One more major component, the motor controller, is mounted in this pic (under the seat). This should be a spot that provides good airflow to keep it cool. I’ll have space under the controller to add a heat sink, if needed.

So at this point, the major steps I have left are:

Mount a few more components such as the battery management system modules (3), contactor, fuse, on-board charger, and shunt.

Reprogram the charger with LiFePo-friendly algorithm and perform a test charge.

Re-wire controller and connect pack.

After that, I think I’ll be ready for a smoke test.

I’ll probably have it ready to ride just when the weather turns cold to stay for the season.

It’s amazing how well everything fits into this frame. I would have had a much easier time if I’d gone with smaller cells like a 60 amp-hour form, but I’m kinda glad I stuck with the 100′s.

Weight-wise, the bike should weigh and feel about the same as the original CBR.

The red plastic is the first part of my strategy for mounting the charger. It also provides separation between the cell terminals and the crossbar in the frame. More to come on that later.

The small color wires running from the cells will run to the battery management system. When I figure out exactly where the BMS modules will go, I will modify these wires to the proper length and run them more cleanly than they are now.

I cut down the width from my first cut at this. Doing so allows me to fit the original fairing back on the bike. I also wasn’t happy with the mount points, so I replaced them with a single piece of steel that wraps around the frame.

The packing foam across the terminals is to prevent me from accidentally contacting shocking myself as I handle the pack. (shocking leads to sharting)

I’ve also completed a rough cut at the frame to hold the batteries in the bike, but after handling a couple of the packs, I think it needs a little beefing up. Will get out the cutter and welder and fix that.

Next up is wiring up the battery management system on the bench. I want to do this with all the cells where they are easy to reach. There are four components to this BMS: regulators for the cells, a relay system to signal the charger and the motor in high and low battery conditions, a real-time monitor that reads pack conditions, and a touch screen display that allows me to see the output of the monitor, and issue commands to all components.

This is the bike he successfully campaigned during the 2011 season in the TTXGP, a racing series for electric bikes. Team Electra, with veteran rider Thad Wolff aboard, placed second overall in the North American series.

Brian is now converting the bike to street use and looking at potential long distance riding markers to knock down.

That’s Brian on the right. That shifty fellow on the left is Rich Holman, a very good friend, long time rider, and the moral center of Team Electra. Rich runs Cherry Hill B&B in Monterey. A great place to stay if you are riding out that way.

I’m really pleased with how this book came together. I mean it is PACKED with great roads all over the US and Canada. I think I totaled it up and there are around 50,000 road miles documented in this title. Many of the routes are designed to be mega-loops in the range of 1500 to 2500 miles but there are also some end-to-end runs (cross-country).

If you haven’t read the other posts about the batteries, I’ve been looking for these since late 2009. I placed an order that fell through in the spring of last year, work and life interevened, and I reordered in March. I originally ordered Thunder Sky batteries, but after sitting in customs for weeks on end, my supplier, Manzanita Micro, upgraded me to these CALB cells. They get a lot of credit from me for helping me get this order done. So if you order LiFEPO cells in the future, and you go to MM for them, tell ‘em “Dale sent me