Indian Tadpole

Hi Curt,
We have a good slathering of snow if there is such a thing. The kids were off school since there isn't much for city street snow removal. Main roads only and the rest of us are on our own.We just don't get enough here to warrant it. If the snow is still here in two weeks or any trace of it, it is put down as a severe winter.

The hill up beside the school was reported to be well covered in eager young sliders. A real treat.

Steve.

Hi Tom,
Secondary medical services such as Chiropractors are only paid for if a doctor sends you to them. Government employees are usually covered through their medical plan.

Feels like the pain is on it's way out. Still enough to remind you it was there though.

Steve.

I have mentioned that we have a store much like Harbour Freight here in Canada called Princess Auto.
How did Princess Auto get it's name? Started is 1933 as a auto wreckers on Princess St. In Winnipeg, Manitoba. After WW2 they started selling war surplus and had so much that they had to open a separate store. When that ran out they started selling new tools and general surplus.

Here is a video from YouTube about Princess Auto as seen through the eyes of a U.S. resident comparing it to Harbour Freight. If you look at the overhead signs you will see they still have a surplus section.

The best part is this is the store I go to. Prices are Canadian dollars so figure that $10 U.S. is $13.50 Canadian.

Steve.

11:52 Watch later

Had some snow accumulate 11 inches over night and tried out my snow tires on my pickup truck. It was not a wet snow so it did not present too much a problem except on the drive way. 34 F in the day time and now up in 40's so nothing like up in BC. Was thinking about pull cord start when arm and kick back issues arrise. I know mods for kick start are one way to help the arm issue, but I remember the crank spring thingie and then pressing a release button start mowers. I could not believe the number of times I saw this guy keep cranking the spring when it would not start. Maybe just not knowing much with the engine to lessen the insane repeat without any pop at all. For smaller displacement and no decomp release, pull start recoil starter with the primer bulb built into the carb/airfilter is not too much hassle with a 3.5 Briggs, even when cold out.

Tom I rode one of my two strokes on a recent cold morning and it fired straight up, running really well with no manipulation other than shaking the bike a bit to mix the fuel before taking her out. The only reason it didn't lean out is it's quite modified with reed, extra jug port and piston window and jetted up to run rich and normally consumes twice as much fuel as a stock China girl. The actual temp that morning was about 10 degrees and I half expected the fuel to be a bit gelled, but no sign of it on the short two mile run for coffee. I've great enthusiasm for the China girl motors having put many miles on them over the years (10 plus) and each one is still in service, though three of them have outlived several bikes in the process.

Rick C.

The reason I'm on the forum this AM is I called in for a no show. Since 5AM another 3" of snow. I knew I should have bought a face cord of wood for weight.
Tom

MEASURE TWICE said:

Had some snow accumulate 11 inches over night and tried out my snow tires on my pickup truck. It was not a wet snow so it did not present too much a problem except on the drive way. 34 F in the day time and now up in 40's so nothing like up in BC. Was thinking about pull cord start when arm and kick back issues arrise. I know mods for kick start are one way to help the arm issue, but I remember the crank spring thingie and then pressing a release button start mowers. I could not believe the number of times I saw this guy keep cranking the spring when it would not start. Maybe just not knowing much with the engine to lessen the insane repeat without any pop at all. For smaller displacement and no decomp release, pull start recoil starter with the primer bulb built into the carb/airfilter is not too much hassle with a 3.5 Briggs, even when cold out.

Click to expand...

MT I've owned couple of the spring load mowers and they worked well, as do the pull start motors when the motors are in good shape. The Lifan start's easily with the pull start it's just my shoulder that's *%!* and won't tolerate the required motion involved...frustrating. The good news is I can mount an extra battery pack in the frame triangle & have my emergency backup if one pack goes dead.

The little 4 stroke and cvt may find a fit on another bike but I won't be pulling to start it an electric start is not out of the mix either.

Rick C.

