scooter

[jim melton <jimbo@CONCH.NET>]

2/21/98

After a few false starts, Eric Udell and I got together on a Saturday
afternoon to start actually stripping/deconstructing a Honda Elite 80
scooter
as a base for an electric scooter.  After a few hours and a lotta greasy
grime
later, the scooter was in parts.  Our plan is to get rid of all the gas
power
stuff and load this puppy w/ 4 12v Optima batteries (50 Ah each), an
Advannced
DC motor, and a 150 amp controller.  End to end, 48V should yeild enough
punch
to realize our goals of a range of about 25 miles and a top speed of
about 35
mph, we think an acceptabile level for a scooter in Key West.

After seeing the amazingly disappointing performance of Eric's chinese
Zap
scooter (about 8 miles @ 23 mph), I'm hoping for more.

The rear wheel assembly has a few large cast parts that are integral to
the
Elite's 4 stroke engine, rear suspension and cooling.  Unfortunately,
because
everything is so integrated, we'll have a lot of jack leg cutting and
welding
to stitch it all together.  The scooter's variable rubber belt drive
transmission will be retained, particularly w/ it's 7 to 1 dead stop
motor to
wheel ratio.  As the scooter travels faster, the plates of the belt
drive
spread apart, reducing the drive ratio.

We're hoping to forge a partnering of some sort w/ the local electric
utility
to bring electrics more to the mainstream down here.  Key West is a city
on an
island that's 2 x 4 miles, perfect for a limited range commute scooter.
The
blue clouds and noise from the many gas scooters down here are all
evidence
that an electric something is needed here.

During spring break, we are inundated w/ college kids, who all rent
scooters
and drive like batsh*t and incessantly beep their horns.  Now if we
could only
figure out a way to silence all the scooter horns during spring break...
scooter