Aloha, all. I have lotsa questions to please take a stab at some to get me rolling.
I have built 5 trikes from motorcycles, mopeds for myself over the years as I am in a wheelchair. My latest is a tricked out 3 wheel moped capable of 75mph with tons of European 2 stroke parts. (this explaination is given to dispel your thoughts I am making some 3 wheeler that does 5mph and travels on the sidewalk under grannys control). ANYWAY. here it goes

What I am starting:

I am looking at 2 RF900's (sportbikes) today, not running for $500.00. I will strip and weld and make a frame and the end result will be essentially one RF900 on the left and one RF900 on the right with me in the wheelchair in the center. One of the front ends will be put in the middle. And I will be using farings and it will look very eye appealing. So yes I will have twice the battery space and I will use one motor for the right side. I am looking for a top speed of 65-70mph with cruising speed of 50mph and 50 mile range. I know this is a bit of a tall order, but I have battery space. I probably will use LA batteries and wait until Lithium become more widespread and cheap. (or use Prius NiMh??)

Here are some of my questions:

1: How do I size the motor?
2: What rpm?
3: I am shooting to use 96v. So can I use a 48v golfcart motor and "overdrive it".
4: In the golf cart motor above, if it is 5hp running at 48V, does it mean it will be 10hp running at 96V. (then I have to be sure it does not overheat)
5: In going past the recommended voltage, does the extra voltage just overrev the motor, or do you stay within rpm range and gearup and the extra voltage/amperage will produce more power within the stock rpm range.
6: Is it worth it to use golf cart/forklift motors or just better to get the specialty motors that EV'ers use?

thanks for your help
Francis



I see 10hp, 10kw, 6.7"

Try your question here

Golf cart motors are not going to work. Series wound DC motors rpm is proportional to voltage applied. so going from 48 to 96 in theory will double the RPM, and doing that will make the motor fly apart. The other downside to DC series motors is the torque and rpms is inversely proportional. The largest golf cart motor I know of is GE D398.