E-Busa

[Frank06]

A couple of folks (OK, Joe Daly) suggested I get my butt in gear and post something up about the bike I brought to Loring this summer.  I had actually intended to do this about a year ago but never got around to it.  It's a 2004 Hayabusa I converted to electric drive.

I've always been interested in EV's and did my first conversion 8-9 years ago.  I was given an Aermacchi rolling chassis when I got another project bike, so stuck three 12V deep-cycle batteries in it, a smallish motor and controller and got the "EV Grin."  It was a pig, had at best 20 miles range and might hit 50 mph going downhill, but I learned a lot.  Following that I converted a pickup truck (1994 Toyota.)  This was before lithium batteries were easily available so it too was a lead-sled.  I used it a lot and recently donated it to the local high school as the original batteries are getting pretty weak.  They're going to install the electric components in another donor vehicle.  There's not much to wear out (other than lead-acid batteries.) 

The next project started when I broke a connecting rod on my 1976 Suzuki GT550 at about 45 mph.  It's a good thing Suzuki makes great clutches because that's the only thing that saved a tumble.  That bike got converted with lithium batteries into a 75-mile range commuter.  I decided I wanted to try drag racing this past winter so converted it into a drag bike but that's another story.

My original thought was to build my own chassis but when looking for a donor bike for suspension and brakes on the local Craigslist I stumbled across a Hayabusa rolling chassis about 3 hours from here.  The guy raced quads and had ripped the engine and wiring harness out for his project.  It was perfect for me.  I know and love the first gen Hayabusa (I have an '03), the bike has a title and all the major bodywork components were present.  Plus, you can register a conversion which means it will get more use.

Day 1:

Harvest Event - 2014


It's a street bike with about 100 mile range at 50 mph, ~300 ft-lb torque and max. power of about 120hp.  I don't need all the range and will be trying to reconfigure batteries this winter to get rid of the saddlebag and top packs.

I'm having trouble uploading from one photo provider and am in the process of switching to another so some of these posts may take awhile.

[Jessechop]

Real interesting bike. How fast did it run Frank? 148?

[Frank06]

Jesse, I did two passes back-to-back at 140.  Pack was ~80% charged and my tuck could always be better.  It's geared for the street and I figure I gave up about 15 hp due to the higher (numerically) gearing.  Theoretically the motor is constant torque out to a certain speed, then constant power, except friction and other losses increase so power drops some the higher you rev.  Max power takes place about 2750 rpm and I ran about twice that at 140.  The motor is series wound and there's a parallel-wound version that can give about 150kw (200 hp) at higher revs.  The tradeoff is lower torque, only about 165 ft-lb.  That's the version used by the Lightning LS-218.

[sabat]

Very cool! Other than the donor bike, how much do you have invested in it?  thanks, Dean

[Frank06]

I spent a fair amount of time trying to decide which motor (and what technology) to use.  One popular option is the series-DC (brushed) motor, basically 100 year old forktruck technology.  They pass all the current through the brushes into the armature and can build a lot of heat if run hard.  But you can run them *very* hard for short periods of time; it's what all the drag racers use.  Basically they're a mechanical transformer and will try to convert all the voltage and current you can throw at them into mechanical motion.  If you overdo it, they break, which makes them less attractive for LSR.  Folks like John Metric are running twin Warp-9 motors at 200V and 2000A each (total of 800kW battery power).  They can make serious torque and power which is perfect for drag racing.  They do okay on the street as it really doesn't take that much power to cruise around.  They're less expensive and a bit heavier and freewheel going downhill i.e. no engine braking.

I ended up stumbling onto a surplus permanent-magnet motor and controller and decided to pull the trigger.  The motor is a Remy (as in Delco-Remy) and the controller is made by Rinehart Motion Systems (the same controllers on KillaJoule.)  In this type of motor the current doesn't pass through brushes and you can regenerate.  Made in America and very good quality.  You can run them hard all day long and they can take it.


