Manged to find some time in the evening to finish some protection for the battery. With the larges tube of shrink wrap I have ever used, some PTFE sheets, waterproof and heat resistant tap I wrapped the battery. Shrink-wrapping is crucial safety and protection. The wrap forms a durable, insulating layer that prevents the battery’s metal casing…

… more bits and some re-dos. Nearly there now!

My practice working with 2K paint and advice from my uncle has paid off. I managed to paint on the frame. I colour matched the frame with the helmet… The colour seems to be really sensitive to light and texture. The colour is closer to a cooler light grey in outdoor light, however matt and…

Thanks to Colin’s skilful welding hands in SoE, the frame revisions are complete. Think I’m ready for the last build on this. Time for some paint.

Looking to strip the bike down to finish the frame (paint & clearcoat) I thought this would be the best time to make some final revisions. The controller stand is okay but could be more secure if the stand was hard fixed not bolted onto the frame. So some brackets have been fabricated to weld…

Have started to think about refining the loom and waterproofing it for general use. In the past I have used general automotive connectors but have now moved to Waterproof JST (Japanese Solderless Terminal ) connectors. Sounds boring but I think it is good to leave a log of the waterproofing for inspections so I’m-a dumping…

After scouting around, looking for a decal supplier, I finally decided (as I often do) to make it myself. The cost of custom decals or stickers was getting out of hand so I got a new vinyl cutter. Bought a Loklik crafter. Loklik are a new brand that have managed to cut the cost of…

As mentioned several times ‘eventually’ I aim to upgrade the battery to 72 volts to get better performance from the motorcycle that will push it’s top speed up to 120kmph (74mph). This performance would allow good A-road and viable M-road use. The current 48v DC battery is ideal for prototyping because it is in the…

Got the rear light kit up and running. I knocked up a 3mm aluminium number plate holder to attach to a KTM number plate bracket to hold the lights a while back. However, up to now the biggest issue was lighting the number plate as well as a running/brake light in a small package. There…

I’ve spent a while polishing the panels after giving them a 2K clear coat and now thinking of next steps. As there was a shift towards an younger more modern look midway through the design phase (it was looking too old fashioned), one design task I thought would be useful to embed the design into…

Took the old fella outside to checkout the new colours cos I can’t decide. Today it’s day-glow green. Garage is covered in it. I think the green and the tan colour of the cork are nearly at opposite ends of the colour wheel, with the green nearly being off the gamut scale. It’s dazzlingly bright…

Toile 2 & Cork – Took a day annual leave to spend some time in the fashion studio to produce a second toile to perfect the pattern after altering the foam to add some more volume to match the 3D print. Diving straight into the process we cut the cork. Stitching was completed by a…

Spent the past two weeks reprinting the final panels, this time from a material that is more stable than PLA — rPET (recycled polyethylene terephthalate), the stuff used for fizzy drinks bottles. Initial advantages are that it has higher UV, chemical, and temperature resistance and in some instances is tougher. That is to say that…

(… with A.I. approved title, but human approved design 😀 ) I know I froze the design a while back, but a particular area broke the freeze. While I had the opportunity I thought I’d try another option for the front of the battery case. It’s wasn’t working for me aesthetically. From a real eye…

Boring but necessary, started dialling in the electric controller to match the motor (100A nominal / 200A peak) and battery (350A) specification to ensure I can pull as much current out of the power source with out blowing anything up. To do this I completed 6 runs at different settings under heavy load so the…

Watched the Creator over the weekend. Was inspired by the colour ways of the AI robots. I mocked up a section of the bike with florescent paint. similar to the one used in the cable collar. Think I will get some orange tape to try different graphics on different parts of the bike to see…

Got a Bluetooth (BT) dongle from SIAECOSYS in China. I have had issues connecting to the controller via PC COM/USB. It doesn’t always work, I have to repeatedly try until the controller and PC ‘gave-in’ (I’m sure it’s more complicated than that). However I have never had such issues with my ANT BMS which is…

Had some issues with the projector headlight I bought, the scatter of light was too random. So I got a new one from Alchemy Parts, here. It is E-marked so shouldn’t have any issues here. Specs below:

Been working on the lights. I have finally connected the two brake lights together to work when both/either of the levels are pulled. Nice and bight too. I will use the top light as a position light during dipped illumination and both for braking, as seen in the GIF above. I’m happy with the result…

