El Chopper ET

Hi everyone, I am new here.

I was talking to Paul51480 on youtube and he suggested this forum as a great place to learn about a motorcycle conversion that I am going to be starting and slowly building throughout the next year or so. It will take me a long time to complete because the funds for this will likely come from my residual income at the end of the month and since we are in a depression, it’ll be slow goin’. We’ve all got our hard times these days, and gas prices aren’t helping. Regardless, I’ll get there, probably in a year’s time.

So I am planning to build a bike based off of the “El Chopper ET” plans that I have bought here: http://rqriley.com/plans.html. (By the way, I ordered the plans nearly two weeks ago and still haven’t received them and am VERY disappointed).

I am hoping to get the rolling chassis and the welding done in 2008 and get the electronics, motor, gearing and the rest of it done within the first 5 or 6 months of 2009.

I’ve got a couple of concerns, mainly stemming from the fact that I am a big guy, about the size of an NFL lineman at a little over 300lbs. I know that can’t be doing much for the range that I will require which is 13-26 miles (I assume that I won’t have any trouble charging at work, but I’ll at least need 13 miles to work one way). It’s technically a little over 11 mile commute, but I don’t want to push it that far.

To my advantage, the terrain is completely flat the whole way. That’s good. To my disadvantage, I’ll need 45-50mph to keep up with traffic. That’s not so good.

So I’ve been lurking and trying to pick up knowledge as best as I can.

I’ve got a big project ahead of me!