| Owner | Mick Longley | ||||||
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| Location | Durango, Colorado US map | ||||||
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| Vehicle | 1978 Kawasaki KZ200 I received the chassis from a friend in one of my college classes for free. It had been sitting for over six years. I was able to get it started with the gas motor and putted around but couldn't keep in running long. | ||||||
| Motor | Briggs and Stratton Original eTek Permanent Magnet DC Ended up going with an original eTek motor. It fits great on the swing arm in front of the rear tire. | ||||||
| Drivetrain | Chain drive, No transmission. 14tooth front gear/72tooth rear. | ||||||
| Controller | Kelly KD72401 This controller was priced very low for its ratings compared to Alltrax and Curtis. My initial judgment of quality is very high. Controller was very well packaged and came with pre-charge resistors and charge spike suppression diodes. Further testing (400 miles) shows that the Kelly controller is indeed a good controller. | ||||||
| Batteries | 5 Walmart Marine batties, 12.00 Volt, Lead-Acid, Flooded I am going with Group 24 Walmart Marine batteries to start out with. I don't want to drop a ton of money on Batteries for my first experiment with EV's. | ||||||
| System Voltage | 60 Volts | ||||||
| Charger | Soneil 3 amp chargers I have 5 of these chargers now, mounting in the tank - these work great but take 6 hours or so to charge after a spirited 20 mile ride. | ||||||
| DC/DC Converter | None None, I tap off of one battery. I have converted most lights to LED. The headlight is still halogen but I am working on replacing this with a focused LED beam. | ||||||
| Instrumentation | 500amp ammeter, 200vdc meter, original odometer and speedometer. I believe the 500 amp ammeter is totally overkill. The most amps I have EVER pulled is 170 with a 4.8/1 gear ratio. | ||||||
| Top Speed | 58 MPH (93 KPH) This is after a fresh charge, full throttle on flat ground. This is plenty fast for in town trip running. It gets me to school a lot quicker than my car. | ||||||
| Acceleration | It is slow for a motorcycle but beats most cars off the line. | ||||||
| Range | 30 Miles (48 Kilometers) I have only pushed it to 30 miles so far with very light driving. The pack was near 50% DoD. | ||||||
| EV Miles |
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| Seating Capacity | Seats two | ||||||
| Curb Weight | 425 Pounds (193 Kilograms) 5 batteries and a very light motor and frame. | ||||||
| Conversion Time | Several months | ||||||
| Conversion Cost | ~$1500 | ||||||
| It is finally done and I have put over 400 miles with all electric power. I am in the Durango CO area if anyone ever wants to come see it - let me know. | |||||||
1978 Kawasaki KZ200
Last Updated 08-02-2010
Copyright © 1997-2012 by Mike Chancey