Home Made Electric Motorcycle

By Ovidiu
on April 5th, 2008

Treehugger features an article about a guy (Benjamin Nelson) who converted his Kawasaki motorcycle into an electric one. He bought an 8hp used electric motor (Briggs&Stratton) from Craigslist, mounted the batteries into the place of the old motor… and that’s it! He even admits he isn’t a tech savvy like others are, and doesn’t own more than a drill as power tool. There are a lot of tech-passioned fellows through our readers, but they never thought of converting their vehicle. This example is the perfect story for a boost-up. Ben’s motorcycle can go on batteries about 25km and reach a speed of 70km/h. It’s so quiet you can hear the birds sing while you relax on your electric bike. If you put a stronger engine on it (not necessarily a bigger one), you could go faster.

The summer is near. Go buy a second hand bike and rebuild it from scratch! Give your own example to your little fellows, and don’t buy petrol engines anymore! Petrol is expensive and bad for their health.

Below is another picture of Benjamin’s electric bike (from side view).