I Turned An Electric Motorbike Into A Rat Rod | Ridiculous Rides
EVER wondered what happens when you put an electric motorcycle motor into a rat rod? Well, one car fanatic has the answer. Rich Benoit, a YouTuber from Gloucester, Massachusetts, has created something that he says has never been done before. Rich told Ridiculous Rides: “No one has ever taken an electric motorcycle motor and put it in a car - it’s beautiful.” Rich spent six weeks building his “work of art”, weighing between 12 and 1300 lbs and measuring 11ft long. At the heart of the 1930s Ford Model A is an electric motor from a wrecked motorcycle, complete with a custom made transmission adapter and a multi gear transmission from an old Chevy. Rich grafted the electronics on the bike and then put them on the rat rod, completing the interior with third row seats from an old dodge caravan. The acceleration enables the car to go up to 80mph, something Rich isn’t sure is the best idea. Part of the thrill for Rich is never knowing what will happen when taking the rat rod out for a spin: “Is something going to fall off or blow up? I really have no idea!” Rich enjoys proving the naysayers wrong who believe a small engine wouldn’t be able to pull the car. “My favourite thing about this is definitely the look you get from people who expect a big honking engine to be in front,” he said. “I feel like it really captures the spirit of hot rodding.”
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MotorTranscript
00:00 No one's ever taken an electric motorcycle motor and put it in a car before.
00:05 This thing will do 80 no problem all day long.
00:07 But do you really want to do 80 in this?
00:10 Am I scared driving it? Yeah. You just never know what's going to happen.
00:13 My name is Rich and I run a YouTube channel called Rich Rebuilds.
00:22 And this is my 1930s rat rod Ford Model A.
00:26 If I could describe it in three words, I'd say it's a work of art.
00:30 I mean, just look at it. It's just beautiful.
00:33 It's about 11 feet long and about 5 feet wide.
00:36 It weighs about, I would say, between 12 and like 1300 pounds or so.
00:40 And what powers this thing, the heart of it is an electric motor
00:45 out of an electric motorcycle that got wrecked.
00:47 And I figured as much, you know what?
00:49 Why not throw in a rat rod and see what it can do?
00:51 So right here we have the motor itself.
00:53 I had a custom made transmission adapter.
00:56 This is actually the battery pack itself.
00:58 It looks like a computer case. Everyone gets super confused over it.
01:01 This is actually a transmission out of an old '60s Chevy.
01:05 It's a three-speed manual. That's how it gets up to speed so fast.
01:08 Because it's a multi-gear transmission,
01:10 it accelerates pretty quickly for that small baby motor.
01:13 These seats are actually the third row seats from an old Dodge Caravan minivan.
01:18 I have the gauge cluster from the motor itself.
01:20 And right here I have the turn signals.
01:23 I have the high beams, speedometer.
01:26 So everything that I could, all the electronics were grafted from the bike,
01:30 and it went onto the rat rod.
01:32 [music]
01:33 It took about six weeks to build from start to finish.
01:36 [music]
01:38 Woo!
01:39 That's why we have the shield.
01:41 [music]
01:43 Figuring out how to mate the electric motor to the transmission,
01:46 that was a big challenge.
01:48 And the second challenging part was figuring out the accelerator pedal.
01:51 [music]
01:52 On a motorcycle, there's actually a twist throttle.
01:55 So I had to figure out how to mount it up front
01:57 and turn that twist pedal into the stepping motion that you're normally used to in a car.
02:02 I actually attached a manual cable.
02:04 So whenever I step on the foot pedal, it turns it that way.
02:08 [music]
02:09 The first test drive was interesting because there were a lot of naysayers
02:12 saying that the small electric motor would be too small.
02:15 There were a lot of naysayers saying that the small electric motor
02:18 wouldn't be able to actually move the car.
02:20 I was like, "Is it going to go anywhere? Can it even accelerate?"
02:23 And it sure did.
02:25 [laughs]
02:26 Woo!
02:27 [music]
02:37 The acceleration is surprisingly good.
02:39 What I do is I put it in first gear, and I just jam the accelerator pedal,
02:42 and it actually goes really, really well.
02:45 [music]
02:47 The transmission allows me to work with a much smaller motor,
02:50 so the torque hit is pretty instant.
02:52 [music]
03:03 Am I scared driving it? Yeah.
03:05 You just never know what's going to happen.
03:06 Is something going to fall off? Is it going to blow up?
03:08 I really have no idea.
03:10 Ah, see, there you go. It ran right there.
03:13 So you can see why you could do 80,
03:16 but do you really want to do 80 in this?
03:18 [laughs]
03:19 [music]
03:22 My favorite thing about this is definitely the look that you get from people
03:25 that expect a big honking engine to be in the front.
03:29 [music]
03:31 It looks like it's not supposed to move at all.
03:33 There's, like, nothing up front.
03:35 It just looks like a bunch of computer equipment slapped together.
03:38 [music]
03:41 Why the electric hot rod? I wanted to do it.
03:43 It just had to get done at some point.
03:45 I feel like it really captures the spirit of hot rodding.
03:48 [music]