up the motor, controller, contactor, throttle, and one of the batteries. I have not yet purchased the main power cables, so I had to make do with whatever spare lengths of monster cable and bits of 18 ga wire salvaged from previous LED and cold cathode lighting projects.

Okay so I had some time this morning to write up a quick entry for the issue that kept racking in my brain at 6am
this morning before I went to work. So had to jump on the forum of course and write a blog about it! :?