Why do so many people want to be hatin' on home electric vehicle conversions? When we featured Andrew Angellotti and his DIY Mazda pick-up truck conversion, a lot of people felt the need to criticize what this boy had done. Granted, there were some who defended him as well, but the very fact that people took the time to denegrate what he'd done was strange to me. Guess I shouldn't be surprised that something similar happened to Travis Gintz, the guy behind the eVFR (above).

It's taken quite a while to get to this stage, but Gintz wrote in to let us know that his electron-powered Honda VFR is finished. The other day, he took it to EV Awareness Day in Portland, Oregon. As Travis writes on his blog:

The first question out of everyone's mouth was "How far does it go"... to which I replied "15-20 miles on crappy used UPS batteries I got for free". I initially wanted to go with larger lead [acid batteries], but since these were free, I wanted to develop/test the mechanical first, and then upgrade to lithium in the fall. Its all working and now I can shop for alternatives to lead. Most people scoffed a little, I didn't care, Its quite a feat in a motorcycle, especially keeping it stock looking. I know what the end result will be.... LiFePo and AC will eventually find their way into that bike. It will perform well, and range will be 30-40 miles.

Compare this positivity to the negative comments some people feel the need to leave. Gintz said that the bike is now completely assembled, except for the turn signals and will be registered to be street-legal soon. We talked a bit with Travis about his project and you can read our interview after the jump.

UPDATE: picture updated at Travis' request.

Click on the image for more shots of the Deus Ex Machina concept

Bumsuk Lim, a professor at Art Center Pasadena in California, has started a new program which aims to push the boundaries of future motorcycle design. Lim projects two-wheeling as a possible green revolution of sorts, saying, "There is no point in designing existing vehicles and simply adding green technology to the same old problem when we have the opportunity, and the moment in time, to make a greater change! Why not use these new environmentally safe technologies to change the way we ride?"

Judging from the first design we've seen from Jake Loniak, convention has taken a back seat to design. Called Deus Ex Machina, which means God Out of a Machine, the three-wheeled vehicle is a melding of motorcycle and exo-skeleton, complete with artificial vertebrae and pneumatic muscles. A built-in helmet, which sits atop the machine at rest, tilts forward with the body of the rider, making for a leaned-forward riding position. If it were ever built, which seems rather unlikely, the vehicle is projected to accelerate to sixty in three seconds and travel up to sixty minutes at a speed of up to seventy-five miles per hour, all after a fifteen minute charge of the Doped NanoPhosphate batteries and ultra-capacitors.


[Source: GreenCarDesign via Hell For Leather]

We love the British show Scrapheap Challenge. Reruns of the old Junkyard Wars episodes sometimes appear on satellite TV, and we've seen all of them. The show still runs in the U.K., and the latest episode featured junkyard-derived motorcycles, which the show charitably describes as superbikes. One rule in particular made the challenge rather difficult: no parts originally used on a motorcycle may be used on the scrap-bikes. This made the design of the two-wheelers rather interesting, to say the least. One team decided to go light and nimble with an electric motor and lead-acid batteries. The other team chose to use the engine from a small car. What could be greener than making usable electric machines recycled from discarded junk? Would the powerful internal-combustion engine powered "superbike" grab the victory from the plucky little electric machine? If you'd like to find out, follow the build progress and recaps of the three races which would decide the winner. Thanks for the tip, Willo!

[Source: Channel 4]

Three months and $3,000 is what it took Instructable's poster Stryker (aka Ben) to build this great electric motorcycle. Unhappy with rising gas prices and ready to learn, Ben took a 1984 Honda Interceptor 700, gutted the gasoline components and added a 72V Advanced DC motor and 6 Yellow Top Optima batteries. He's explained the process here and here.

If a company offered this bike for sale, it wouldn't sell in great numbers. The 70 mph top speed is fine but it can only go 10-15 miles on a charge. Considering that Stryker lives just three miles from work, though, that "limit" is nonexistent for what he wants the bike to do. Of course, three miles is well within bicycle distance for some people, but the fun of creating a zero-emission motorcycle should not be dismissed. Don't believe me? Stryker is selling this bike so that he can build another.

[Source: Instructables via The Kneeslider]

Racing electric motorcycles is something we seem to be seeing more and more of. The race we're talking about here was a friendly three-lap affair at a track on the edge of Bangkok, Thailand that ended (*spoiler alert) in a win for the gas machine. However, if the Electric GPR-S, piloted by the owner of Electric Motorsport, Todd Kollin, hadn't wiped out half-way through, the result might have been different.

