What's the best drive roller?

maybe it was the sand but mine wore off in less than ten miles both times I tried it.

I didn't let the gorilla glue cure long enough on the chainsaw bike and it fell off. Im not upset because of what that sand paper did to my tire. I am going to leave it on the mtb bike and try it with a different tire.

Shoes I am curious to get your opinion after a week. Let me know please.

So I tested out that knurled BMX peg, it was good but after trying out and getting hooked on the JB Weld and sand it just doesn't compare. The alloy spindle was better, I think because the knurls on it were pointy. The knurls on the steel were flat, and the pattern made was from grooves not true knurling. IF that makes sense...

So. tonight I decided to fix them. All my pegs that I've bought since I've started this addiction. I had the 1 inch, 1.5 inch, and a fat 2 inch. I prepped the spindles by first putting them in my drill and sanding down any chrome so that it was dull. Then I wiped everything down with acetone. Then I mixed up a mammoth batch of JB weld and sand. I slathered it on with a plastic fork again.

On the 1 inch I put it on pretty thick, so that it made the diameter about 1.25 inches. I put it on thinly and evenly on the 1.5 in. ON the 2 inch I put it on thin.

I rolled the finished spindles in sand for one final coat and to even out the texture. After that I used the handle of the fork to put an even set of grooves along the length of each.

The 2 inch was the thinnest application so after 6 hours it was hardened so I decided to take it for a test drive, I could resist no longer. I took it down to the industrial park and tooled around a bit. No low end power, Bump starts after nothing, got to love a freshly gapped and cleaned plug!

After the industrial park I cruised on over to the cummin's center parking lot via mcpherson drive and behind the stop and slop. Easy cruising at 17mph, with pedaling 19. Pretty scary fast. It handles downhills under power at nearly 23 mph. I will say though, it's no hill climber. Engine bogs down at the smallest incline, things the 1 inch roller handled with ease this one can't. BUt it makes up for it's lack of hill climbing ability with the flat and downhill speed.

I'm thinking the 1.5 inch roller will be the best of both worlds. I suspect it will increase my easy cruising speed (no pedaling) to 15 or 16mph and my easy pedaling speed to around 17 or 18mph and downhills will probably come in at a smooth 21mph, unless I lift the engine then it's whatever the cruiser can do.

A note about the 6 hour cured JBWeld- it held up just fine, the loose sand came out but over all little to no wear.

I can't imagine what this thing would do if I weighed about 50lbs less.

Let me know about the 1.5. I have a 1 1/4 id pipe nipple with the chainsaw nut on it. I can use it on the 42cc as well as the 33 Im curious now.

The 1.5 with JB Weld is where its at, higher top speed, though I have to pedal more... There is significantly less low end on this thing than the 1 inch, but I like the higher top end, it's safer in this area, if I were cruising around the farm I'd go 1 inch but for safety here, I need to keep up more with traffic.

I had to tune the tension to find the sweet spot. Which changes a lot when I sit my fat a$$ on the bike. Reminder to self: every time I change a spindle adjust the tension.

When I first went out I was riding with the dregs of what was in my can, engine was acting funny. I blamed it on all kinds of thing and then was reading through here and read a post by Pablo about oil settling out of the mix. This was as good a time as any to go get fresh gas.

I got fresh gas and mixed it to the proper ratio for this Ryobi= 32:1 drained out the old and filled it with fresh. Results- better running engine. Seems the bogging down wasn't my engine's fault or my fat butt, but the mix. Probably the oil settled out and though I shake it before every use it had probably just sat for too long.

So I took it out for a little test spin. The results:
The JB Weld and sand wins again. There is more oomph than the faux knurled spindle alone and less slipping. Though I will say more slipping than the 1 inch roller. This might have something to do with the size or how I put it on, the first application was sloppy this one is smoother and more precise. I'd say that rough is better, it has more grab, even if it is uneven. Also I used less sand, more sand is better.

