Words: Séan Hendley & Kyle Foley
Images: Deon van der Linde
Giving old bikes a new lease on life…
As much as us petrol heads may fight and kick against it, believe it or not, there is actually a useful and sensible place for electric motorcycles and quads in our industry and sport. A place that is fun and practical.
No, we haven’t suddenly all turned into tree hugging bunny lovers, that we have always been, but we haven’t gone all anti-I.C.E. either (Internal Combustion Engines), we still love them. However, after much mulling it over and over and over we think we understand how the influx of alternative energy bikes and quads can work.
We were told by someone, somewhere along the line that some promoters of electric vehicles and bikes organised a motocross race in a park in the middle of suburbia somewhere with super strict noise pollution regulations, (don’t ask us who or where or when, we can barely remember what we did this morning).
Directly after the race they canvassed the entire area, asking the residents if they had been affected. Apparently, the outcome of said survey was that just about all the residents hadn’t even noticed. So, we don’t know how many bikes or people were involved or whether or not it actually happened, however – it did get us thinking.
Think about it. Like it or not, electric does have some merit.
Solar technology is advancing quickly- so there are some real opportunities presenting themselves here.
Two young guys on a farm somewhere in the Mpumalanga mountains have recognised that opportunity and have turned it into a very interesting business. We first bumped into them at the Nampo Show a few months ago, (read about that here), and eventually caught up with them at their production facility on a farm just outside Lydenburg the other day.
Tiaan is a diesel and petrol mechanic by trade and Bernard has a degree in interior design. They have both embraced electronics and electric vehicles.
Wandering around farms they noticed lots of old motorbikes lying around covered in thick dust and gunk. Upon further enquiry it was established that these were bikes with shot motors that either couldn’t be repaired due to the unavailability of parts or the cost of the parts made them uneconomical to repair.
This got them thinking and short before long they had a solution and got those old broken bikes and quads up and running again with their electric conversion kits.
They made it their mission to educate themselves properly on the subject to be able to discern the good from the chaff and put all the correct raw materials together to produce a solid product to take to market.
That was about 5 years ago. They now operate from a metal barn on their farm and sell around 60 units a month, working until 9 and 10 o’clock most nights and going to trade shows on the weekends to promote their goods.
The bulk of their business is selling Quad bakkies to farmers, as well as the odd electric conversion to farm bakkies with buggered engines.
They do an electric golf cart type shuttle, an electric mobility trike and all sorts of other bits and pieces.
That’s all very exciting and interesting, but what we want to know is how do they ride?
We were treated to a day out on their farm with lekker boerie rolls on the braai, ice cold cokes in the cooler and some quite interesting terrain to give these machines a good thrashing.
Originally the bikes we rode started out life as a 2009 KTM 450 XCW and a Yamaha YFS 200 Blaster. Both ended up with blown motors along the way and were forgotten in a shed somewhere until Bernard and Tiaan came along.
Both machines were modified to accept a 3kw motor and battery pack. Both have been fitted with really cool digital dashboards, that give you all sorts of handy information, including battery range and speed. The bonus is that they are high quality units and look OE. The batteries are quick release units and can be changed out in under a minute.
Range, well that’s quite subjective. If you ride like we rode them you will get around 45 to 50km’s on a single charge. However. If you ride nicely a 100km range is about the norm we are told.
We weren’t there for a long time – just a good time, so we ran through a lot of the charge in a few short hours. With the quick-change battery set-up you can have a few extra batteries to be kept on charge and swap them out as you need them.
Right now, they are only doing steel framed bikes and quads as Tiaan is not exactly happy with his aluminium welding skills…. YET.
We believe there is a racer down in the Cape, running one of these units in his bike who has spare batteries at the Fuel points/DSP’s rather than jerry cans of fuel and can usually get out of the Fuel points/DSP’s quicker than the I.C.E. machines.
They both have 3 power modes plus a Sport mode and you can easily feel a significant difference from mode to mode. The other fun bit was a reverse gear on a Blaster and a KTM XCW, which might come in handy when you get into a tight spot.
Other than that, they are pretty much a standard, automatic Blaster and XCW.
You can feel the weight difference, both machines are about 10 to 15% heavier than their original selves.
We didn’t have a scale handy and they haven’t weighed them either, so don’t ask us for the exact weight difference, but we could feel it.
Séan, an ATV Riding Instructor, spent most of the time thrashing the Blaster around and had this to say:-
“I have ridden very many Blasters in my time, and as much fun as a modified 200cc 2 stroke is, it is simply no match for the instant acceleration of the electric motor in this ETEC machine. It pulls solidly all the way to its top speed, which in this case was 75kph.
This one is set up more for flat track racing with tall sprocketing and low profile, flat rear tyres. Change the sprocketing and tyre profile and I think a standard 350 Banshee might get a surprise from this baby. I am not much for wheelies, but can generally get any quad almost vertical on its side.
With the extra weight and its low center of gravity there was nothing I could do to get the wheels to come off the deck – Which is a good thing from a safety point of view.
All the extra power negates the effects of the weight in general riding, in fact I could actually drift the little quad much better. Kyle was able to wheelie it quite well, and even got some airtime on it. I’m not really seeing any negatives here. And I did enjoy the quiet.”
Kyle Foley took the modified dirt-bike out and had this to say:
I love the acceleration – it is instant. Getting used to not having clutch or gears was quite strange at first, but you do get used to it quite quickly.
The bike feels a little bit heavy – I mean, the battery weighs a lot, so you need to change your riding style a bit if you want to do proper enduro jumps and all that. I do like the four power modes because you can easily adjust the speed of the bike to your skill level, and when I ride this bike I think of speeding through the loose sands on the farm in Naboomspruit, or the riverbeds in Mkuze.
Slower mode is perfect for working the fields and getting from A to B. Visiting the far camps with the rocky climbs, I’d run it in mode three. A bit more powerful but not wild. Probably the closest to a regular 250.
So – through the sandy whoops and the trees is where full power is perfect.
Thanks to the immediate acceleration in fast mode, it’s easy to spin the back wheel out, but – no clutch and the front end weight makes it more difficult to wheelie. But you can!
Just – instead of fuel, get a spare battery along. so that you can plug and go.
And uncle Sean didn’t mention it, but changing the battery takes less than a minute.
It’s quite a change from a dirt-bike, however it is a LOT of fun!
According to the speedo mounted on the bike, I got to 100KPH plus very quickly…
Costs?
Well, it’s not exactly cheap, but off set the cost against the cost of fuel, fuel filters, oil, oil filters, air filters, spark plugs, clutch plates, cables and etcetera, as well as the pilferage of said item over the lifespan of the bike and it then all begins to make more sense.
Yeah, but what about the cost of electricity to charge them? Well, a large farming operation or any industrial, manufacturing, security patrol or housing estate would barely notice that cost, which is tax deductible anyway. So far there are more pros than cons as far as we can see.
To date, these lads have put many TW200, Yamaha Blaster and farm quad back into service with many happy customers.
They have sourced a good range of electric motors from 2000 watts to 3000 watts and have even done one or two 8000-watt motors in bakkies.
Batteries are all 12v 58AH lead acid units and they install a bunch of them in circuit to meet their client’s requirements. Charging time is anything up to 3 hours from empty to full and they even have some units fitted with solar panels to extend the range of the battery.
So – and heres the question – what does it cost to convert a bike or quad?
It starts at R77000.00
you can buy a motor with a fitting kit from them – or you can take the machine to them for them to do it for you.
