ElectricMotorcycleForum.com

Honestly, with the quality of the video production and the way you present I would never have thought you'd only been doing this a few months and had 30 odd subscribers. Hopefully that number goes up steadily, with the effort you put in you deserve it and more people should see it. I'm glad you're going through the effort to get it road legal too so it can really be enjoyed.

Thanks again, that's really motivating RE the videos. A road legal EV conversion is something i'd been wanting to do for years and finally decided to try it since the cost of suitable batteries is now workable.

Honestly, with the quality of the video production and the way you present I would never have thought you'd only been doing this a few months and had 30 odd subscribers. Hopefully that number goes up steadily, with the effort you put in you deserve it and more people should see it. I'm glad you're going through the effort to get it road legal too so it can really be enjoyed.

Mate, that was very enjoyable to watch, don't know why you were selling yourself short. Usually the mention of cafe racer alone puts me off but that's because most of them are very poorly done, but your quality of work and the thought and effort put into it is very impressive and far beyond what I was expecting. I've subscribed because I'm really interested in seeing the rest of your work and this thing completed.

Thanks for the kind words and the sub! Glad you enjoyed the videos too, they are a lot of fun to make - and hopefully also help others doing similar projects. Really looking forward to getting this thing together to start road testing.

Mate, that was very enjoyable to watch, don't know why you were selling yourself short. Usually the mention of cafe racer alone puts me off but that's because most of them are very poorly done, but your quality of work and the thought and effort put into it is very impressive and far beyond what I was expecting. I've subscribed because I'm really interested in seeing the rest of your work and this thing completed.

I have searched but I couldnt findeth....

I need to change the drive chain, and I am wondering about the specs. This is for a Ribelle and an SS9 (but they both use the same chain as far as I know).

It is a Regina 525 o-ring chain, but how many links ?

Hi everyone

I just joined the forum today after checking out some of the other posts.

I started building an EV conversion recently using a 1981 KZ440 LTD cafe racer as a donor and have made some decent progress over the last few weeks. The drive system is now together and on the bench and I’m about to start the 12v wiring and the battery box fabrication. Just wanted to share what I’ve done so far as I’ve gone through a bit of pain in some areas and it may help other builders, plus I’ll have more questions so hoping to tap into some knowledge.

Overview for the conversion:
-1981 kz440 ltd with ktm duke 390 front end
-Custom adapted duke 390 brakes
-17” 8kw QS hub motor driven by a Kelly Controller
-24s NMC lipo pack @ 7.4kWh
-Thunderstruck tsm2500 charger with dilithium MCU, BMS and SOC meter
-Vicor 400W switch mode dc-dc converter
-8Ah antigravity 12v battery
-Motogadget mo.unit blue
-Motogadget motoscope pro

EST weight at ~140kg





I also put some videos together for the build if anyone is interested in checking them out. I ended up doing something a bit different with the drivetrain power so it may be of interest to some. The videos are a bit cringy as it’s my first attempt at anything like this so excuse the bad acting and terrible voiceover

Sorry man. That sucks. I've known owners with over 100,000 miles on their original packs. I've also seen what you're going through. Generally, unless someone abuses the pack, I would say in my experience the battery packs are fairly well-built and reliable. The vast majority of owners with functioning bikes don't come to forums like these and say, "hey just checking in everything is still awesome". And yeah there was a 5 year warranty on the pack, but that was 9 years ago. If this was me I'd just start casually looking out for used or crashed bikes that might have salvageable packs. Good luck.

Fantastic EV world….
After 20000km you can put your vehicle to the garbage unless you spend the value of the used bike in new battery….
For me : bought the bike 7000€ rode it for 13000km
Have to spend 7000€ more for 2x3.6 kWh new power packs….
Real cost 50 cents/km
Which compared to gas is 25litres/100km which is a v8 consumption !!!!!
And not even sure to sell the bike 7000€ with new batteries….

I didn’t have luck some bike for sale here in Europe have 50-70000km without too much issues…
I hope that zero will finally roll a program for people like me …
And keep those bikes alive…

The EU version of this lift is called Bike Tower...?
https://www.bursigusa.com/gallery/

Useful for the dealer maybe, if it requires you to visit your dealer to have the updates installed. That gives them some action and while your bike is being updated (or you are waiting for that to happen) the dealer gets to put the screws to you to buy a new and even more updated Zero.   

I assume only the first update needs to be done at the dealer and after that they are done OTA.


But yeah, I also think the main purpose of these updates is so the dealer can make a little money on maintenance even on EVs.   But I will probably have them do it when/if it's convenient for me.


I have both 2017 Zeros here in Auburn. The first step will be getting them both back to Reno, since that house is close to the Reno Zero dealer (Eurocycles).


-Don- Auburn, CA