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CHAPTER 12 - Back to the Basics |
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2012 Initiative - Explore the Electric Utility Bike The Honda Super Cub is the best selling motorcycle of all time. The Honda trail is a bike Americans loved. These bikes were very small, simple and robust. They were practical, low cost, and fun. They gave us a great deal of freedom and joy. Here is a copy of a 1963 ad showing a family riding a pair of Honda 50's.  So, we're taking our Honda CB-125S back to it's more basic state to test out how a lightweight road/trail/utility runabout electric motorcycle might work. Here's a few pictures of how our how our CB-125 has evolved over the years.    The goal is to make it into a simple to ride, lightweight electric motorcycle for people to test drive at various events we attend. And/or to make it a "Pit Bike" for running errands at events and around the neighborhood. Our first steps are to tear off the body work, and upgrade from a 48 volt system to 72 volts. This will reduce the weight of the bike, but increase it's peak power and top speed. For the last five years, this bike has been setup as a very quick Moped, now it will become a very nimble, practical, small motorcycle with a top speed between 55-60mph. Here is a picture of the 72 volt system being installed.  |
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Wheelie Bar Required - May 28, 2012 It's hard to keep the front wheel on the ground now. The first test run at 72 volts was a spectacular sucess. The test ride started with a wheelie and just got better and better. It's three hours later, and I still can't get the smile off my face. It's a blast to ride this little rocket! I'll definately have to detune it before letting anyone else ride it.  |
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First Crash at 72 Volts - July 1, 2012 Here's a picture of the bike after my son's first crash. He wanted to make sure we didn't tell mom, because she didn't like seeing him out riding the bike anyway. He was unhurt except for a little gravel cut in his right hand. It was a low speed dump in the gravel, but did quite a lot of damage to the bike. Bike as pictured has orginal front wheel with disk brake. Front and rear brakes on handlebars. Front Fender is back on - (without fender an amazing amount of sand is thrown in your face while riding). Important things to note on test riders:
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72 Volts - December 23, 2012 OKAY, end of year review, sitting in the house reflecting on this project. The bike is geared way to low, the front wheel is hard to keep on the ground on take off, the top speed is just over 45mph. It's insanely fun to ride, but takes a lot of skill not to crash it because of it's torque at 0 mph. So, it's obvious, a few minutes to swap out the sprocket will make the bike much more ridable and give it a higher top speed. It's light and nimble and has front and rear brakes on the handle bars. It needs some attention to bodywork and cosmetic work.  |
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Still the most fun bike I own - April 2014 Definately the ugliest and most fun bike I own! It's a go anywhere, quick, nimble, lightweight, durable, care-free bike. It's worth doing some cosmetic upgrades to make it look good. Because it's still registered as a Moped, it's a great little errand running city bike.  |
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Back to 48 Volts - September 2015 My 15 year old son has been begging me to make an electric Moped for him. So, I took the Honda 125 bike and converted it back to 48 volts and mounted two, 1 kWh chucks of Chevy Volt batteries in 50 Calibur ammo boxes. I put a Honda gas tank on it that is hollowed out for the controller and the bike is AWESOME. It looks great, it has excellent performance (it's nimble, quick and fast for a Moped). With On-board charging and a cord reel it's super easy to charge up when you stop. I love this little bike and so does he. Here are pictures from an overnight camping trip we did to ride the M119 Tunnel of Trees and visit Mackinac City this September.   |
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Ruckus Cool Bike Concept - October 2015 The ultimate, modern, little, utiltiy bike is the Honda Ruckus. Stretched and lowered even the coolest dude can look good riding a moped. With proper engineering, the bare frame can have all kinds brackets designed for it to hold racks and body work and extra chargers, batteries and gear. What if I took three of my 40V, 18Ah BAE bus modules and put them in a stretched Ruckus frame? I'd put in a powerful motor on the swing arm to make it super quick and fun to ride.   |
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(Next Chapter - The Electric Utility Bike) |
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Inventing a better tomorrow today... This Webpage was written by Kraig Schultz. Copyright 2012, Schultz Engineering, LLC |