While the race was pretty cool, the exciting news here is the coming of another electric motorcycle to our shores. Using a motorcycle chassis from Thai motorcycle maker Tiger Motorsports and powered by 72 volts of lithium ion, this newest entrant into the market should have a top end of 70 mph and a range between 40 and 60 miles. Look for a price in the neighborhood of $8,000, which isn't too bad considering the competition. Tiger Motorsports has plans to sell the bike in Asia as the E-Boxer. Check out the story and video at TG Daily for more details and pics. To keep up to date with the latest on the Electric Motorsport bike, watch this space.

[Source: TG Daily]

Click in the image for more pictures of the electric Kawasaki conversion

Benjamin Nelson of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin thought it would awesome if he could ride to work, the grocery store, the post office and other locations nearby while using no gas at all. He used to ride an electric bike which was able to hit speeds of around 20 miles per hour, but he noticed that other drivers had problems seeing him coming. Precious few manufacturers offer anything suitable, so he decided to make his own electric motorcycle. Using plenty of good-old-fashioned ingenuity, a second-hand Briggs & Stratton ETEK motor and a few deep-cycle lead acid batteries, he now has an electric Kawasaki which can cruise at nearly 40 miles per hour and travel up to 15 miles on a charge.

Considering what he's got into it, those specifications are plenty good enough for Nelson, who uses the electric cycle as his primary transportation. He adds, "If gas is three bucks a gallon, I can go 300 miles on that same amount of electricity. 300mpg isn't too bad for a motorcycle, is it?" Not bad at all!


[Source: Hell For Leather Magazine]

In case you are not faimiliar with the term "steampunk", it's a part of the literary sci-fi punk genre. Need more explanation? Consult the all-knowing wiki here. Now that we're all on the same page, check out this electric-steam hybrid motorcycle, built by Tom Sepe. We think that it's pretty cool, although the steam part is a bit misleading. Sure, steam bellows forth from the rear of the bike, but that's for show only. We think it would be epic if the steam boiler powered a turbine which in turn powered the batteries. As it stands, though, this is still an electric motorbike, plus, it throws flames ... and that is cool enough for us. Follow past the break for a short video of the machine in action.

[Source: Steampunk Workshop via The New Cafe Racer Society]

Click on the image able fore more pictures of the Zero X

Last year, we introduced our readers to the Zero X electric off-road motorcycle, which is capable of a forty-mile range after a two-hour charge. Last year the bike was selling for just under $7 grand, and although it is now going for nearly $7,500, we hear that they're having no problem selling the bikes. In stark contrast to Vectrix, Zero Motorcycles is reportedly looking for enough funding to undergo expansion in order to keep up with demand.

What is even more exciting is the new Zero S on-road electric motorcycle that the company is currently rolling out. The new S model will come complete with everything needed to register it on the street, including lights and turn signals, and is expected to be available this summer. Of course, the key to any electric vehicle is the battery, and the unit used by Zero contains 168 individual lithium ion cells and is expected to endure six years of hard riding.


[Source: Zero Motorcycles via The Kneeslider]

Travis Gintz from Portland, Oregon is currently working on converting a 1986 Honda VFR from gas to electric power. He's using a DC motor from Advanced DC, twelve 12-volt lead-acid batteries and other assorted electronic pieces, including a 600 amp motor controller. With this setup, he's planning on being able to get up to 70 miles per hour or so but the range is undetermined thus far. He managed to get lots of free stuff and managed to find good deals on the rest, so his conversion is moving along quite nicely. His VFR is currently stripped down and awaiting the installation of the motor and batteries, so this would be a good time to start following his progress. We'll keep you updated when his project is completed, so stay tuned for more.

[Source: eVFR]

Brammo sent out an email to people who've registered at the Enertia bike website about the beta version of a greenhouse gas calculator. I assume this is the precursor to the technology that Brammo representatives told AutoblogGreen about in December whereby Enertia bikes will connect to the Internet and tell owners (and others in a social networking sort of space) how much CO₂ the rider has saved compared to other methods of transportation. In the current version, you manually input your route and then see how much you save in CO₂ emissions and fuel if you were riding an Enertia today. If you register, you can save routes and access other features. I haven't spent enough time to see if this is indeed an option, but there should certainly be a way to add all your driving for a year together to get an annual total.

While no one can buy an Enertia quite yet, we do know what it's like to take one for a spin. To find out, click on the box below:



Related:

• The Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle

[Source: Brammo]

Covering a conference like EVS23 can be a bit draining. There is so much to try and capture and post on that by the end of the event, I'm looking forwards to falling asleep in my cramped airplane seat on the way home. The last day of EVS23, though, brought with it a special treat: a chance to test out the Brammo Enertia all-electric motorcycle (see video above). With shadows still long on the parking lot pavement, Brammo's lead engineer, Aaron Bland, guided me through the bike's capabilities and gave me some riding tips. Ever since I crashed a Vespa back in high school, I have trepidations on any two-wheeled device that's not a bicycle, but this thing felt good. Not to spoil the surprise, but I'll admit right at the start that if I were to ever buy a motorcycle, the Enertia would be a serious contender for my wallet's contents.

