bike parts used for other purposes

Deacon and I were kickin' it back and forth last night and we had some amazing ideas bouncing off deacons idea of using a bottom bracket as a jack shaft ( see work in progress thread.).

What if you raid a donor bike for parts, and I mean for things other than the easy stuff like brakes, lever etc....

For instance, you could cut a bottom bracket out flip it, use part of the old frame to mount it inside of the other bike frame and mount gears on each side. Ghetto jack shaft.

or what if you used an old mountain or road bike hub with a freewheel mounted with your quick release above the tire into a drive spindle? with the engine mounted above that and a chain driving the hub. hub rubs the tire and presto free wheeling drive wheel that has a change-able gearing- one could even rig up a fancy pants gearing system with a derailleur. also the best thing- no need to remove the spindle if the engine isn't running- freewheel.

flip the engine, bolt a small gear to one side of the hub and keep the cassette on there and instant freewheeling jack shaft. You could mount it pretty much anywhere- in frame etc. the only issue is how to mount it. because the bub itself is spinning you have to consider that your chains all have to run inside or around the mount, also the engine would need to be offset to account for the length of the hub- they are pretty short.

With the current model of friction drive that D and I are running the engine is hanging off the side of the bike, off setting it an inch or 2 would alleviate some of the center of gravity issues also, removing the spindle from direct engine contact would alleviate A TON of pressure off the engine. And save a lot of wear and tear too. Also as D pointed out- you can keep more of the plastic housing that helps to keep the engine cool and cut down on engine vibration.

Obviously it makes building a friction drive a lot more difficult- not as easy as ripping apart the whacker and attaching a spindle. BUT at the same time how easy would it be to use the hub with gears to make an in frame design?

cheap and pretty easy to do.

Something I noticed today when in the garage ripping apart eh cheap bike I bought for parts....

the front hub is far easier to get at and disassemble. Nothing on it to screw up To remove the spokes I took off the tire fitted a 7/32nds socket on power drill and went to town Spokes slide right out.

The rear hub is a PIA to get all the spokes out, you need to get the free wheel off to get them off, and getting the free wheel off is easier said than done. I may need to buy a special tool to get the free wheel off, but right now it's not a freewheel because it's rusted up. I suspect this bike was ridden not much and put away wet.. into a wet barn and left to rot.

I've dated the bike to the late 60s to early 70s. The components are all suntour, and in great shape, a testimony to the quality of even their cheapest components. The rear derailleur is a Honor and the front a spirt, not a typo. Both lower level but in really great shape.

the whole thing made me thing a little more. if getting the spokes out of the rear hub is such a pain how can I use the front hub for my jack shaft or friction drive set up?

I had multiple thoughts

the hubs are too narrow on this old and cheap bike to use as a direct friction drive, sooo:

Vital info-
hub is about 3.5 inch side to side
weed whacker is about 6.5 inches, depending on the model.

First attach a gear to one side, bolted into the flange... and attach something to the other end for the friction drive, or cut the other end's flange off and slide something over it to made the drive spindle.

I was thinking a skate board wheel would be perfect.

or use the hub itself as the bear bracket like a pillow bearing bracket, but use the bolt itself as the drive. attach to it using set screws the bolt is 3/8ths, so any length of 3/8th bolt could be used to hold everything in place.

a frame work could be built , something like a u shape that fits over the tire, weed whacker sitting on the top, the hub below, with a gear on one side and the hub either sitting on the tire or with something attached todrive the tire.

Whole thing could be flipped and realigned so that so that a chain could be run from the end of the hub to the gears of the bike....

I'm going to rework the madwagon with this set up in mind.

So here is something. That old hub is hard steel, I tried to work with it, thinking it would be as easy to drill as the OCC hub. After 3 drill dulling passes I gave up on it.

Then I was looking at the pile of spokes and nipples I pulled out of it...

I figured what the heck. I marked and drilled out 8 holes into the skate wheel. bent and cut 8 spokes to fit it and then attached them. bent part to the hub, nipple to the wheel... It feels tight and solid. We'll see how it works though.

I've bid on some sprockets on eBay and I think I'll see if I can do something similar to attach those. NOw I need to see if I can get another more modern junk hub to play with... maybe a kids bike?