Thanks for the Memories
For awhile now I've been thinking of selling my 1980 Honda CB750. It's a great bike, and working on it taught me A LOT. But I'm not the guy doing weekend touring. I'm the guy who wants to commute to work during the summer on a motorcycle (megan takes me to work most days in the winter).
Problems
The 750 with it's 4 carbs and 80's tech is a pain to maintain such that everything is running spot-on. It also requires a good 5 minutes warm-up time before you can really take it on the road. I have a 3 mile commute. I also roll out of bed 20 minutes before I sit down at my desk at work. Perhaps my schedule will change someday, but right now a 5 minute warm-up doesn't inspire me to ride often. Neither does it treat the bike like it should be treated (10 minutes of stop and go at a time).
Dual-Sport Motorcycle?
So I spent a lot of time looking at smaller bikes. Because I'd also like something dirt-able to ride with my cousins back in chilli I gravitated to dual-sport. For a long while I checked craigslist for Suzuki DRs. Nothing ever came up that I loved. Recently I've commited to selling the 750 no matter what in spring 09. That gave me a budget of around $1500. So I starting hitting up craigslist more and I came up with a 1985 XR350. A little big for my purposes and not something I'd looked at before due to the very small # of these bikes out there compared to the DRs. Nevertheless I was pretty impressed with what people think of these bikes. Also maybe Charlie runs an XR350? Today I came close to buying it and wimped out at the last second. I decided to instead throw the same $1500 at an Ebike.
E-Bike vs. Motorcycle
Pros: No license/registration fees, no insurance, no changing the oil / less maintenance overall, no warm-up time whatsoever, fun and bloggable project.
Cons: Nowhere near as fast, I'll be left motorcycless for the first time since HS, I have no experience with DC motors/controllers at all, it's definitely just as expensive upfront.
E-Bike Research:
Here's what I've come up with for the major components:
- Crystalyte hub motor for a rear 26" wheel: $280 (15lbs)
- 48V 12AH LiFePO4 Batteries/Charger: $470 (13lbs)
- Crystalyte 35A Controller: $220
- Twist Throttle: $10
- Torque Arms/Freewheel/Tires/misc: $100
That leaves me about $3-400 for the bike. I've got two mountain bikes, one that Megan claims as her own and one that I use for running to ACE or other quick errands. I picked both those up on large item trash days so neither are quality... so probably back to craigslist. I'm sure Megan will be super happy about adding (not kidding here) the 10th bicycle to my basement rack.
Before you flame me about batteries...
I'm guessing people are going to tell me I'm retarded for buying $500 worth of batteries. And due to the cost I'm not sure about that part either. So if you're into figuring it out let me know a better option. 48V 12AH gets me the range/speed I want. Bonus for coming up with a system that's convertible to 72V later - which the motor and controller will handle. Looks like SLA AGMs are ~$100, but heavy and BIG. I'm open to suggestions. And since I know my mom is concerned about battery recycling... Here you go.
Research links/Sourcing:
2 comments:
1. I'll believe you are going to sell the motorcycle when it is out of my garage and there is money in your hand.
2. This is what you do after I go to sleep? Blog about your motorcycle? If I were you, I would do something a little more exciting...like a dance party.
1. Nerd
2. Where do I sign up?
3. Thank you for not blogging about something boring like dance parties.
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