The numbers: Top speed of 24mph, downhill with pedaling. More pedaling on flats, more ability to keep up higher speeds. I averaged 12 mph before tweaking the tension and 14 after. On McPherson drive I was able to keep the bike at 17mph easily and get there quickly. This was also not at WOT, more like 1/2 to 2/3. WOT got me the 24mph down hill and the engine wasn't racing. Up hill if I didn't pedal the engine would bog a bit and the spindle would slip, so pedaling up hill was necessary.

I'll have to test it out again when the roads are dry there were still a lot of puddles at the cummin's center where I did my test runs and speed runs, I suspect that speeds will be higher when everything is dry.

Verdict: This is my every day driving spindle. It will keep my up with traffic, force me to pedal a little more in the start but over all it's a winner. IF I know I'm going to a place that's really hilly I'll switch out to the 1 inch spindle and sacrifice speed for hill climbing.

Sounds like a plan. I have a 1.5 inch spindle that will fit either of my chainsaw bikes. I'll keep it in mind. I might decide to go that route as a test one day.

After I run the chainsaw 2 a few more times, I am going to build or rather rebuild a trailer for hauling packages. You never know when I might want to haul something home from home depot again. Something that won't fit in a plastic bag that hangs from the handle bars.

Yep I have a basket for the front of my bike, I keep a water bottle, my tool kit and the cell pone in a bag in there. BUt if I went to the packie here I'd only fit a small bottle in if I went to the grocery store I'd only get a small bag in.

Last night I went for another ride- did about 6 miles, getting 10 on a tank of gas now. This thing is hitting it's sweet spot now I think. I was easy cruising around 16 to 18 MPH and on McPherson drive I got up to 21, with a little human engine help. I got home rode up the drive way and parked in my usual spot.

I was letting the engine cool off before I put it away for the night, Well I went to go put it away and I decided, hey it's still early, why not go for another quick spin...

I backed the bike up turned it around and decided I was going to see if I could bump start it instead of pull starting it. Primed it up and off I went.

Well engine was acting funny, really funny, like it did when the peg was loose or when I was running out of gas...

So I pulled into the industrial park and took a look, first thing I check out was the gas- full tank I just filled it, next thing the peg. It was loose!

Remember when I said I backed it up? I gave it a little test and if I don't lift the clutch and back the bike up it loosens the peg just enough that the engine starts to act funny- loose flywheel, causes magneto to not work right and thus I don't get the right spark! so I tightened the peg down and pull started it- back to normal. So If I back it up and then bump start I've got issues, If I back it up and then pull start, no issues, the peg tightens itself.

I've decided this is going to be my everyday peg so I may go with a little loctite on it, but I really like the fact that I can change everything fast if i want to.

I use loctite or super glue on everything now. Well that isn't quite true. I use it when I remember to use it.

I do have loctite on the drive wheel on the 33 chain saw because it used to come loose.

by the way running an engine backwards causes the drive wheel to come off all the time. It's why engines that run clockwise have nuts that turn counter clockwise.

I have locktite on everything but the peg. I like being able to change them out for testing purposes. If I put locktite on it it'll make it a lot harder. I just need to remember when backing the bike up (engine off) to lift the clutch and not to be lazy

I'm headed out for a nice long ride tonight- I had a terrifically stressful day at work and well, I need to unwind a bit...

You know something was said earlier about friction drive. Friction drive is probably the safest of all bicycle propulsion systems. If your engine locks up wot you are going to have some slowdown from the braking action on your wheel. If your chain drive locks up you are headed for the ditch. I can swear to that first hand. Actually in both cases.

I agree when I've had the engine cut out on me because of lack of gas or whatever- the engine helped slow me down quite a bit. Whatever minimal damage could me done in those few seconds to the engine is way better than doing an endo and loosing control of the bike. Around here the bike would most likely end up crashing into someone's really nice SUV and I'd be out thousands of $$$

Additionally I think that because the top speeds of the friction drives are lower than many of the other engines it makes them safer. Though I am able to cruise around at 18 to 21 mph very easily now Usually though I sit around 14 to 15. Then again WOT is a lot of fun, just not needed all the time, except you know when I want to keep up with traffic... That's my excuse you know for speed....

