The "Juice Cafe" Racer
From start to Ton up!

4/13/11 update:  We have battery monitoring!

Well it may be a primitive form of a BMS but it does the job and will alert
me if I have an issue with any of the batteries in a particular battery box.
They still have the protective plastic on them so that is why they look "dull".

The one meter only with 6.6 volts is correct as it has 8 batteries
(2S4P) where the other main pack boxes have 32 cells (8S4P).
 
That is 104 cells of manly POWER!!!  :)  86 volts of fun!

The bottom meter is for the 12 volt system battery.    

 

16 days and counting.

 

4/15/11 Update: It was great while it lasted.

The really cool meter system I spent a full evening on lasted about that long.
It sat over night with no issues and no loss of battery charge. I took it out
for a quick spin yesterday and the displays started to "freak out". Before I
could get back to the garage two of them had died a quick, but at least not
a smoky death. I think they were too close to the controller...too much EFI?

I attached a old school Analog unit to the pack and it worked like a charm.
I will either biuld a 60 to 90 VDC unit or order one and will have to suffer
(not really) with the old school look with an old school motorcycle.

The Fiberglass parts will not be ready until Monday. Those parts and a few
decals and we will be ready to roll! I still have an evening or two for rim
cleaning, small parts touch up and the front forks need some attention.

14 days and counting!

 

4/16/11 Update:  The 12 volt Headway battery

Until today we still had a small 10AH AGM battery in the bike to run all
of the electronics. There is no DC to DC unit and the 12 volt system
needed to run everything for at least an hour. A load test of the AGM
revealed only 45 minutes of time before the battery showed 11.5 volts.  

A 20 AH headway battery pack (4S2P) had been built a few weeks ago,
but there was no good place on the bike to put it. Every location we looked
at had it too low or just plain ugly. At that time none of the extra tabs and
mounts had been removed. Since then all of the useless metal has been
trimmed off. All of a sudden we have a perfect place to put it and it is now
mounted behind the fairing. After a good charging everything was turned
on. (Headlight on high beam, GPS unit, main contactor, taillight, relays
and gauges.) After two hours the voltage had only dropped to 12.7 volts!

Got to love those Headways.  

I think it will stay in the bike.  :)

13 days and counting!

 

4/18/11 Update: We have PAINT!

All of the fiberglass parts have been painted. The fairing is still at
the painter's as it needed a final buffing. I will get it back
tomorrow and start mounting the head light assembly.

 The color came out exactly as we were hoping for.  The decals have
been made and should be here in a few days. (Metro Sign. Thanks Allen! )

 The seat was cut (and sanded!) out of medium density
closed cell foam neoprene and is very comfortable.

 

11 days and counting!

4/19/11

 

It is starting to look like a motorcycle!

10 Days and counting.

 

4/20/11 Update. She lost weight when I was not looking.

After all the parts were put back onto the bike it was rolled over to
the scales. No decals on it just yet so I added a pound. They will be
on soon and after paint really cures.

162 lb Front
150 lb Back

Total 312 Lbs

The Headway 12v battery and all that useless metal that
was cut off since the last weigh in made the difference.

Tonight the racer will have a final headlight alignment check and then
we tackle the dreaded wheels. They will not be stripped as I may
have found a polish that showed promise last week on a small spot.

9 days and counting!

 

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