Kyriakos, My Electric Motorcycle

Starting with an eBay mountain bike frame, I have made heavy modifications to fit a very large 5kW peak drone motor donated to my project by MITERS. This project called upon many skills, and it was my first project that included welding. Fitted with a custom battery, custom motor mount, waterjet foot pegs, and a custom hardware implemented precharge circuit.

The Build Process

Frame Modifications

The Mountain Bike

Kyriakos started as a cheap eBay mountain bike.

Welding and Painting

Since a large motor, electronics, and battery needed to be mounted, heavy frame modifications were needed. Use of waterjet, lathe, and mill was necessary to produce the parts according to my design.

Sheet Metal Covers and Holders

Sheet metal was waterjet, bent, welded, and painted to make belt covers and holders for both the battery and electronics. I also made some footpegs with the same method.

The Motor

This motor allegedly came off of a drone that fell in a lake many years ago. It somehow ended up at MITERS and then into my hands. This motor can output enough power to compare with a typical 125cc - 150cc engine.

I also opted to install hall sensors into this motor to get zero-speed torque, something that I would not want to be without on a vehicle of this size.

The Battery

At this point, I have had plenty of experience designing and building batteries from working with MIT Motorsports. The bike battery is made from Molicell’s P42A, a cell that definitely outperforms the current competition. This was definitely the most expensive part of the entire build, but this is not something I wanted to cheap out on.

The Gluing Process

Spotwelding

Insulation

The Container

This is an ammo box I got from a friend who likes to buy and resell military surplus.

Charging

I’m using a power supply I crufted from the Stata loading docks to charge.

The Electronics

I am using an off-the-shelf VESC I got from Projx as my motor controller. I also got a high current contactor from MIT Motorsports that was unsatisfactory for the team. This is what I use in my precharge circuit to open and close the circuit.

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