If your drive is like mine it doesn't wear the tire perfectly evenly. My front wheel drive is so bad I'm going to reverse my front wheel. See if I can wear it out evenly.

Yeah that's in my plans for this weekend- flipping tires, the wear is now noticeable... I hate changing bike tires, but I need to put the new cruiser tire on the mount bike so I can start that build... If I do one I might as well do both

another good reason for front wheel drive. I dont have to dismount my tire to rotate it. Except on the two chainsaws lol

I have now proved (more or less) to myself that things can be attached to a drive spindle. If that is the case and it was with the sand paper why not tire tread. I gorilla glued some old tire tread to a couple of spindles,

Two things I do know for sure, the spindle needs to be smooth. I tried gluing on two different spindles earlier. The smooth one kept the sandpaper very well the one with dimples popped off pretty quickly. It needed to be tacked over the whole area.

So this time I am using smooth spindles and tire treads. However I was thinking about it in the shower and I think I did it wrong. I put the tread on it sideways. The ridges of the tread run laterally across the tire. That will cause the tire to push against the tread to break the bond. I should have run the treads the same direction as the tire there would have been less stress, I have two of them glued up. I will try it on the Weed whacker bike first to see if it breaks loose. If if does, I will set the next one to run with the bikes tire. If that works better it will be a good thing to know.

If neither works I want to try finer paper. The sanding belt I have is 60 grit and eats the tires. I'm thinking hundred grit might do better. The spindles I am using have no texture so anything will help.

I wonder what wold happen if you covered one of these spindles that have sandpaper or jbweld& sand on them with a nice even coat of silicone? how would it stick and would it increase the friction but decrease the amount of wear?

Today I was going to pull the insert (Pipe nipple) from the 33cc chainsaw and replace it with one I glued some tire tread to. Unfortunately I got it in there too good with loctite. It won't budge even with the 2foot pipe wrench I have.

So what I did with it and the 42cc was to coat them with a thin coat of jbweld. I cut grooves in the the jb for traction then sprinkled them with table salt now they are curing.

The idea is simple if this works peachy keen if not I will have a smooth surface to gorilla glue the sandpaper to this time. I know that sandpaper makes a world of difference.

The tires I have from the bike shop are too smooth, but the cheap tires from kmart have the same tread that seems to do so well on the front wheel drive bike. I'll try to remember to let you know how it works out tomorrow.

deacon said:

So what I did with it and the 42cc was to coat them with a thin coat of jbweld. I cut grooves in the the jb for traction then sprinkled them with table salt now they are curing. .

Click to expand...

I wonder if the salt will give you issues?

I have no idea I hope not. We will have to see how long it lasts. My guess is that it will be gone very quickly but leave the dimple where it was. That may wear off in a few minutes, I just have no idea.

report on drive wheel test. Sandpaper from a industrial belt sander attached with gorilla glue does very well indeed. Except.... it eats tires. However if you need a friction drive bike to perform like the china bike this is the way to go... tired be darned...

I tried the JB weld quickset with a little salt for grit. It cures eight hours and last ten minutes. It just rubbed itself off right down to the metal. I have another setup with jbweld regular which will have cured over 24 hour by the time I test it maybe even more.

I tried the drive wheel with the tire that had been glued to the drive wheel. It stayed on the wheel pretty well but the tire's sidewall on the drive wheel wore through from contact with the tire on the bike. The tread didn't do a lot better but..... I think it would have done better if It had been just the tread and if it ran in the same direaction as the tread on the tire. That is my next test for the 31cc bike.

The chainsaw 33 has a drive wheel with three strips of sandpaper not the whole wheel covered. I'm thinking half the sandpaper might give me the same performance with half the tire wear. Worth a shot I figured.

I'll keep you posted...