Tom I'm just here protesting the warmer weather I should be embracing as I post, lol....

fasteddy said:

Hi Rick,
The clutch works now so I'm just going to ride the cold weather out. Our winter temperatures are 40's to low 50's but the past few years winter has been landing on our doorstep in February. Upper 20's at the moment.
More snow today so 8" total.

Great to hear the fat tired bike is doing well. I can imagine that pulling on the starter cord does a fella in. My neck and shoulder area has been a problem for years and I couldn't pull on a cord for long myself.
It will be interesting to see which lucky bike is the recipient of the Lifan and CTV.

Starting to look at wide rims for the electric tri car. It may possibly end up as a steam punk rendering. Saw a lot of new brass and copper that would lend itself to the look.

Steve.

Click to expand...

My kinda' build Steve with no real guidelines to color inside of creativity blossoms! I'm interested in how you envision the drive will be setup with the electric. I'm reading up on the electrics as I go and can see the possibility of an Indian electric tribute bike...V twin style with my own twists thrown in, so as not to duplicate what Pat has done, which is beautiful work, but I'd not like to copy his bikes. I'm hoping to come to grips with the use of lithium cells by the time I start on said bike, as weight, power and distance will be more of a factor than I've had on the fat tire bike. I don't mind the initial expense of lithium as I detest the lack of battery warranty on anything that costs that much.

Rick C.

M.T.,
A friend of mine was doing small engine repairs at a local hardware store when the crank and push the button mowers first came out. The owner bought a 45' trailer full of them when he saw them at a hardware trade show and paid to have the trailer left in the parking lot of the store.

When the some what dumbfounded staff asked where they were going to unload them too, the owner told them not to worry they would unload themselves and did they ever. He stood out in front of the store showing passersby just how easy it was to start and the staff were in the basement of the store putting them together as fast as they could and pushed them out the basement door to their new owners.

As you said the new owners couldn't figure out why they didn't start like they used to no matter how hard they cranked them or how often in a year or two. Easy start didn't mean never tune it up.

It was kind of amusing to see the back of the hardware store piled high with easy start lawnmowers that had been traded in because they would no longer start easily.

I live in the banana belt of B.C. The rest of the province is locked in -40+F temperatures and snow up to their tender parts. It will warm up in a few days and it will be, snow be gone.

Steve.

Hi Rick,
I have a Curry mid motor that I bought from Sick Bike Parts when they first started selling them. Instead of putting the motor down near the bottom bracket I plan to put it on the seat tube just above the bottom bracket so the chains run to the sprocket is as short as possible.

The battery will be in a battery box hung from the cross bar and possibly made from mahogany with an access door. Don't know what the seat will be made of yet. I want to distance myself from the Indian tri car and Silverbear's, Hiawatha build.
Been there and done that so it's time for something fresh. {I hope}.

I'll have to come up with something to cover the engine. I'm planning to label it as an electric and play on that theme so the motor look may be avoided. If I go with a Steam Punk look there may be a lot of obsolete electrical equipment on the motor cover. A miniature Frankenstein Lab look if you will.

I had kicked the creative can around when it came to camouflaging an electric motor into gas motor. Preferably a V twin. Doing the crankcase is easiest in a length of aluminium or steel tubing. I had thought of copper or brass until I saw the price. A Curry mid motor will fit easily. Then for the cylinders using worn out China girl cylinders if available or new ones and possibly stacking one on the other to get the height the old motors cylinders would have had.

A landing for the cylinders would need to be welded on and maybe the top of the tubing cut off and some metal bent and welded on to look like a crank case top so the cylinders have the right degree of spread.

Just a thought.

Steve.

Hi Steve, I discovered MrB's blog.
"Cool stuff if you haven't seen it already.
Here’s some quick thoughts on construction of the Tri-Car front axle, but I would like to take a good look at a real McCoy first…

I’m on the lookout for some buggy seat leaf springs to mount between the chair & frame, not quite as neat looking as the S shaped originals, but pretty inexpensive and easily found at flea markets.

Besides since this isn’t a replica, so who’s to say it couldn’t of been…?

