For the non-clickers.
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A DIY Electric Motorcycle Kawasaki Should Build
* By Dave Eyvazzadeh Email Author
* September 10, 2009 |
* 7:04 pm |
* Categories: Cool Cars, EVs and Hybrids
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Two months. That’s all the time a 22-year-old college kid who spent his school days drawing fast cars needed to build one off the coolest electric motorcycles we’ve ever seen. It’s enough to make us want to slap all the grade school teachers who ever told us to quit doodling during social studies.
Tom Miceli built the Ion during his final year at Appalachian State University. He studied industrial design, and his senior project required him to create something that reflected all he’d learned. Given his love for getting from Point A to Point C while passing Point B in a blur, his choice for a project was a no-brainer.
“I wanted something eco-friendly that didn’t sacrifice performance,” Miceli told Wired.com.
Leveraging his years of experience riding dirt bikes, Miceli stripped a ‘96 Kawasaki ZX6 Ninja to the frame and went to work. The result is a DIY electric motorcycle capable of more than 70 mph and a range of 60 miles. Judging from the pics and the videos of the bike in action, the kid’s got talent to spare.
ion_photoshoot21With only a semester to burn on the project, Miceli got straight to designing. He hashed out the details with brainstorming, sketches and CAD models, taking cues from some of his favorite bikes, including the radical KTM RC8. He went for a modern, almost futuristic look, but kept it within the range of something the average rider would buy right now. By the time he’d settled on the design and planned the build, Miceli had two months until his deadline.
He stripped the Ninja to a rolling chassis. The battery box that replaced the 600cc engine carries two dozen 40Ah lithium iron phosphate batteries. Miceli figures the pack has a total output about 3 kilowatt-hours. The juice powers a 6.75-inch AC motor rated at 43 horsepower and 95 foot-pounds of torque, figures that surpass the Zero S electric motocycle we rode. The total weight penalty for the electric drivetrain? Nil. The e-bike weighs as much as the bike he started with. It’s got a similar center of gravity, too.
The pack recharges in six hours from a standard 110-volt outlet. Miceli estimates the range at about 60 miles and has hit a top speed of about 70 mph. The bike has enough juice for the occasional burnout, but what about eye-compressing acceleration? Wheelies?
Sorry, not a chance … yet.
Even now, months after graduating, Miceli is still improving the bike. Next up are 60Ah batteries and a super-secret, custom-made, two-speed transmission that Miceli hopes will let the bike hit 50 mph in first and 100-plus in second. Where do we sign up?
The wiring was tricky, but dad, an electrical engineer, helped make quick work of it. To give you an idea of how efficient the system is, the LED lighting system (including the headlight) draws no more than one amp. Miceli said the hardest part of the project was fabricating the body because it was so labor-intensive. Because of the one-off nature of the bike and the limited budget, the bodywork was less than green, using polystyrene foam to create a form. But that doesn’t detract from the coolness of designing and creating your own bodywork. Although it was the hardest part of the project, Miceli said it was among the most rewarding because he got to see the bike take shape.
Ion cost $12,000, with about half that tied up in the batteries and drivetrain. It was little much for a college student to front, but thanks to a design grant from the local community college AB-Tech he was able to make ends meet.
Overall, we gave him an “A.” So did his professor. The rest of his teachers may be another story due to the amount of time dedicated to the build, but it was surely worth it.
“I didn’t build the bike for a grade,” he told us. “I did it because it was something I wanted to do and it was a gateway to getting a job in the field that I wanted.”
And how is the moto-design job search panning out? Not well so far. But with a portfolio like his, we’re sure someone will pick him up in short order. Hey you guys at Mission One and Zero Motorcycles — are you listening?"
