Current State

I have been working on the project for some time now (about 1 year), and a lot has been done but I am no where near where I expected to be at this time.  As of this date when I have first posted this site, I can explain what state the vehicle is at; 

The rolling chassis is near completion.  It is an all aluminum frame equipped with a Honda Goldwing GL1800 shaft drive and swing arm.  It is powered by a high efficiency 70kw AC motor and motor controller.  An intermediate drive provides a 2:1 gear ratio for a combined total gear ratio of 4.75:1.  The intermediate drive is an advanced synchronous pulley/belt drive that operates at 98% efficiency using a Kevlar belt.  The Goldwing wheel is fitted with an ultra low rolling resistance car tire called a Bridgestone Ecopia.  The 17 inch front wheels are from a Kawasaki 600 ZXR motorcycle.  On them are oversized Metzeller high mileage tires.  The brakes are hydraulic disk on all 3 wheels using a hot rod CNC brake pedal and master cylinder.  There is a proportioning valve to balance the back to front brakes.  The brake lines are custom stainless steel braided lines.  The seats are lightweight Corbeau reclining racing seats on double locking sliders with 3 point safety harnesses.  The overall length is about 8 feet with a 66" front wheel base and almost 11 inches of clearance from the ground.  The rear shock is a hydraulic adjustable (electrically adjustable) shock to raise or lower the backend.  The rear shock bracket was modified to increase vehicle frame height (clearance) and to help meet the 700mm seat height requirement for motorcycles.

•  Purchased or built the necessary equipment:  This includes a large and powerful Lincoln Precision 275 TIG welder and the electrical service to power it, pneumatic tools, a tube notcher for cutting complex angles in metal tubing, load profiling equipment and milliohm meter to evaluate lithium cells and a capacitive discharge welder and pneumatic weld head to build batteries from cylindrical cells.

• Completed a lengthy TIG welding course:  This was very challenging for me and one of the most difficult skills I have ever had to learn.  I practiced welding aluminum for many hours before attempting anything I needed to keep. 

• Contracted the basic frame out:   I could not find a suitable frame to use but found a very talented fabricator named Kale Kotecki in the USA  with the skills and equipment needed to build a strong and lightweight frame.  I was responsible for determining the configuration (reverse trike tandem two seats), choosing the drive system, and determining key chassis dimensions.  This took several months requiring a lot of research, part sourcing and purchasing.  The front half of the frame was based on a single seat reverse trike frame the fabricator had built before.  I needed to choose and purchase the rear end, the motor and controller, seats, brackets and harnesses during this stage.  The rear end I chose was a new Honda Gold Wing GL1800 shaft drive and swing arm. 

• Completed the rolling chassis:   Some rework of the front end was required to reduce tolerances and make improvements.  However most of the work was directed toward replacing a temporary motor sprocket and chain that drove a larger sprocket on the shaft drive rear end.  This was needed to obtain an overall gear ratio of 4.75:1.  I had no intension of keeping the chain drive.  It was loud and my experience with the BugE proved to me that chain drives have huge maintenance requirements.  After much research and using vendor supplied software to determine noise levels and components for various drive systems such as synchronous belts, gear reducers and V-belts, I was stuck for some time.  I was even considering the use of an automobile torque converter for its torque multiplying capabilities and even a CVT (continuously variable transmission).  Finally, I discovered a patented synchronous drive that had dramatically improved performance characteristics than standard synchronous drives.  It is a Goodyear Eagle PD Synchronous drive.  I'll talk about it a little later.  It is quite amazing.

• Chose and purchased the lithium cells:  This was a very important and difficult part of the project to date.  In the Lithium BugE were Thunder Sky lithium cells that performed quite well.  My tests and experience proved however that those cells would not be sufficient for this vehicle for the performance I desire and the estimated weight of the vehicle.  I see a lot of people using those cells for a lot larger vehicles than the Lithium BugE (cars and trucks) and I am certain they are quite disappointed with the performance.  They have good energy density but do not have the ability to sustain high power output.  The Lithium BugE was very light and that is why those cells worked well.  I initially had the controller set to maximum power which required over 300 amps from the 24 TS-LFP90 cells.  But huge voltage sags occurred and would inevitably damage the cells so I ultimately programmed the controller to 180 amps maximum.  The vehicle was still peppy but I had to take it easy when the vehicle's energy level was less than 70%.  Those cells are rated at <3C continuous meaning <3 times their AH capacity in amps but in reality the cells should be rated at about 0.9C.  So if I wanted the lithium BugE to perform the same with the cells at almost any state of charge (i.e. 10% to 100%), the controller should have been reprogrammed for 81 amps maximum,
  
  With the above in mind, I was determined to find the best cells I could and test them extensively.  The cells would have to be able to deliver the maximum current of the controller at almost any state of charge.  After testing A123 Cells (2 types) and cells from K2 Energy solutions, I chose the K2 cells.