Bike Week

Bike Week was great. I took off a few days from work and spent them working strictly on the bike.

We definitely made great progress:

• new front "dash" created from scratch
• LED headlight is mounted
• LED turn signals are mounted
• gauge cluster is mounted
• battery cables created / used
• Kelly controller programmed
• throttle connected for the first time

The bike hasn't rolled under its own power just yet. Several questions and uncertainties were brought to light regarding exactly how to wire the controller, so we concentrated on other things and made the best use of our time. The following issues or questions came up:

• wiring my controller specifically
• pre-charge resistors
• contactor coil diodes
• contactor behavior / operation
• battery installation / maintenance
• charging standards / connectivity
• throttle resistance readings
• language barrier surrounding Kelly controllers

These still remain to be tackled:

• Tank component mounting
• Turn signal lighting
• All wiring
• Testing / tweaking
• Insurance
• Registration
• Inspection

I'll try and cover some of these as individual posts in the near future to organize what we have now learned first-hand, and that of others. It was fun investing time into this and figuring out how to overcome some pretty tricky design challenges. I'm really looking forward to finalizing in great detail my understanding of all the components and how they work - That and taking a spin around the block on my own, custom electric motorcycle.

-Colby