Too much thinking is dangerous.

By the power of Threadcromancy arise my old thread.

Not such a good day for me today so I'm doing research. I haven't given up on the idea of building my own motorwheel it's just that I wasn't happy with some of the design points and on top of that the local recycling centre (the tip) hasn't been coming up with the goods lately.

As many of you know I like French cyclecars, Velocars, bikes & etc mostly because of the principle that, 'The French follow no-one and no-one follows the French'. That's not an original Intrepid quote by the way, I got it from the Cyclekart Club forum. Getting back to the topic something I did not know was that Monet & Goyon (one of my favourite French makers) made a motorwheel.



Doing my best to ignore that distractingly beautiful green bicycle I soon noted that Monsieurs Monet & Goyon had taken a very different approach with their motorwheel and what's more I liked it

More Monet & Goyon motorwheel.

Mike B said:

Well, they take all the old stuff and melt it down and make new stuff out of it.

Not many people are into the DIY thing ya know. And the crap does build up.

I'm guilty myself, still got old copper pipe with soldered ends on it from replumbing jobs I've done.

Me toss copper pipe? No way Jose -

Click to expand...

The trouble is Mike the New Stuff they make from the Old Stuff usually isn't a patch on the quality of the Old Stuff that was used to make it.

I've got some nice lengths of copper pipe under the house left over from previous plumbing work. Take it to a scrap yard, - no way. What if i should need it for something? I would feel a right idiot then for having to buy new what I used to have already.

Scrap scavengers around here are a problem. The mining museums and the preserved bush railway folk have to be constantly on their guard for scrap thieves stealing irreplaceable parts from machinery under restoration.

Other places I've lived it's been very easy to find second hand and used parts for projects. It was almost as if the bits and pieces breed and the mounds of parts just get bigger by themselves. Not now though, folk are taking stuff to the scrap merchants right from the get go.
Fortunately there is a scrap merchant locally who actually advertises that he sells scrap steel items to folk looking for material for projects. I fully intend to go and check out his yard next week.

Building a motorwheel is still on the workshop roster, - only I want to finish building my cyclecar first before I get distracted with anything else. A motorwheel will be incredibly useful to have though as it can be hitched to anything that needs assistance with forward progress.

I'm not sure that direct drive is going to work. The original motorwheels always had some form of reduction gearing which was most commonly driven off the camshaft as the first reduction stage.
You're not the only one to wonder about using one of those space-saver spare tyres on a bicycle project. I have a couple of them put by for 'research purposes'.

Motorwheels are fascinating though and their basic simplicity almost demands that anybody with a spare wheel and an engine have a go at making one.

Some space saver spare tyres are better looking than others Maniac which means that it might be possible to find one that only needs a decent paint job and a little dressing up to pass muster. The good thing too about the space saver wheels is that they do have a bit of weight to them which is good for traction.

Interesting mechanical bits and bobs I have (but of course I'd always like to have more), so if i can't do something with that lot there must be something wrong with me.



(PS. the welding smiley is very nice, but I'd like it better if there was a welding lady smiley too. Pretty please could someone create such a thing for me.)

Now that is a really good idea Maniac. Beautifully simple, no complex moving parts; - you sir are a genius