The other factor is geometry.  Brushed motors tend to be smaller diameter and longer which makes them harder to fit in a bike.  The PM motors like this one tend to be larger diameter which makes them work better on a bike.  Brushed motors are air-cooled and the setup I have is liquid cooled.  Liquid cooling requires more systems (the motor uses ATF and the controller a glycol mixture.)

[Frank06]

Very cool! Other than the donor bike, how much do you have invested in it?  thanks, Dean

Dean, I think I have about $15-16K into this project.  More if you count all the little stuff you end up picking up at the hardware store.  I've never spent this much money on a motorcycle in my life before!

[55chevr]

The assumed value of standing mile racing is that you need you need 200 hp to go 200 mph on a motorcycle.   If you can gear- not sure if that is correct term- to the track length for peak hp, the E Busa should go 200 mph ....

[Koncretekid]

Very impressive, Frank!  Maybe by next July you'll be going ??  and be able to say you outran a BSA!  See you then.
Tom

[Frank06]

The assumed value of standing mile racing is that you need you need 200 hp to go 200 mph on a motorcycle.   If you can gear- not sure if that is correct term- to the track length for peak hp, the E Busa should go 200 mph ....

Joe, that is always in the back of my mind.  The parallel-wound motor is what Lightning used to go 218 at Bonneville.  In fact, this bike uses the same batteries (Enerdels.)  If you ever get a chance to check a Lightning LS-218 out, it is well worth the time to look it over.  It's a beautiful job of engineering that combines functionality of the various parts.  For example, they machine their own motor housing which mounts the swingarm (concentric to the sprocket) and also mounts the battery "holders" (which function as the frame of the motorcycle) which in turn mounts to the steering head.  My bike is all compromise.

I had a chance to sit on the Pikes Peak bike (they won overall motorcycle last year) and it is surprisingly narrow.  I owe a debt of gratitude to Richard Hatfield of Lightning because of all the good advice he gave me. 

[Frank06]

Hi Tom!  Thanks.

When fooling around with possible motor position it quickly became apparent that I would need every bit of space I could find.



Because the engine acts as a stressed member I figured I should make a fairly beefy subframe to tie everything together.  I used 1.5" square tubing.  My fabrication skills aren't that good but I tried to be careful and make the various pieces exactly the same size.  Once welded together and bolted into the backbone things would be as flat and level as I could get them.

I fit the fairing onto the bike to get the subframe as low and wide as possible and so the motor could be mounted to it as rigidly as possible.  It's not pretty but it seems pretty functional.

[Frank06]

It's necessary to keep the motor output shaft as close to the swingarm pivot as possible.  This picture shows the top of the wiring cover up tight to the frame.  I had previously disassembled the motor and had 3/8" machined off the motor housing in this location in order to allow it to move as far back as possible.  The "A", "B", "C" are the 3 phase leads coming from the controller.



The black plate is the rear motor mount which I had water-jet cut from 1/4" steel plate.  Aluminum would have probably worked but I didn't want to take any chances.

[Frank06]

Making an adapter so I could mount a sprocket was a bit of a chore.  Most motors have a keyed shaft that readily accepts a taperlock coupling.  The output shaft on these motors is splined.  They are also fitted to a special transmission used in some EV's so I purchased a coupler to modify.



The coupler was cut down in length, milled to accept a standard key with a hole strategically placed for a set screw that prevents axial movement.  A taperlock coupling allows use of a sprocket.  The black piece is the drive-end motor mount, also water-jet cut from 1/4" steel plate.

[55chevr]

What is the diameter of the output shaft?


Joe

[RidgeRunner]

    Nice work!

    Looking forward to following the build the build here and seeing it run at a Loring meet in the future.

                           Ed

[Frank06]

Ed, thanks.  Joe, the nominal diameter of the motor shaft is 25mm.  I had forgotten that the OD of the coupler was also turned down.  It fits a 1610 taperlock bushing and I'm running a 17-tooth sprocket.