Looking at the spec to set-up the headlamp. It is complex. I have recently heard of Motorcyclists failing the MSVA test on the dipped headlight so it is important to get this one in the bag. Some guidance from the DVLA government website is below, and Delboy a popular motorcycle enthusiast simplifies the process in…

Have finally got around to firing up the BMS. After a couple of cell step voltage checks (that were surprisingly close; 0.016 cell diff). I was eager to look out for mis-wiring and errors but luckily found none. Awesome. Turned on the ANT BMS which seems to have been tricky in past versions of the…

Have been experimenting with translucent materials and thinking of 101 ways to drain the battery while I wait for parts to arrive. Decided to have a go at an ambient/stop night time light. As the only colour I believe I should use on the vehicle at night are front: clear/amber and rear: red/amber I thought…

Managed to get my hands on a sheet of 3mm 1050 Aluminium (a test of sheer will if looking for a decent price in these COVID times) so I could hack and fold the under bracket in a hard material. I haven’t used 3mm material before so I was a bit worried about folding and…

Started to experiment with brazing. Cut the alu from the patterns developed in card. bent some stuff and started burning stuff… #fire! Didn’t turn out too bad for a first try at brazing. Had a couple of parts that I decided to bolt to the main box, so that I could disassemble and change the…

Started to reconfigure the components of the battery box. added DCDC convertor for 12v supply and have moved the connector behind the L-shape bracket that also holds the charger. The battery case is looking a bit worst for ware after being offered up to the frame so many times but nowt a lick of flat…

Starting to get back into metal fabrication again in the newly announced COVID19 lockdowns. As we’re all locked up in the house I thought I might as well get on with some aluminium work to maintain some progression. Making good use of the sheet bender to form the socket holder and the battery case cover….

Have finally started to mount components to the frame again to check fit. One item that I haven’t fitted before is the charger. It needed some mods because the cable casing had fractured but it was interesting to see how it fits to the case after a mock bracket had been fabricated. Will start to…

26650s have arrived. they look like quality items. Up to 70amps, should be more than enough for the for the 30amp system. looking forward to putting these together to make my first self built battery pack — the start of many great things one hopes.

The 12v 30amp BMS has arrived. Despite the dimensions on the site it is still smaller than I expected, which is good. 4 x 25650 3.7v 70amp Lifepo4 batteries have been ordered so the stabilising systems power supply is nearly ready. As a reminder, this power source is needed to supply the system with a…

Started to mock-up the sub-frame for the charge point and battery cover. Still enjoying the physical CAD feeling. First stab works but feel that this is an ideal opportunity to make changes to the 3D surface formation that were mentioned in a previous post. Previous fixing points seem less physically stable than originally proposed so…

Had a great conversation with Ian Goodman and Davis Kuma concerning the electrics for the XJ600e. Summary of the meeting was: – Add 12v battery in parallel to stop chatter that might turn off the contactor– Change kill switch so it runs in series with the 12v supply– Make a 4th output to Arduino once…

Very interesting to watch the cost breakdown of the build to date. On top of the initial costs of the hub motor, controller, battery, etc the cost of smaller components is starting to add up to appox a third of the initial cost. Will be interesting to see where it ends. Build components mounting up…

I have seen an interesting video connecting a J1772 (type 1) EV plug to an EV motorcycle [above]. Presumably there are some procedures to connect EU/UK IEC62196 (type 2) to road stations. Research is needed. A member of the Electric Motorcycle build page on FB posted a link that discuss the comms between charger/battery &…

Can’t go without noting that home charging is an important issue in general. It seems that it is possible to simply pull a 32a line out of a domestic RDC. Interesting video online below from that looks at this. On holiday I observed an external charging point at our accommodation, seen in photos below. Since…

This paper by Arunachalam et al., (2019) gives a fair insight regarding the effectiveness of various tools and techniques used for posture evaluation and various research gaps pertaining to the user-centered design of motorcycles to improve riding posture. This second paper by Amrutkar & Rajhans (2011) aims at finding the problems associated with motorcycle riding…

Found a couple of moments of time before the holidays kicked in. Started to think about options for seating posture. The height of the bars greatly effects body position on the bike so to consider raising the posture I have hacked the old handle bars to make some new mounting points with some rise bars…

Bumped into a post on facebook that advertised a Retrofitment course in India, as well as the Gogo Electric vehicle innovative start program. Interesting that the electric revolution is being guided in this way. Furthermore it will be interesting to see the effect these type of workshop have. Will they have similar effect as seen…

Found a pre-diversion manual on a forum that has been scanned collated as a PDF document. Amazing what you can find on the internet. Perfect for out-of-garage moments. Also found an original Yamaha Service manual.

