You’ve heard of Dark Helmet, now you can meet the Green Helmet. For the first public viewing (and future ones) I finally broke out the never been worn Green Helmet … no green lights yet but i have a couple spares from the accent lighting on the bike.
So I topped up the batteries last night to 81 volts and then took it on an 8.4 mile ride through part of town this morning – presuming the odometer is correct. After getting out of the neighborhood it was a mile downhill at 45 mph (mostly coasting assisted), then about 2 miles at 45 mph with 3 stop lights to destination. The only difference is that on the way back it was back up the long hill.
What i noticed while returning home was that the loud squeal I was hearing from the front of the bike was the sound of the speedometer connection with the cable from the front tire spinning rather hard and vibrating like crazy. Will check it for alignment (unplug cable and replug basically) to see if it will fix.
Anyway, voltage leaving was 81.0 volts, voltage after the 8.4 mile ride was 77.3 volts. This is a difference of 3.7 volts, which comes in at 8.4 miles / 3.7 volts = 2.27 miles / volts. Roughly a range of 38.59 miles with a low cutoff of 64 volts. Need try longer, just not keen on finding out the hard way i couldn’t quite make it home.
So finally getting around to making a sprocket cover, bottom plate, and cowlings to cover the batteries (to keep the sun off). Started with some basic CADD work (cardboard aided design and drafting). Drove it about 11 miles with the bottom plate and sprocket cover on but not the battery cowlings as they are not as rounded out or secured yet.
Also a good example of the throw pattern of chain oil when the motor is under load. Never underestimate the power of centrifugal motion …
Was finally able to track down a couple of standard KZ550 LTD side panel labels at a reasonable price without having to buy a net set of panels. Thank you Ebay.
So i finally got around to making a little chain slide from 1/8th inch thick 1/2 inch wide heavy weight plastic, and had a heck of a time trying to install with the chain in place. Since it was easier to take the chain off i replaced the 10 tooth sprocket (which is the cause of needing a chain slide in the first place) with a 16 tooth sprocket. The 14 tooth i have actually would not fit on the shaft as there seems to be some minute lip that I can feel with my finger but not see that keeps it the end of the shaft from going all the way through the bore.
The bad part is now i have a 2.5:1 sprocket ratio (rear to front) where I had a 4:1 sprocket ratio before. Without making adjustment to the throttle I note that with the 10 tooth sprocket i had better acceleration up the hill in front of my house and from a level standing stop. i can still get up to 50 mph easily but got there quicker before. Will look at the software config on the motor controller next as there are some adjustments i can make to call for more power on the throttle twist than the defaults I chose.
The interesting part is that I was expecting amp draw to go up and it actually went down. I was hitting about 150 amps last test and topped out around 100 amps with the 16 tooth sprocket during today’s ride.
So for kicks i put the tank back on the bike for some day pictures. This will definitely look better up close with a professional wrap ( I am hopeful that will not be too expensive).
So I learned this past week I am not a very good wrapper. It is probably better to leave this to the professionals. Have a couple of quote requests in to local companies that can do vinyl wrapping to see what they come up with but this is the pattern i want to go with.
Finally got it re-registered and insured. Street legal now. Just need to finish some optics (wrap gas tank & other side panel i think), add a clip to pull the charging cable out through the gas tank lid, and install a chain slide and it is good to go. Actually the only real thing is to add the chain slide as I am using a smaller than stock sprocket so it will rub on the swing arm. Or i could just increase the front sprocket size, lengthen the chain, and get on with life also.
Some pics taken during the day per request.
Finally got the registration and insurance completed this week. Insured on Monday, re-registered on Friday. What I learned this week is that if a vehicle goes off registration for more than 3 years in Arizona it is dropped from the system and a new record needs to be created. Had to go down to MVD to do this as a title/registration company could not.