Custom Lettering on the Vectrix

May 18, 2015

Yesterday, I was busy running errands, but had the chance to swing by the Milwaukee Makerspace. That’s a hackerspace in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Bayview neighborhood. I wanted to stop in to see if I had left my Solar Death Ray there. I had promised a friend that we would use solar power to burn his shirt […]

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Vectrix Range Testing

May 10, 2015

The minute that I posted that I had the LEAF cell modules in the Vectrix electric motorcycle, people started asking me “But what’s the new RANGE!?!?!” The answer is that I simply did not know. The only way was to ride the cycle until the voltage got down to the lower cut-off point. However, with […]

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What Elon Musk got Wrong

May 1, 2015

Now I happen to be a pretty big fan of Tesla Motors. They’ve done more work than anyone to show just how cool Electric Vehicles can be. So, when the video premiere was released of Elon Musk revealing the new POWER-WALL, I was pretty excited. That is, until the end of the video…. Near the […]

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LEAF Batteries are in the Vectrix!

April 20, 2015

Well, this past Saturday was a big day for the Vectrix upgrade project! I got the battery in and the Vectrix IS NOW RUNNING ON NISSAN LEAF CELLS! In my last video, I showed you how I got the battery together – 18 LEAF cell modules sandwiched together with spacers and threaded rod. This time, […]

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Tap, Stack, and Rack: LEAF Vectrix Batteries

April 17, 2015

The next step in the Vectrix battery upgrade with the Nissan LEAF cell modules is to figure out how to hold them together in the motorcycle. Since I started off with an entire Nissan LEAF battery pack, I had a few of the components that originally held the modules together inside the pack. That included […]

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Asheville, NC Mother Earth Fair

April 14, 2015

  A big thank-you to everyone who came out to the Mother Earth News Fair in Asheville, North Carolina! It was my first time being in the state and you made me feel very welcome. Turn-out for the Electric Vehicle presentations was great! If you are coming here after seeing one of my presentations, thanks […]

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The DIY J1772 Charging Adapter

March 31, 2015

Not long after I purchased the Vectrix, I started wondering “If it’s an international vehicle, what would it take to charge on 240V (instead of 120V) and from a public J1772 Level 2 EV charging station?”. Everything I had heard lead me to believe that the charger on the bike is much like a modern […]

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Removing the Nissan LEAF cells

March 18, 2015

Whew, what a day! After doing what I needed to for the day for work, I set to taking the cover off the Nissan LEAF battery pack to start to strip out the cell modules. The cover came off pretty easy, just a whole pile of 10mm bolts around the perimeter, 4 13mm bolts on […]

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Score! Nissan Leaf Salvage Yard Battery Pack

March 17, 2015

Today, I got my hands on a Nissan Leaf battery pack. As usual, it started as a simple road trip, and ended as an adventure. I headed out, first to the Credit Union to get some money. When I had spoken to the salvage yard, it sounded like cash would be the best way to […]

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Riding the Vectrix Home – Almost

March 8, 2015

Since I’ve been working on the Vectrix over at my Dad’s shop, at some point I actually need to transport it home. While I COULD do that with the back of a pickup truck, where’s the fun in that!? I’d much rather just ride the cycle home. It’s only an 8 or 9 mile trip, […]

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