Isolation Day 38: I Wanna build a Go Kart

An Electric Go-Kart Built for Two

A few years ago, I had an idea that, unfortunately, I never got to complete: What if I took four electric wheel conversion kits for bikes and attached them to a frame of some sort to create a go-kart?

These kits can get you up to 15.5 MPH without even putting any effort in. Now, I’m not exactly sure how the math would work, but imagine if you put four of these on a go-kart—if my math is correct, you could theoretically get 62 MPH out of this beast! You can also get rear-wheel kits that include sprockets and other bits and pieces needed to get it all to work.

I initially thought about using four powered front wheels so everything could be wired into one controller with a single throttle. Then, I could wire a few batteries together to provide power to the wheels.

However, while I was doing a bit of research today to put this post together, I found another solution. You can get a two-seat kart rolling chassis from Wasp that comes with everything except the motor.

All I’d have to do is pop a motor, batteries, and a battery management kit into it, and I’d be set up and ready to go within half a day. I’m still unsure about which motor I should use and how to connect it to the throttle, but I’d imagine with the right parts, it would be pretty simple.

Doing a rough calculation, the first option would cost close to £2,500 if I bought all the parts new. If I went with the second option, I’d probably end up spending closer to £3,000, but I’d have a more stable kart—since my welding is terrible—plus it has the added benefit of having an extra seat.

I’d probably go for the second option as it would be easier to customize and fabricate some fairings for. It would also likely be more suited to off-roading than something I built myself.

What do you think? Which option would you choose? Do you have any ideas on how I would go about wiring this up? Let me know in the comments below.