Honda WN7

[Lunchbag]

Man i didn't know you had that.  When your ignition wires failed you should have just ridden that to Kingsport!

Technically that would be possible...might have taken a week to get there.  

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Good for you, LB. Do you still have the Royal E-field?

I still have it.  I seldom ride it, and mostly to shuttle my lazy butt to/from the farm side of our property when I'm too lazy to walk back and forth to get tools, etc.  Sometimes into town and back, but now that I have this red beauty in the garage...you know which one is getting the love.

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Wow! What a project, Lunchbag.

If any forum members passed over visiting the website, I would encourge folks to slow down and take a look.  First, it's a very well designed site, and second it's fascinating to see a RE Bullet bike converted to electric.

If nothing else, watch the walk-around:



I loved the BUILD area of your website, and a big thumbs up for the bamboo hallow to paint on a windy day.  

Question: is the weight of the removed engine greater / equal to the weight of the batteries, and anything else bolted to the frame?  How does one know the stress is distributed in a similar way as to original setup?  Maybe that's a very silly question and the answer is obvious, but..curiosity.

I love the black used for the exposed areas of the batteries.  It provides for a pleasing contrast and relief of the dominant green.

Totally eerie to watch the Bullet hum along as you test ride.  It's just a look and a sound that are beautifully and wonderfully...mismatched!

Anything I've every said or thought about the bulkiness of batteries for motorcycles I'm going to take back for this build.  Seeing all the thought and work you put into this project forces me to take my hat off and say "extremely well done".  

Thanks for detailing everything with the site.  Easy to navigate and makes one want to explore the other areas.

  (without the exhaust, of course)

Thanks!  It was a priority for me to document it well.  I had gotten a lot of encouragement from other folks who had blogged about their work, and I wanted to pass that on.  It worked...I used to get quite a few folks asking questions about how to do their own projects.  One of them was Fred Spaven, who converted a Royal Enfield (350?) and rode it across England.  His friend is a brilliant videographer and they made a nice documentary about it.  Free to watch on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82VTPuFGxs4

Amazingly, the weight of the batteries nearly equaled the weight of the original motor, and went in the same location, and the weight of the new electric motor nearly equalled the weight of the old transmission, and went in the same location.  So the weight and distribution turned out virtually identical to the original.

Regarding the structure, you're right it is important to ensure the strength and stiffness are adequate.  I didn't have the engineering tools or experience to analyze it, so I just overbuilt it.  Sandwiching the thick aluminum plates around the rectangular tube stock with heavy bolts was the key.  It took a long time for my brain to reach that solution, but it worked.

Also, here is a short article on the build for anyone who wants the cliff notes:

  Current EVents Article.pdf (Size: 1.05 MB / Downloads: 10)