another Honda CR-e build?, nope its a Suzy!

[Jim Beagle]

Hello, I've been reading many great threads here and researching other conversions on YouTube. So I decided to pull the trigger on this roller that I found on Facebook. Drove a couple hours away to pick it up. Took a bit of a chance and hung it on my bike rack, but it was fine.
Anyway got it home and started teardown, but i found something very wrong with this Honda.
Anyone have a guess what it is ?

 

[Jim Beagle]

Ok, no guesses?
Here's a clue, for what is wrong with this "honda" that I bought....

 

[Philip]

A stolen bike? That's probably a fair price then.

 

[Jim Beagle]

Ok, no guesses?
Here's a clue, for what is wrong with this "honda" that I bought....

A stolen bike? That's probably a fair price

 

[Jim Beagle]

No its not stolen, thankfully. But there was something about the frame design that didn't quite match the pics I was seeing online...

So after quite a lot of research on the VIN codes, I figured out that it is a 2015 Suzuki RMZ250. My first motorcycle was an air cooled 1977 RM125, so this project takes me back to wrenching on bikes in high school.

 

[Jim Beagle]

So it is a 2015, but this poor bike had been neglected for sure....

 

[Kurlon]

This is giving me flashbacks to my 92 Yamaha WR250ZD 'eBay Special' project.

 

[Jim Beagle]

Progress pics from the last few weeks, cleaning, polishing aluminum....

 

[Jim Beagle]

well its been almost a year since I have updated this Thread, many things to catch up on....

I realized it was going to take me awhile to convert my RM-e, so in the mean time I bought this to ride

 

[Jim Beagle]

Here are a few more pics of the getting this Suzuki roller back into proper condition, I have nearly rebuilt the entire bike, so its now almost like new

 

[Jim Beagle]

I sold the engine, and scrapped the fuel pump....dont need that

 

[Jim Beagle]

I had the hubs "water honed" at a local bike shop, and then strung new spokes to new rims
...and just rattle can on the foot pegs

 

[Jim Beagle]

....and here is my "new" roller

 

[Jim Beagle]

a few months ago, I ordered the motor, controller, harness, etc direct from China. AliExpress had the kit combination I was looking for, but they would only air ship, and I wanted to save some money and was willing to wait for sea shipment. So I reached out to SIAECOSYS on Alibaba, and they arranged a kit per my needs.
basically it is this combination here: Qsmotor Qs138 70h V3 3000w Pmsm Mid Drive Motor Convertion Kit - Buy Qs138 70h V3 Mid Drive Motor siaecosys Conversion Kit qs 138 3kw Mid Drive Motor With Gear Box Product on Alibaba.com

But I upgraded to an EM260SGTP and also harness Combo#6 ( Vehicle Wiring suitable for EM260 controller, Flasher, Relay, Ignition, 12V 10A DCDC Converter)

Total cost incl sea ship to Florida was $755

 

[halg]

a few months ago, I ordered the motor, controller, harness, etc direct from China. AliExpress had the kit combination I was looking for, but they would only air ship, and I wanted to save some money and was willing to wait for sea shipment. So I reached out to SIAECOSYS on Alibaba, and they arranged a kit per my needs.
basically it is this combination here: Qsmotor Qs138 70h V3 3000w Pmsm Mid Drive Motor Convertion Kit - Buy Qs138 70h V3 Mid Drive Motor siaecosys Conversion Kit qs 138 3kw Mid Drive Motor With Gear Box Product on Alibaba.com

But I upgraded to an EM260SGTP and also harness Combo#6 ( Vehicle Wiring suitable for EM260 controller, Flasher, Relay, Ignition, 12V 10A DCDC Converter)

Total cost incl sea ship to Florida was $755

View attachment 13047

This is exactly what I did. However, in my case siaecosys said "For sample order, we will only use express for shipping.". I didn't press the issue but apparently I should have as air shipping was $260! That was more than a quarter of the total expense. I just got my bike torn down and power washed and will be measuring for the battery soon. I went ahead and ordered a small 20S5P 120 amp test battery from amorge for $500 metal box and all. I'm interested to see how the bike performs with the test battery. Hopefully that will tell me more about what I need from the real battery. I plan to use the test battery on a build on a smaller bike I have that has a questionable motor.