Anyway, back to the ride. Aaron drove around the parking lot a few times. Of all the people at Brammo (and, indeed, the planet), he said, he's the guy who has put the most miles on the Enertia bikes, which, as you can guess, means he hates his job. Once I filmed a few scenes of the bike in action, it was my own turn at the handlebars.

Aaron warned me that the bike might jump at the start, because its throttle map is one of the key sticking points that needs to be resolved before the production model is unleashed on the world sometime next year. Even with his warning, and me moving my hand ever so slightly, the bike did hop a bit as I started. It wasn't uncomfortable or scary, just a "hup!", and then I was on my way.

More, much more, after the jump.

Not too long ago, we introduced you to an electric motorcycle from a Swiss company knows as Quantya. At that time, we wished that the machine was available here in the States so that we could take a ride on one. Guess what? Our wishes have been granted! Not only is the bike available here, but we got a chance to ride the latest version of the machine in Arizona. Although we didn't have an opportunity to take the bike off-road, we got to terrorize the neighborhood with it... and we sure had fun doing it. Powered by a custom pancake-style motor from Lemco along with a custom LiPo battery pack featuring 48 volts and 40 Ah, the machine has no problem getting out and moving. According to the manufacturer, you'll get about 25 miles at a steady 40 miles per hour with the standard pack. The bike weighs in at 195 pounds and feels very light. The Marzocchi 35 mm Shiver fork works perfect in this application, as does the Sachs single shock.

We'd have loved to have a chance to compare the bike directly with a gas-powered bike, but weren't able to arrange it. We can say for sure that the bike has no problem overpowering the rear tire or lofting the front end over obstacles. Power output felt about equal to a good-running 250 four-stroke bike. Expect the electric off-road bike to be priced under ten grand with on-road versions expected to follow shortly.

I first wrote a post about the all-electric T-Rex motorcycle/three-wheeler back in February. As we said earlier then, this vehicle can go around 125 mph and has high-end range of 250 miles (125 is the low end, which shows how much of an impact a driving style can have). These Canadian-built vehicles will cost around $50,000 CDN (almost $50,000 US). The T-Rex is actually the name of the non-electric version and the EV is called the Silence PT2. Still, there are two of these blue beauties on the showroom floor here at EVS23 and they carry the T-Rex name on them. We're not here to bicker and argue about who named what, just to look at some pretty pictures. I particularly like the way the side mirrors and the headlights are two sides of the same thing.

UPDATE: corrected the USD number thanks to a new exchange rate

Two pieces of interesting Vectrix news coming your way today, you lucky readers! One, we hear that Vectrix might be debuting their long-rumored electric Superbike on November 6th in Milan. We'd be very happy if this one turns out to be true, and even happier if the bike were equipped with lithium ion batteries. For sportbike use, we'd want to see at least 100 miles per hour from the bike with excellent acceleration. We also think that the range should be better than the scooter too, which would of course also raise the price of the cycle. Trade-offs!

The second piece of news to share was featured in the print version of Popular Science in their April '07 issue. We've known for some time that Vectrix was planning to have a three-wheeler based on the Piaggio MP3's innovative leaning front suspension system, but we missed the picture from PopSci (.pdf), which claims that the bike will be out in '08 and will cost $12,000. We can't verify any of that information, though, so we'll wait for an official announcement from Vectrix on the matter before we get too excited.

[Source: Motoblog, Popular Science]

Suzuki is planning on sending a few concept motorcycles to the Tokyo Motor Show. One of those, the Biplane, has gotten some attention over at Autoblog. We thought that the Crosscage would be better suited to our green-minded readers, as it comes equipped with a fuel cell and lithium ion batteries. No gasoline engine appears to be present. Take a minute and read the press release past the break. Sea bass... uh, I mean Suzuki appears to be using the fuel cell technology from Intelligent Energy, makers of the ENV bike. It looks like the hydrogen may be stored directly in the center of the frame, right where the two intersecting tubes of the frame come together. That would leave plenty of room in the area normally reserved for the gas-tank of a normal motorcycle for the batteries. This is really just conjecture at this point, though, so we'll have to wait until we hear some English press releases to be sure exactly what is going on inside this cool-looking bike.

Besides the fact that the bike is powered by a fuel cell and batteries, the bike looks pretty sporty. Considering the reputation that Suzuki has earned with their GSXR series of bikes, that should not be a shocker to anybody. What is rather interesting, though, are the suspension systems on the bike. That front fork looks suitably high-tech, being single-sided along with the rear swingarm. We're not counting on ever seeing this bike in production form, but it's still an awesome design.

[Source: Suzuki]