While at The Battery Technology Show in Coventry today I crossed some ideal material on the 3M stand. Polyurethane Foam good to line the inside of the metal case. Might see if I can find some online and have a quick try of it to replace the rubber. At the moment the rubber lining is…

Started to think about improving safety and transport of batteries. Currently the batteries are stored in a polymer box, but I am considering some faire resistant lining for the box. Zarges make transport boxes for lithium-ion batteries (as seen in pic above). They also sell Cirrux; fire resistant cushions. This as seen in the video…

Have had some trouble assembling the case and batteries with the m8 threaded rods efficiency; the threads kept catching on the inside edges of the cells. I have managed to solve the issue by grinding the small end sleeves down. This has increased the hole size to 9mm diameter, perfect for 9od/8id brass rods that…

I have made some strides towards sorting out the seat supports for the bike as discussed in a previous post. Managed to get some aluminium tube, thread taps and rose joints. Need to get a longer 110mm / m12 / 1.75mm thread / 12.9 grade bolt for the mono shock and make some lugs to…

The case and cells fit the frame surprisingly well. The usefulness of the scan never ceases to surprise me I really couldn’t have designed most of the fitment of any of the custom parts without it. Some custom washers are needed to fit the case to the frames mounting points: Front – 30 L x…

Managed to get the laser cuts bent in the workshop. All seems to fit together except for one thing. The front part was cut in two halves instead of one. However, when tied together with the batteries they all fit together with no problem. There is a slight overlap but this should be filled out…

Tugra Erol, academic Doctor of seat comfort in automotive and transport design, shared a link for an ergonomic positioning resourse online. Looks interesting. Don’t have an immediate use for it but it looks like it could be useful at some point. https://cycle-ergo.com

Have started to mount the equipment to the frame, starting with the speed controller. Battery cage is next. Thought i’d try a light weight option and beef it up where nessacery to keep the mass of the bike down. After a bit of backward and forwarding to various metal fabrication options I finally decided on…

Some welding fabrication has taken place on the seat frame. So far the hoop is in position and attached. A new plate to support the lower suspension mounting point has been cut and shaped, and will be on next when the cross bar is fixed across the new hoop.

Looking around to find covers for the cell connectors. On a Nissan part search the com up as a Part No.: 295B8-3NF0C & 295L1-3NF0A for the buss bar cover and module. Assembly and parts can been seen here online and in photo below. Various places such as Tech Direct Inc sell the module for $75….

Found an interesting internet post on electricmotorcycle.com where zero motorcycle users are swapping their Molicell in the 26700 format (26mm in diameter, 70mm in length) for nissan leaf cells that I have just aquired. It is good to know that this is a feasible solution for others and that a level of success has been…

Spent the night grinding with some additional steel plates to make a spindle locator that can be locked into position to stop it falling out of the swing are in the case of a loose spindle bolt. Used M5 bolts into a threaded back plate eventually after some experimentation. Will weld these plates together when…

The original mount from the Showe shock was redundant because it used a new M12 12.9 grade bolt that fits the frame. With a needle bearing (OD22 x ID16 x L22mm), Bronze Oilite Bearing Bush (ID12 x OD16 x L25mm), copper washers (ID12 x OD16 x L1.5mm), and some 16mm 3mm section oil seals a…

Also managed to get some steel wheel locators lasercut. Fits the thread securely. just need to make a soft filler to stop rattling. The locator was deliberately made less thicker (5mm) in comparison to the 8mm thick swingarm so that the nuts would securely grip onto it. 3mm nylon locators will be made, these will…

After sales manuals have also come in for the hub motor.