When I contacted amorge in early Jan about the test battery they said "there are 600 sets of batteries waiting to be produced" before the holiday. So, they couldn't get started until after the chinese new year. That is a lot of batteries! It sounds like the word is out on amorge. Not sure if that is good or bad for us but hopefully economies of scale will balance out the large demand.

My donor bike is a KLX400 which is more of a trail bike so I won't have to meet the performance demands of a full on motocross bike.

Thanks to everyone who contributes to this forum. I'd be lost without it. When I look back to the stuff people were doing before the V3 QS138 with the internal gear reduction I am amazed and glad QS got that motor released. It REALLY simplifies things.

Good luck!

 

[Jim Beagle]

Hello halg, I should have clarified I bought my QS138/Votol kit sea shipped thru Alibaba, as the suppliers on AliExpress would only air freight. Amorge told me the same thing, about 600 orders backlog. Yikes! I am currently working on several different battery pack configuration options, will post pics in a couple days. Good luck with your build !

 

[halg]

Hello halg, I should have clarified I bought my QS138/Votol kit sea shipped thru Alibaba, as the suppliers on AliExpress would only air freight. Amorge told me the same thing, about 600 orders backlog. Yikes! I am currently working on several different battery pack configuration options, will post pics in a couple days. Good luck with your build !

Interesting. I went the route of emailing qs motor from their web site QS MOTOR Official Web Electric Motor Leading Manufacturer. According to their posts on endless-sphere (a site I highly recommend by the way), there are a lot of vendors selling these motors and some of them are not real qs motors. I do not know for sure about those claims but I can say that their presence on that forum and feedback from others there that they stand behind their sales lead me to purchase from them directly. I think this saved a bit of money but the shipping really is a large part of the equation. So, if you are not in a hurry and can figure out a way to purchase without air shipping it can significantly lower the expense.

Below is my quote from them. I ordered an extra accelerator unit which gives me the option of keeping the stock throttle. Here is an example from amazon. This is the direction I am leaning.


These are some of my first experiences purchasing stuff directly from China. But, my conclusion is that finding a real deal vendor and dealing with them directly is the best route. So many listings on alibaba and aliexpress have the words QS138 and QSMOTOR and SIA and SIAECOSYS that it was hard for me to know who I was dealing with. Those sites are fine but making sure you have the correct vendor seems to me to be critical.

EDIT: I should add that purchasing through alibaba or aliexpress does provide the benefit of having a route to handle any disputes which is a factor. I chose not to but others might think that benefit is important. Again, just make sure you have the correct verified vendor.

 

[Jim Beagle]

The RMZ airbox is integral for the attachment of the rear side plastics, so I dremeled the airbox just a bit to get the EM260 mounted inside.
just two bolts at the bottom, and the top is captured by the seat bottom.
I had to trial bend a few brackets to get the controller to sit like I wanted. my metal fab skills are a bit sketchy.....

 

[Jim Beagle]

I mounted the QS138 with mounts from Lithium King, they fit perfect
I then built a battery box using the dimensions from fmxxx6 ( thanks for posting!!! ), I had to chop off the top rear engine mount to get the battery to slide down between the frame. But the RMZ frame/tank/seat design must be a bit shorter than the Honda, because I think this pack is just too tall......

Note: I am waiting for Amorge to come back from holiday to review some other options I have proposed...

 

[Jim Beagle]

the battery journey....

Amorge sent me their honeycomb cell holder template, so I've been using their cell layouts to aid with my various battery box designs using Cardboard CAD

With my first proposal, Amorge said they had an issue with the "inclination and safety seat" I still dont know what that means....

But I decided to hack the top mount off the QS motor like many others have done, to try to fit more cells

here are a few boxes I built, but after all the back and forth and various design tweaks, I think the max capacity I can get vertically between the frame at 72V is 12P (280 cells)

so I am now looking at going with a wider pack, about 9 inches wide that slides in from the side (three stacks of battery sets instead of two stacks)