She’s called Theseus.
This death trap is built on the frame of a junker 1985 Honda Shadow I bought for very cheap. It combines a 30AH 48 volt battery with a beefy Kelley Controls bldc controller and a 3kw motor which seems to be intended for golf carts.
On a flat, straight road this thing can achieve 50mph, limiting it solely to city use, but it climbs hills decently well and has gotten me to work and back many, many times.
The front sprocket has 16 teeth, and the rear sports a whopping 72. This is to compensate for the very high speed of the motor but frankly pathetic torque. At a lower gear ratio, this under-powered machine would not be capable of hauling its heavy 80s frame up my long and steep driveway.
It is ugly and probably quite dangerous, but I love it very much.
Dude that madmaxmotherfucker is awesome, congratulations
This is a dream of mine to do one day. Outside of the potential for electric shock, as long as the brakes are maintained you should be perfectly safe. Is it registered and how did you do it?
I had ownership of the frame transferred to me, and paid the fee to get plates and tabs, so it is registered, but I did not change the fuel type on the registration to electric, nor have it inspected. In full honesty, I was just hoping that if I ever got pulled over, the officer would be distracted by the novelty of the bike and not scrutinize the papers too hard haha. Probably unwise, but it is what it is
Damn, that’s fuckin awesome
Thank you! I was very pleased to finally get it on the road.
Love it!! Thanks for posting 😁
What kind of range do you get with a battery of that size?
This battery is actually on the small end of what’s viable I feel, and with this heavy frame and the hilly terrain of my town, I would guess it gets around fifteen miles. Better on a hot day, worse on a cold one. I’m fortunate to live where everything is close together, and I could go to and fro without issue.
This some mad max lookin shit. Nice motorbike!
That is a fantastic creation … one day I hope to convert my '80 TY175 to electric, being an old 2 stroke I’m not riding it now due to climate anxiety, but being ultra light it would theoretically make an excellent conversion.
Oh yeah, that form factor is completely ideal! You’d get better range and acceleration than I do in something like that, plus it would look sick. I hope you’re able to make the conversion some day!
Thank you for your encouragement! Your bike reminds me that it’s better to get something up and running rather than waiting for perfection!
That’s awesome but way sketchier than I’d be comfortable with
Not a motorcycle guy but that looks really dope and sounds like a good frame to drive on.
Love it, most people keep the tank trying to make it look unmodified, you’ve got a nice barebones look. What battery chemistry have you?
Thanks! This is a lithium iron phosphate battery. I figured I’d spring for something with the longer cycle life, and it certainly did the job!
I love this.
My brother has an electric motorcycle that hasn’t ever worked right (due to poor design, not because it’s electric) and I’ve considered buying it from him to build an actually usable bike from some of the parts.
Is that an electric motor from washing machine?
Nah, I bought this motor from a company called Golden Motor. It is purpose-built for EVs, although this was designed for things like golf carts and not necessarily motorcycles. It’s a 3kw motor, and it looks like many washing machine motors only get up to around 1kw max, which I don’t think would be quite up to the task
Looks awfully similar. ;) Do you have a speaker attached going “potato potato potato”?
sound bite of a guy just speaking the words “potatopotatopotato” haha
Love the name. Very fitting. You have a great bike there, paradox or not. Lol
Thank you! Glad you picked up on the name haha. I love asking people if it’s still the same bike.
Honestly I don’t see how this is any more dangerous than an ICE bike is. Ogly and crude sure but not dangerous. I love it.
How do you like the control? Is the throttle easy to manage and do you get regen?
And now that you have done it and lived with it what do you wish you had done differently?
It controls very well! I am never surprised by the acceleration and it responds very fast to what I ask it to do. This motor controller is well designed, it figures out just how much power the motor should have and I have no complaints.
It doesn’t have regen, sadly. That would be a nice feature, for a future revision!
Honestly I love the look of this thing, but it should have been built on a lighter frame with a beefier battery. It would just be a lot more practical with a little more range and less weight to have to haul around lol. Other than that, pretty happy with this thing!
I don’t know too much and Li batteries, but would more surface area be better?
