Motorcycle chassis

[paul skinner]

Does anyone have any info (pdf preferably) on building motorcycle chassis?

Paul--

[Hank]

Hello, Paul- Years back I was researching Carbon Fiber as structural material. I found links that, while not direct to your request, provided scads of relevent info, especially Bicycle frames.
My family built a bike named Schickel back in the second decade of the last century. We used Aluminium for the frame.
What are you working on?

Regards, Hank

[Bruno Ogorelec]

My family built a bike named Schickel back in the second decade of the last century. We used Aluminium for the frame.
What are you working on?

There's a US-made 1910 bicycle in the National Technology Museum in Prague with a bamboo frame. Polished bamboo sections are held together by beautifully cast and/or machined aluminum lugs. An amazing machine and probably lighter by half than most of its competition.

Hank, do you have a picture of a Schickel bike? Using aluminum was very, very advanced in the 1920s.

[paul skinner]

Hello, Paul- Years back I was researching Carbon Fiber as structural material. I found links that, while not direct to your request, provided scads of relevent info, especially Bicycle frames.
My family built a bike named Schickel back in the second decade of the last century. We used Aluminium for the frame.
What are you working on?

Regards, Hank

An electric bike/motorcycle;

Seems with the price of gas today, it would be to my advantage to try and build something that's more enviromentally friendly, and easier on the pocket book.

[Hank]

Hello, Paul- I've got several large starter motors that I've saved over the years with use as power for vehicles in mind. The price of gas now is not as much a problem as complete unavailability in the future.

A google image search will get you images of the Schickel motorcycle, Bruno. I don't have one.

Regards, Hank

[hinote]

Hello, Paul- I've got several large starter motors that I've saved over the years with use as power for vehicles in mind. The price of gas now is not as much a problem as complete unavailability in the future.

Take a look at this:

http://www.briggsandstratton.com/displa ... ocID=68483

--should make the perfect motor for a motorcycle.

Bill H.
Acoustic Propulsion Concepts

".......some day soon we'll be flying airplanes powered by pulsejets."

[hinote]

Does anyone have any info (pdf preferably) on building motorcycle chassis?

OTOH if you have $$$, you can just buy this one:

http://electricmotorsport.com/EGPR/egprPage.htm

Bill H.
Acoustic Propulsion Concepts

".......some day soon we'll be flying airplanes powered by pulsejets."

[pezman]

Wow, this is weird -- I've been thinking about EVs lately. That electric motorcycle looks pretty cool.

Legislation for nEVs (neighborhood electric vehicles) is pretty recent in the U.S. You can get decent nEVs for well under 10k and apparently they qualify for feceral tax credits. They sure seem cheap to run.

If it were't for the fact that there are high speed stretches between here and work, I'd buy an nEv tomorrow. The electric motorcycle, on the other hand, seems like it might do the trick ...

[larry cottrill]

That's all wonderful, of course, except that out here where most of us live, our electricity usually comes from somebody burning fossil fuel somewhere :-(

I guess you could build a solar recharger, and just ride your bike at night when you don't need to have it plugged in ;-)

L Cottrill

[El-Kablooey]

That's all wonderful, of course, except that out here where most of us live, our electricity usually comes from somebody burning fossil fuel somewhere :-(

I guess you could build a solar recharger, and just ride your bike at night when you don't need to have it plugged in ;-)

L Cottrill

Here in north Georgia/S. Tenn all of our electricity comes from a combination of several nuclear plants, and several hydroelectric dams,
Both scattered along the Tennesee River.

[pezman]

... also, just on a cost basis, the electricity needed for a short commute is far cheaper than the gasoline (about $0.50 vs. $2.25-or-so in my case).

In my area most of the electricity is nuclear and coal, w/ miscellaneous other sources mixed in, so an electric vehicle represents a reduction in dependency on foreign oil.

[marksteamnz]

... also, just on a cost basis, the electricity needed for a short commute is far cheaper than the gasoline (about $0.50 vs. $2.25-or-so in my case).

In my area most of the electricity is nuclear and coal, w/ miscellaneous other sources mixed in, so an electric vehicle represents a reduction in dependency on foreign oil.

Depends how you work it out. If you add in the cost of slagged batteries every three years or so plus factor in the performance difference hmm Seen a few EV's here for sale over the year... "Ready to go, still registered just needs new batteries". (The equivalent performance ic to an electric is a pretty thrifty vehicle) Before the hand wringers spring in with "I know an EV that does 0 to 100mph in 5 seconds" yes yes but you can't do that and get the magic mileage /economy the EV exaggerators quote.
And yes I have some knowledge I used to do the vehicle certification on converted Toyota Starlets and the like in the 1990's Absolutely pathetic performance. Range power trade of was appalling.
Paul you might want to calculate the energy stored in the batteries you are going to put on your motor bike and compare it to the joules in a liter of petrol. It's a bit of a reality check. You can go a very very long way per liter with a petrol powered moped and the performance is about the same.
No cool factor of course. If you want to nip down to New Zealand I have a big old 24V DC motor and charger you can have for free. Big Grin.

[Hank]

Hey- Didn't George Bush the 1st have some bit of legislation passed in which it was written " Thou Auto Artisans of Detroit shall have Electric Autos in production by 1996." Whatever happened to that one?

[pezman]

Yes, you are right that the batteries are the dominant lifetime cost (many times as expensive per kWH as the energy they store). However, there are new battery technologies that are coming online (e.g. Li-ion) that are bringing the battery lifetime costs down where they need to be. There are a few vehicles out there that are using Li-Ion batteries that can apparently go several hundred miles at highway speeds on a charge.

Based on what I've read, it seems like EV's are just a hair out of the money for commuting applicaions and headed in the right direction -- not to mention that they are evolving at a pretty good clip. Also, the notion of driving a vehicle that runs on something other than imported oil means something to me.

Here's a cool little 3-wheeler for $3k http://www.cloudelectric.com/category.h ... Ds=1219974

Another cool idea that I saw was a home-made hybrid that runs as an electric in town (motor is in neutral) and you switch over to motor drive on the highway -- and let the motors re-charge the bateries. Seems easy enough to do with front-wheel drive vehicles - leave the front-wheel drive intact and drive the rear-wheels with electric motors.

[marksteamnz]

Quote [There are a few vehicles out there that are using Li-Ion batteries that can apparently go several hundred miles at highway speeds on a charge.]

My standard reply to the EV enthusiasts question, so what do you want in a EV, is "Four people in comfort on a cold and raining night over a good but undulating road (The coast road in California or just about any road here in NZ) at 50mph average for 100 miles with out discharging the battery so low as to damage it".
Nothing I have seen from any EV existing will go close to that. Note the parameters. EV people tout stuff that only a hair shirt wearer would enjoy. If you have a link to some one with independent tests that better the above I'd be interested to see the results and revise my research.

A hybrid Prius will do the above but it's fuel economy is worse that the same size four seat turbo diesel. Note FACT not supposition. And you don't have to replace the Lithium battery pack in 5 years time, which MAY become cheaper, but currently the Lithium cells make a lead acid battery look like a bargain.