Project Bloggers take a Lesson

Matt Shumaker has set the bar high with his E-Cumbent project tracker blog. The project is a 2 wheel recumbent bike conversion to electric assist (I’d say, it’s almost a full EV conversion project). The beauty of it is that the bike is driven by a fist-sized RC electric motor and a large handful of Li-ion battery packs sourced from his local hobby shop. This is relevant because, besides his gorgeous metal work to mount and gear the system to work seamlessly with pedal power, the actual power system looks to weigh in at less than 10 pounds! In stark contrast to the electric scooter I took for a test drive today that tips the scales with 60+ pounds of lead acid batteries and a direct drive brushless hub-mounted motor. The scooter tops out at about 25 mph while the recumbent cruises at 35 and is being regeared for 50 mph! Check the video!

I corresponded with Matt who guesstimated that his total investment in the project (bike purchase not included) thus far is about $1100 and 60 hours (with another 20-40 hours to go before the project is largely complete). Certainly not for the average enthusiast, Matt’s skill with machining metal and RC components is obvious from the site. But his results give me real hope for perhaps building on his experiences to power a true commuter single person vehicle. Putting his work into place on a 3 wheeled tadpole trike with 2 battery packs and a full velo-faring ala aerorider should net a 50-75 mile range enclosed single person full electric vehicle capable of 50+ mph. The question is, as always, how much $$?

Worth noting as well, is the other end of the Spectrum: My friend, Bill Dube built and runs the worlds fastest electric drag bike - the Killacycle. It goes zero to sixty in 0.9 seconds (that’s 9/10 of a second) and tops at an EV world record 168 mph in the quarter mile. You might have heard about the batteries in the new Tesla Motors roadster from A123 Battery Systems? Well, here’s where they got stress tested first.