It's a mid 70s Kawasaki, but the frame was heavily cut including significant take of the head tube and making it a hard tail and welding in changes for the batteries and motor. A friend of mine twisted my arm into buying this bike when it was in the mockup stage because he needed to liquidate some cash and some garage so excited so he could get started on a business idea. I really didn't want it but I obliged him anyway.
I sat on the project for a while because I had a job and too many other projects. But then I decided to quit my job and the first thing I wanted to do was open up some space in my shop. All of the parts for this project were here, I just had to integrate them right. Just labor. Zero cost (yeah, sure). It came with a nice charger than float charges each 12 volt battery independently, unlike most chargers that just pump 48V in series. Independent charging is better because now the overall charge is to limited by the toughest battery. But the charger was not mounted on the frame. The original mockup had 8 banana plugs for charging. I didn't like that so I took the whole thing apart, moved the controller under the seat, stuffed the charger just forward of that, and moved the accessory battery up the the back of the top battery tray. It was in a small tray hanging lower than the frame, which was already quite low. I also reconfigured all the battery tiedowns. Now it was all configured, I just had to wire it all up and make it work.
Project selfie.
I didn't like the factory seat and springs that came with it for a couple of reasons, but mostly it was just too high. I needed a seat that would more closely hug the frame. This one I made is a little to flat and wide, but it is strong and well mounted. I think it works. Price: plywood and foam lying around. $5 for the seat cover fabric (not shown).
It's all coming back together, but I couldn't get the used Curtis controller to work. I got down to measuring voltages on the control pins with two different throttles and, based on the measurements, the manual said that the controller was bad. I've never really liked Curtis controllers, so I bought an Altrax 4834 programmable instead. $350. Damn.
Notice the 13 ball on top of a long steel rod? That's a suicide brake. There is a left hand hydraulic brake for the front wheel, but the back brake is a drum and an old school chopper trick is to operate it by a vertical handle instead of a foot pedal. So you have to take your hand off the throttle to operate the rear brake. Suicide indeed.
The bike was mocked up with a copper tube for the drum brake stay. This is a rally bad idea because that stay is holding a lot of braking torque and copper is very soft. Wish I'd thought of that before it broke. In fact, the first two times I used the suicide brake, it broke the back end of the bike. I'm pretty sure it's solid now, but I'm a bit scared of it now.
Late in the project I got the bright idea of painting the fenders to look like the 13 ball, including the very yellowed white part of this particular ball. I like it. It looks a bit like a cream-sickle. Just rattle can, nothing fancy.
Not bad. Three weeks to completely rebuild this thing to working condition. I've yet to license the bike, so I haven't had it out much. Also, the raked head tube makes for about 5" of trail, which makes the steering heavier. And it was already heavy due to 200# of lead acid batteries. Armstrong steering. Get it up to speed quickly. And it's scary. It should go 55+, and should be able to burn out due to the electric motor's high torque at zero rpm, but I've yet to go over 30mph. I'll let you know. Please visit me in the hospital.
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