Pimp My Bike - Honda Hobbit to Traffic Transformer

Quick Overview

Ryan F9 transforms a legally surrendered Honda Hobbit motorcycle into a high-speed, highway-legal commuter that can mimic a bicycle by removing its gas engine and installing a powerful electric hub motor system with 72-volt batteries, achieving speeds of 100 km/h and a 100 km range while retaining the ability to legally operate at 32 km/h as an e-bike.

Key Points: The project aims to create a vehicle that can legally thread traffic jams at 80 km/h on the freeway, circumventing the 32 kph limit for electric bicycles in Canada by utilizing a motorcycle platform. The base vehicle is a Honda Hobbit, a 49cc two-stroke motorcycle from 1973, which originally had a top speed of 30 kph and could also be pedaled like a bicycle. The build replaces the gas engine with a powerful QS 205 hub drive motor rated at 3000 watts, though the team notes it can comfortably run at 10-12 kW bursts, significantly more powerful than average ebikes. Electric Bike Laboratory's Miles provided custom fabrication, including a new swing arm designed to fit the oversized QS 205 motor, as the original Hobbit swing arm was too narrow. Power comes from dual 72-volt batteries, capable of producing up to 15 kW (around 20 horsepower) through the controller, providing the bike with a 100 km range at high speed. The final product features a regenerative thumb throttle for braking, which converts kinetic energy back into the battery, and the entire setup is deliberately disguised with soft bags and small boxes to look harmless and bicycle-like. The resulting vehicle is highway legal as a motorcycle and can achieve 100 km/h, but pushing a limiter button restricts it to 32 kph, allowing it to resemble and function as a legal bicycle for lane filtering.

Context: The video documents the modification of a Honda Hobbit, a low-powered motorcycle originally designed in response to the 1973 oil crisis that featured both a small engine and bicycle pedals, into a high-performance commuter vehicle. The creator, Ryan F9, argues that lane filtering should be legal in Canada but seeks a solution that legally allows high-speed movement through traffic jams while maintaining the ability to blend in as a bicycle when necessary, leading to this radical 'pimping' project.