lilrich1959
Member
Well put brother. While anything is possible to a point it always good to remember you go it alone with modifications. If you have the financial wherewithal and time to experiment more power too you. I will keep an envious eye watching. I am reminded of my days experimenting with dino burning motorcycles and a well equipped shop and tons of time to fill after my wife passed. I took my perfectly good new Vstar 1100 and proceeded to tear it to pieces in search of a tire burning sleeper/cruiser. Of course compromise was out of the question. I needed at least 100 plus HP and rock solid reliability. After countless hours in the shop hand working every conceivable piece, scouring the aftermarket for parts, bugging my machinist friends endlessly, and custom configuration of the brain I finally achieved 120 hp on the dyno. Needless to say I probably spent three times the cost of the orginal machine not counting my time. 135 mph no problem go west and set the cruise. Ever see a shaft drive bike tear up a spoked rear assembly...not pretty, road rash optional. Not to mention a maximum of 20K mile rebuild of the gearbox required (why did they put that sucker in the crankcase) and never knew you could twist a driveshaft or destroy knuckles. Anyway love my baby and still going after getting close to 200k. Looks nice in the shop and still get the wild hair once in awhile like to blow the socks off the kids. But seriously I dabble with some conversions and have a 48v 1000w 40mph screamer that is taking up space next to it. What do I grab when I want to ride though. Neo Jet with fenders, rack and a handlebar mounted bottle cage, or my Stromer Sport with Big Apples. I'm used but not used up still like to push the edge on occasion, but seriously how practical is a dragster? Stock machines perform adequate for this old gray hair and are improving daily without all the personal sacrifice doing the R&D on your own involves. To those of you willing to push the envelope my hats off, for now I'll sit in the stands, but sure would give my eyetooth for an invite to the pits or a test ride now and then. Enjoy and keep those tires smoking....Personally, it's not worth the risk to put a 48v Nitro battery into a 36v NEO bike for the reasons Ravi stated. Go with a 12ah battery, unless you need extra torque and speed. If you want to put a 48v Nitro battery in a NEO just remember you know own a "kit" bike w/o a warranty. For some that's fine, but for most it's too much risk. Take that from someone who has been modding motorcycles, cars and other toys for over 30 years. It's a heap of fun, but you do so often with considerable risk ($$$ and safety). Just because something appears to work, doesn't mean it will stand the test of time.
What I have to often remind folks is that we are talking about bicycles here. If you can't get up a hill w/o more effort than whats needed on one of our bikes, it might be time for a motorcycle or scooter. Having measured a 730w continuous output at full boost on our "350w" motor, I'd say by most folks standards, that's pretty decent. Maybe that's why I have outclimbed a Specialized Turbo, Lapierre Bosch mid-drive mountain bike, Currie E3 Peak, and Stromer Elite on our 650b Jumper and with more comfort. Anyway, everyone has to find what works best for them.
Will technology improve, absolutely! Will battery capacity and motor efficiency also improve, certainly. When that happens I hope to be the first in line. In the meanwhile, there are some great choices our there, so find (or build) the best bike for you...and enjoy the ride seeing as today is all we have!
Peace.