Have been looking at the spec for the kelly controller to find user manual for wiring diagrams etc. Seems to have been designed for QS MOTORS but an adapted version of the Kelly KLS7275: https://www.kellycontrollers.eu/kls7275h Spec and details below: GENERAL SPECIFICATION •Frequency of Operation: 20kHz. •Standby Battery Current: < 0.5mA. •5V or 12V Sensor Supply…

Opened at the rear to fit the new wheel. Some dimensions taken to help fitment… Nuts provided are made of cheese though, might get some stainless ones and remake the brackets from stronger stuff. #M18nuts

What’s in the sexy Chinese box? Time for a bit of unboxing. 17 inch Hub motor, throttle, DC 72v – DC 12v convertor, speedometer, and Kelly Controller. For some reason I imagined that the Kelly controller was smaller. Turns out that it is massive. Finally good to have it all in the flesh to offer…

Have managed to assemble the front forks after a wee paint job. The hard-chromed stanchions fit well and I just need to get the spindle bolt for the wheel now. Had a fun time with the bushes and oil. Think i just need new bolts for the brake hoses though. Like the looks of the…

Finally The QS motor hub motor has arrived from china after a lengthy delay in UK customs. What a ball ache that was to get them released. However, this picture was provided by a ‘friendly’ in the NTDC where it was delivered too. Will bob over to the spot to grab it so I can…

Have been looking for two bushes for the rear swing arm [PN: 90386-18135]; not a sausgae on the internet. That is until I tried a XJ600 facebook group asking if anyone knew a source to buy, or dimensions so I can fabricate some myself? A guy in holland came up against the same struggle so…

The stanchions have come back from Durasurf. Look much better. Just need to finish the outer covers and they are ready to assemble.

Got some second life 4th gen Leaf cells from a friendly source up north. 14.6v per double module, 4 sets. Will let one set hang back for development to work in 48v for the moment. Now I know the precise dimensions might mock some out of soft foam to try some of the configurations on…

I made initial plans to get a custom replacement for the spacer where the speed sensor used to be. However, after it was priced up it made little sense to get it for the moment when there are more crucial parts to acquire, so I refurbished a 10 quid speed sensor with clean, acid etch…

White yolk, I managed to try out a colour option. I went for a durable white enamel after acid etch priming the aluminium and steel parts. Originally white was specified as the accent colour and for the triple tree heads so I went with the spec to see how it looked. Still deciding, will leave…

After refurbing the rear arm linkage. Realised that the Showa MAL-G01 shock absorber (originally from a Honda CBR 600) needs to be refitted. New needle bearing needed, slimmer than used in the shock though. Measured up the hole and 20mmID, 24mmOD, 20mm length is needed. Easy to find on eBay. Should in action very soon.

One of the essential items left on the list to refurb is the rear suspension linkage to sort out geometry before the hub motor arrives. With the extra torque I need to ensure the back is tight and secure; new bushes, seals, and covers all around. Finding the parts was a struggle. Many parts were…

Have been looking at the stanchions from the old forks while working on other things, and I have come to the conclusion that I can’t stand the pitting and dents any more. In reality these could get worst and contribute to further damage later on down the line. Found a nice place over in Crewe…

New oil & dust seals have arrived for the forks so time to open them up and see what is inside. Holy crap… the oil lock was jammed into the top of the damper rod instead of the bottom, the stop clips were crammed down the side of an oil seal, and strangely found 18mm…

The calipers that came with the forks needed some TLC to ensure the bike has some stopping power. The pistons were corroded into the calipers. A bit of heat released them easily. The pistons, bolts, and aluminium calipers were reusable. A chemical strip, clean, and polish were all that they needed. However the seals, pads,…

xj600e got some new shoes. Continental TKC80. Dual surface rubber. On trend for cafe racers and scramblers. Look cool on the on the frame. Could only mount one on the front as the hub motor still in transit from china. Need to get some tubes, common on enduro tyre apparently. Haven’t seen an inner tube…

Managed to get a some help from engineering to fabricate a hoop for the new bike seat. The radii are more uniform than the very slightly tapered appearance of the original drawing. This is due to the constraints of the available dies. However I am not disappointed with the overall appearance. I think some mocking…

Have made the first cuts on the frame today in an effort to move things on over the festive period. The tail was cut to the size specified in CAD but I have no doubt that there will be differences as the original scan was mainly visually accurate. The next phase will be to scan…