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[swen_bonson]

Hello All,

Im in San Francisco and have been working on motorcycles and building choppers for a decade or so. I have recently gotten pretty obsessed about the idea of trying to build an electric chopper that actually looks and feels right, something at least the more open minded members of the chopper crowd could dig on. I also am interested in the idea of a motor and battery setup that could be "Swapped" with a big twin driveline to encourage more EV chopper builds. So here I am!

The piece that hooked me in was that with a little bit of research I discovered that it at least seems that a Zero 75-7 (not sure about 75-10) will fit between the motor mounts for a harley big twin motor and is close at least, to the space and form that a Harley bottom end would be. I found a full Zero 75-7 driveline on facebook marketplace for $3500 bucks and am considering picking it up, but know so little at this stage so don't know if this is a better approach than just doing all the components separately. PLEASE let me know what you think.

As for the battery pack and the rest of the build - my ideas are as follows - i need to learn a lot more to know what will and won't work, and welcome ANY good resources, critiques or ideas at this stage:

- Work with a hardtailed harley big twin frame - this means whatever solutions I come up with should work in any big twin frame up to the 2000's and serve as a swap for everything from Knuckle's to Evos.
- Potentially 2 Battery Packs. Primary Pack could sit where cylinder heads go and oriented roughly as a "V" or fan above the motor. I am interested in using aluminum plates to simulate motor fins, but structurally to house and cool the battery pack. I am not entirely sure how the reality of building this pack would play out so starting to read up there, but seems possible? Second location could be where a chopper oil tank typically sits behind the motor and above the transmission. THis could also have batteries or a controller and could potentially have louvers for cooling.
- other electrical components and charger to go in gas tank. Probably a friscoed sportster tank. Charger under gas cap.
- Thoughtfully flow cabling and other components to make sense but don't try to hide the fact that it's an ebike.
- Perhaps cast motor plates for mounting to frame and add other cast housings to elevate the styling and make it feel more motor- like / flow.
- Run a transmission with an open belt, probably a traditional harley 4 speed. Not sure if this is a terrible idea, but i think the feel/sound of a transmission is nice and if the gearing could help or mike riding feel more kinetic it could be interesting.


Please let me know your thoughts and I'm excited to learn from you all and get into this exciting new world.


Thanks ,

Swen

[NEW2elec]

Hi welcome aboard.
On the helpful side, this forum is mostly about production bikes.  There is a forum called Endless Sphere that is project minded.

Now the bad news.
I'd say 80% of work experience with gas bikes is useless on an electric setup.
Suspension and fork rake and custom handle bars and wielding and fabricating would help but that's about where it ends.
As for the full 75-7 drive line I'd have to ask what happened to the bike that it was separated from the "bike" ?
A running Zero is worth minimum $6k so was it in a wreck or was it removed for a project?
If it was for a project why didn't they finish it or why did they pull it back out?

The last I heard Zero wasn't selling motors or batteries without a Zero dealer repair order IOW no major components for side projects.
If the main computer board dies, the bike is dead.  If the battery dies, the bike is dead.  Even if they allow replacements to be sold here are a few ballpark prices.
Motor $3k, Battery $6-8k, Controller $1500-2000, Main Bike Board $900, large low powered on board charger $1k, smaller higher powered tank charger $4k.
There is not a project bike that will be as good as a factory Zero.  If someone just had to have a certain style I would start with a Zero and add styling bits from there.
Any frame has to have the space for that big rectangle battery pack.  The motor controller needs to get air flow since it's getting hottest when the bike is in motion.
The charger in a tank is done in Zeros about $4k but you'll need to make sure it's bleeding off heat sitting still.

The very idea of using a transmission makes me think you haven't ever ridden an electric motorcycle.  There is no need and it just saps power and adds weight.

And the biggest picture/problem is the Harley crowd doesn't want electric or the Harley Livewire would have sold better and stayed Harley.

All that said if there is enough of a will and a huge budget then anything can be made.  I'd suggest test riding a Livewire and Zero and go from there.

Good Luck

[Fran K]

Have you seen pictures of various bikes with the bodywork stripped off?  There are a lot of components and wires connecting them from the pictures of the larger bikes like Zero Harley Energica.  Alta and the KTM manage to put some of the components inside castings.  This may be the future the way Triumph talks should they actually bring something to market.  Similar for Damon but at this time it seems they have enough pre orders for 3 years and are wondering about the micro factory placement.  Alta did have a sort of custom along the chopper lines, think they called it a drag bike perhaps you have seen pictures.

If you get to the advanced state that you can make replaceable batteries that sort look like cylinders of a v twin and will work with a zero motor likely you could also create replacement batteries as Zero bikes essentially become "totaled" when battery replacement cost exceeds vehicle value.

Fran

[Crissa]

Used Zeros still sell when their value drops below replacement battery, they are only 'totaled' if the battery fails.

Even then their parts have resale value.

-Crissa