One more thing for sure, to the avoid some of the costly mistakes of previous projects I’m going to work out the frame geometry with paper & pencil first!"

Also today I Ebay scored a New Departure Mattatuck heavy coaster brake, hopefully it’s in good shape and will replace the badly worn Schwinn tandem hub on Excalibur ‘09…



-Kirk

It would seem great minds. Seems I have to make a trip to Dubuque.

Steve,thanks for the electric Tri-car run down, sounds great & I'd think old guys with some disabilities should get a pass from the Mounties while conducting electric conveyances; our local constabulary just gives me the thumbs up and motor on, even the state guys...if I stay off "their" highways.

Good ideas on the "V-twin" electric. I've quite a few motor parts & various plates of assorted metals with which to form a round case with a bit of character detail. I'm thinking 1915 roadster look with light patina and a bit of distressed paint. I'm conflicted on the voltage and wattage at this point, but leaning to 72v & 3,000 to 5,000 watt. I'll build a faux petrol tank for batteries. I've plenty of time to decide as I'm committed to finish the sidecar first.

My much delayed 250 cc Yamaha twin build is looking doubtful as I really don't like the bulk of that engine or the Briggs V twin in the small frame I've envisioned, so I continue to search for the rather scarce small twins in the 125 cc/200 cc range without the unitized gear box. It seems I'm into collecting spare motors at this point having the two twins and now the Lifan/CVT, I may have to construct a wood chipper lol....

Rick C.

Tom, Curtis may have a lead on the springs, at least I recall a post related to the subject awhile back, but possibly another forum or p.m. I'll let you know if I come up with a source, but you're on the right track.

Mr. B is a fine example to hold out to others interested in becoming better fabricators, experienced or not.

Rick C.

LOL. I have these, may check them for curved ones.


http://www.hansenwheel.com/store/wa...t/seats-hardware/heavy-duty-seat-springs.html

http://www.buggystuff.com/Seat-Spring-5327.htm

curtisfox said:

LOL. I have these, may check them for curved ones.


http://www.hansenwheel.com/store/wa...t/seats-hardware/heavy-duty-seat-springs.html

http://www.buggystuff.com/Seat-Spring-5327.htm

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I guessed correctly Curt & that's almost as good as knowing it for sure...same result!

Thanks to many years of snooping. LOL Live long enough will do a small car, at my age its getting hard to walk the distance of farm show, and see everything. Don't help the show gets bigger every year, but see a lot of old bikes and cool stuff there, at swap meet.

Very interesting links Curt, thanks for sharing.
Tom

Went into the garage today. I've taken to calling it the Tomb. You just know it's cold when you have to open the door when it 36 degrees out so the garage warms up.

Steve.

Tom from Rubicon said:

Hi Steve, I discovered MrB's blog.
"Cool stuff if you haven't seen it already.
Here’s some quick thoughts on construction of the Tri-Car front axle, but I would like to take a good look at a real McCoy first…

I’m on the lookout for some buggy seat leaf springs to mount between the chair & frame, not quite as neat looking as the S shaped originals, but pretty inexpensive and easily found at flea markets.

Besides since this isn’t a replica, so who’s to say it couldn’t of been…?

One more thing for sure, to the avoid some of the costly mistakes of previous projects I’m going to work out the frame geometry with paper & pencil first!"

Also today I Ebay scored a New Departure Mattatuck heavy coaster brake, hopefully it’s in good shape and will replace the badly worn Schwinn tandem hub on Excalibur ‘09…



-Kirk

It would seem great minds. Seems I have to make a trip to Dubuque.

Click to expand...

Been away from the Forum for a bit and missed this-
I ride about 800 miles a season on my old bike, mostly around the hills of DBQ.
Wrench, Ride, Repeat as they say! LOL!

Said it before, but you outta consider the 2019 Scare Crow Run!
https://motorbicycling.com/threads/2019-5th-annual-midwest-scarecrow-run-6-8-2019.64045/
And anyone else in this vicinity who could too!