Red Echo

March 3, 2012

Electric motorcycle project begins

I bought a motorcycle frame today from a guy up in Lake City who does vintage bike restoration. He’s got frames just laying around outside his shop, heaps of parts inside – it was clear he was basically just trying to clean up his shop a bit, so he sold me a 1973 CB750 frame for $25. He threw in a pair of shocks and a swingarm, too, just to get rid of them. Well, okay, I won’t argue with that!

My plan is to build an electric motorcycle around this frame. I picked a CB750 because it has a larger-than-average engine bay with secure frame rails underneath; it should be possible to pack in a lot of heavy batteries without additional reinforcement. I’ll use the Enertrac motor for the rear wheel and pick up a frontend from Bent Bike.

I’m not planning to pursue this with any particular haste. I have a lot of other stuff going on, after all… but I think this will be a fun tinkering project and eventually a nice way to get to work and back. I doubt it will replace my gas-burner, but it may become a weekend machine instead of a daily rider.