The Kneeslider

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ShocKing Electric Motorcycle by Patterson Cycles

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ShocKing electric motorcycle from Patterson Cycles

Jeff Patterson runs Patterson Cycles where he builds custom bikes of the conventional variety but after seeing “Who Killed the Electric Car” he decided to try a full size electric motorcycle. The end result is ShocKing.

The handbuilt hardtail frame has an aftermarket springer fork and Road King wheels. 6 batteries in series yield 72 volts driving the DC motor out back. A mountain bike shock suspends the seat. The tank hides a couple of necessary parts, in the left side is a Zyvan battery charger, on the right is a DC to DC converter, to run the lights.

Jeff says it gets to 60 mph very quickly but doesn’t give any range numbers, probably the major limitation of the bike, but it has that simple clean look. Could be a lot of fun.

ShocKing electric motorcycle from Patterson Cycles

Link: Patterson Cycles via electricmotorcycles.net via motoblog.it

Comments

  1. I love the clean lines. While I hate the automotive batteries, the leather straps are the bees knees.

  2. those leather straps are pretty cool. although this isn’t my style of bike i like seeing electric bikes in more styles. makes me feel that they are becoming more of a mainstream thought. i was talking to some coworkers that ride harleys about the killacycle, and they seemed genuinely interested in the progress of electric vehicles.

  3. I love that the solution to the “Gee, now that I don’t have an engine, what do I show off down there?” problem was “Stack six automotive batteries on two shelves and build a motorcycle around them.”

    That’s pretty awesome, in a very basic and sort of ridiculous way. I’m a little scared of how heavy this thing must be, though.

    Also, what’s that gas tank hold? A 100′ extension cord to plug it in and charge it up? :-p

    cl

  6. Pretty neat job, it doesn’t look awesome but it doesn’t look terrible and I doubt it handles especially well or is very comfortable but I like it. And I bet it runs out of juice before that hardtail starts to really make the ride uncomfortable.

  7. I think others may have mentioned this before, but I would love to ride an electric bike to see what it would be like not to have an engine noise (not that I don’t love the sound of engines!). It would probably be as close as you could get to flying without leaving the ground. Part of the experience of riding I enjoy so much is that you get to feel, hear, see and smell so much more while riding (for better or worse) than when you’re in a car.

    That aside, it’s not really my kind of bike, but I still like it anyway! I’d like to give it a spin.

  8. Since it’s already a hardtail, and the whole idea of unsprung weight is wasted anyways, wouldn’t it have been cool to lose the big ugly can between the batteries and incorporate the motor into the rear wheel? Maybe regenerative braking could even have been used?

  10. I think battery packaging will be the next great thing. Maybe someone can develop a battery-goo do-it-yourself kit that you can pour into any box, barrel, tube and have a battery Then you can take a blown S&S engine and fill it up with the “JUICE”. Voltage would be dependant on goo volume of course.

    -todd

  11. Neat idea and really not that terribly expensive to do (well that determines mainly on battery type) but you can find an old frame and fork for cheap anyway with all the wannbe custom companies around.

    Thought about doing something like this for a city bike, maybe a little more boardtraker-ish looking though. The huge lead acid batteries kinda hurt the look (the straps are cool though), if you could get some smaller, higher output batteries (how much are A123 lithium ion cells) and some sort of cover to hide them that would be cool (or arrange them in a cool way.

    Skinny boardtracker type tires would provide fairly low rolling resistance and you could really make that style of bike pretty light.

    P.S. At first I thought “why in the world would they keep the tank on it but on their site it shows it is a cover for the speedcontrol and other electrics and I think it was a clever and clean way to handle it.

  13. I was also thinking that something light, yet full-size and fairly ubiquitous would be a good candidate for electric conversion. Something like…a Ninja 250? The bodywork would cover all the electrical components and it’s a great platform that handles well and is already lightweight. Plus, you’d be able to get parts for it easily.

  14. @Phoebe, it’s a total blast. Not a lot of top end speed but lots of low end torque.

    From time to time we (EM owners) can be found at alternative energy fairs and bike shows. If you you’re lucky you might score a ride.

    There are rumblings of a race league staring but it’s in the *very* early stages.

  15. I worked on a project team my last semester in college (industrial design at AU) in which we put a B&S E-Tec in a Honda Hawk 650 frame and made enclosed bodywork. The project’s purpose was to design a two wheeled city vehicle.

    Anyway it would do around 35mph at 48 volts if I remember correctly. Unfortunately we were to underfunded to afford good batteries and it’s run time was in the minutes, that and it was way heavy I feel.

    It was really fun to ride around with nothing but the sound of the chain and tires whirring beneath you. Ever since being a part of the project I have wanted to do something lighter and with better batteries. My commute is 12 miles one way (and I an charge at work) and if I could cruise at least 40-45mph I would be good. I think I should even be able to pull that off fairly easily without tons of money (actually from other’s projects I have followed on the internet I could hopefully get at least 20-30 miles even off lead acid batts, I hope).

  18. Yeah, that one. Seems to me that guy didn’t do anything too exotic, and that bike looked liked it’d be sufficient for actual daily use around town.

    (Sorry I didn’t point to the Kneeslider article before, yes I did see it here first, my bad)

  19. given the size of the fork and front wheel and tyre, are we to assume it is HEAVY? or was that the look we were going for?

  22. How much does it weigh with its beefier frame and heavy batteries?

    I’d love to see a custom made battery powered ATV too. You motorcycle guys have all the fun 🙂

  23. Is it really shallow of me to love the headlight and whole front end? That light is BIG! Like off a train or something?

  24. Rode the bike this weekemd. I have been riding for 30 years on every type of motorcycle and currently own a 60 panhead(HD) a 96 Honda CBR1000 and a Buell Lightning. This bike rides like an older style Harley. It has disk brakes front and back so it stops and steers just like a heavy cruiser Weighs in right around 650 pounds. He rides it to work everyday. It will go north of 70 mph and has a range of about 50 miles. The reason for those style batteries is that they were as much as he was willing to put into this “test”. He can build them just like that for around $6000 and can do a lithium battery version that will last longer between charges and the batteries will last for years.