Red Echo

January 31, 2012

There’s a titled CB750 frame on Craigslist for $100 right now. There are other frames at similar prices, but the CB750 has a nice square engine compartment that would work well for holding batteries. I’m seriously tempted to buy it and start building an electric motorcycle around it, like, now. I imagine it’d take 3-6 months or so to get it running, but that seems well worth it if I end up with a bike I can ride to work every day.

2 Comments

  1. I gotta think a trike would be safer in Seattle than a bike… just too many slippery spots in Seattle.

    Comment by Adam — February 1, 2012 @ 10:14 am

  2. Maybe so… it’d have to be a tadpole style trike like the can-am spyder, though, with two wheels in front and one in back, or it’d actually be tippier than a bike. A bike can lean into a curve, a trike can’t… so the center of gravity zooms out ahead to the left or right. Seems like a much more complicated suspension & steering linkage…

    One thing I really like about the idea of an electric bike is the elimination of so many moving parts. You’ve got a motor, a wheel, two gears and a chain, and that’s pretty much it. No transmission, no carburetor, no pistons flying around, just volts in and rotation out. There’s no such thing as “it doesn’t start” – it either has charge or it doesn’t, the motor either spins or it doesn’t, and thirty seconds with a multimeter will tell you where the problem is.

    Comment by Mars Saxman — February 1, 2012 @ 11:50 am