Surge Electric Motorcycle

I've always been drawn to motorcycles. I finally got my license in 2022, and immediately wanted to build my own bike. I had never been too interested in the collegiate car competition teams (Formula Electric and Formula SAE), but then I found Formula Lightning - a collegiate electric motorcycle competition. In the fall of 2024, I founded Surge - Electric Motorcycles at Berkeley, Berkeley's first electric motorcycle club and competition team.

Skills/Softwares

Design and Build

Surge started with a 2004 Honda CBR600RR, purchased for cheap with a blown motor. After disassembling, we kept the frame, forks, swing arm, wheels, and brakes to use on our first electric conversion.

We purchased an 8000W electric motor and began work on a custom battery pack. We started our mechanical design efforts by hand-measuring the frame and attachment points, but eventually 3D scanned the frame to get more accurate points. We designed a custom motor mount and subcage which bolted into the existing bolt holes on the frame, while appropriately supporting the weight of the motor and keeping it centered. We also designed a battery enclosure which connected through the subcage.

Our custom battery was designed for speed and low-cost. We used 21700 Molicel battery cells, spot welding a 26s4p battery. We calculated an expected top speed of just over 100mph based on this pack and our motor. We knew that our range would be very limited, but based on our non-existant budget we decided to prioritize hitting high speeds.

We assembled the battery (including one mishap and near explosion), water jet our custom aluminum parts for the subcage, and spray painted the fairings for our super-cool all black look. We are beginning our testing in June 2025!

Lessons Learned

Building the right team will yield the best results.

Battery packs are to be handled with care at all times.

Recognize and account for differences in material properties of prototypes and production parts.

Chasing perfection yields no results. Try, then iterate.

It will never happen if you don't do it. Failing is better than never starting.