MAKE: Blog: Electric bike project

Electric bike project

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Electric bike project from Bill, and his last name is Craft!

Hi, my name is Bill Craft and I read your blog pretty much on a daily basis. It's good to know that there's so many people out there who are that creative. I live in a very small town in Alberta and I find there's not much to do with my spare time but make things with what I can find around here or order over the net. I made an electric bike to get around here. This is actually my second one, I should have taken pictures of the first but oh well. This one has a range of 20-30 km. and a top speed of 65km/hr. and the weight is about 60 pounds. I'm not sure if thing is actually legal to drive but like I said it's a very small town.

The bike itself started as a $150 walmart special. Within 30 minutes of getting it home I had stripped everything off the frame. Then bolted on 2 brushless hub motors rated for 500 watts. Next came drilling some holes through the frame and bolting on some sheet aluminium panels to hold the electronics. There are 2 battery packs( 36volt 8amp nimh cells ), 2 36volt 3 amp charges for them and 2 speed controllers. Both speed controllers are tied to the throttle grip and you can switch between front wheel drive, rear wheel or both. 2/wheel drive is a lot of fun when you go offroad with it. And the side covers and tank where made from scrap pink insulation core then covered with fibreglass cloth and epoxy resin. I was trying for a Thunderbirds look, maybe I need to make wheel disks.

These are a few pics of the build.

Related:

Comments

Oldest comments listed first.

Posted by: Silas on June 25, 2007 at 2:43 PM

Can we have some more specs? Like what's the donor bike. What kind af battery is it? What kind of motors is it? Stuff like that.. Thanks :D

Posted by: Silas on June 25, 2007 at 2:52 PM

Heh, I forgot to mention that it's an awesome project..

Posted by: Vinnygx3pimp on June 25, 2007 at 3:06 PM

dud very cool bike yes please make an instructable please

Posted by: tsaylor on June 25, 2007 at 3:16 PM

Bill, we need more info! Don't leave us hanging!

Posted by: Tercero on June 25, 2007 at 4:30 PM

Good one.

I like the hub motors? Are they the Unite H1500 series? The controller looks like a Curtis.

To anyone interested, there's lots of builders out there. Try Visforvoltage.net

and

Look for plans like "The Jackal", "El Chopper" or "Cheetah"

It'll take you where you want to go. You might want to check local laws though regarding experimental and electric vehicles. They've only recently changed the laws in Ontario, so where you are, you might have to have registration and insurance.

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