Indian Tadpole

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curtisfox

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Dec 29, 2008
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minesota
Nothing amater with yours, i think it looks fantastic. Its just a earlier model you made, every bit as nice as this one.............Curt
 
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indian22

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Dec 31, 2014
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I agree with Curtis your version is awesome & the Camel back tank is so very special. Please don't abandon this great project! Building a Flyer frame version would be a cool followup project for sure too, but I doubt it would surpass your current project in any way. It would just be different& create a problem of deciding which one to ride. Rick C.
 

fasteddy

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Feb 13, 2009
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British Columbia Canada
Hi Rick,

Hope you feeling better.

Ya, no one likes a quitter but that just isn't my style fortunately. A Sportsman tri car or sidecar is in the future but not until the tri car is done. I'm usually planning three or four builds ahead of where I am at the moment though the Sportsman build what ever it is will be next.

I could live with the decision making as to which one to ride next but here in Canada it had best be electric or it may disappear on the back of a wrecker as you stand there with an eye watering huge fine. Possibly a Sportsman Flyer electric bike with one of Sick Bike Parts larger electric motors with 48v power just to shake up the tri car builds. Illegal as can be but hard to prove unless they test it. Keep it under the 20 miles an hour speed limit and your good to go. The limit for ebikes is 500W in Canada.

It it doesn't make a motor noise the police would probably over look it. We have an R.C.M.P. officer in the family and I keep forgetting to ask him what the attitude, if any, there is in the force about motorized bicycles here in this part of B.C. Given their work load with drugs and the mentally marginalized as well as the traffic stop problems and the general criminal activity I would think that being stopped in our part of the province would have to be a very bored cop or one with a vendetta against motor bikes.

Steve.
 

indian22

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2014
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Steve it's good to get clarification that the camel back will be completed...whew over reaction on my part but us followers get vested in the projects of others over time & really look forward to watching all the way to completion.

As stated before a Flyer frame sidecar or Tadpole is a super project to look forward to...electric, I'm convinced it's the future for bikes in most locations in the States. Along with a V-twin & my Peashooter Harley I'm thinking of building an electric as well. Probably something simple to see how I like it, maybe convert one of my China girl frames or make a hybrid out of one with front wheel electric drive. Use the electric to bump start & at complete stop takeoffs, would be a hoot and super simple. The electric would also allow use of a smaller final drive sprocket & electric assists on long, steep climbs.

I also hope your health continues to improve, mine remains about the same, but I'm getting used to it & attempting a bit more each week. Keep building and smiling! Rick C.
 

fasteddy

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2009
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Rick,

My English grandmother used to say I was "Bloody minded". Bloody, in English terminology, is not a good word. The old dear meant that once I set my mind to something good or bad I would see it through to the end at all personal costs.

The electric bikes have come so far in the 7 years that I've been messing with them that when I look back it surprises me. I like the quiet of an electric but in the case of the Indian tri car it just wouldn't be right without the sound of a gas engine.

There are some mid motors that reach into the $1,000 range but they are the Ferrari's of ebike motors. Each one is hand built in small numbers. I think that I would go for one if it were the only transportation I had.

My health has hit it's limit I think. Just worn out and the arthritis is wearing me out more and more quickly. In the beginning when they found out that I had the staph infection in my knee I was given a list of options that they could/would do. One was stay on antibiotics for the rest of my life with the understanding that they would destroy my joints.

Then they preceded to pumping me full of antibiotics for fourteen months over the next 2-1/2 years until I was cured. Some of them were for powerful they could only be administered one half a dose at a time twice a day typically 8am and 8pm. Others were by a portable pump 24 hours a day for a month one time and a month and a half another time.

Now the arthritis has taken over what is left of the joints. It's not terminal thank goodness and having lived through worse I'll get through it but it is darned annoying.

Steve
 

indian22

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2014
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It's obviously been quite an ordeal Steve and now having to face Arthur as a result of the "cure" ...anything I say past this point about your health would probably be pointless. God bless, Rick C.
 

fasteddy

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2009
7,440
4,877
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British Columbia Canada
Hi Rick,

I was at Walmart yesterday for the first time in a year and a half. Amazingly enough everything I needed was in the back corner of the store. I was laughing when I thought about Wally World being part of the recovery process.

I'm off to the metal supply on Monday unless the weather is bad. We've had a wonderful summer so far but they are talking about rain for a few days which can't go wrong. We need it badly.

I'll work around Art. We've been constant companions since the car accident in 1965 and while he gets me down on the mat I've never been pinned yet. Gearing up for the last push on the tri car.

Some times it just pays to be Bloody Minded.

Steve.
 

MEASURE TWICE

Well-Known Member
Jul 13, 2010
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Definitely keep the car assembly going!

I like going to the metal supply place I go as it is like a museum with neat stuff to check out. Rocket nose cones, etc.

I'm not going to this years Burning Man, but I still have the fish mobile to bring there when it is done. I am though putting on the Briggs bike a bigger newer used engine on it for trail riding.


http://www.lavictrola2016.com/about-2/

A 3 story Victrola that cruises around the desert with people partying on it, it does seem like something to do. Another time!
 

fasteddy

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2009
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Curtis Fox was kind enough to send me his drill guide as well as the proper drills bit and bolts so I can drill and tap the end of the crank shaft on the tri car. Thank you Curt. I couldn't find a crank shaft drill guide for sale anywhere.

In one of those rare moments with the tri car that everything works out when I lined up the sprockets to see how much space I had between them it came out exactly right for the bearings to fit and the clutch is right at the end of the crankshaft.

I'm going to put a split collar in the motor side of the clutch on the crank shaft with loctite on the threads to hold the clutch in place. I'll go up to the metal supply tomorrow to pick up the steel to make the part of the jack shaft that the sprockets will mount to. Then it's over to the machinists to have him work his magic.

Steve.
 

MEASURE TWICE

Well-Known Member
Jul 13, 2010
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Hey things are ago again! I have put a little time in to get this other in better shape 3.5 Briggs on my bike too.

I will want to tap 1/4 - 20 threads into a 5/8 jackshaft to aid clutch to stay put. If there was enough room I'd also have a split collar, but it won't fit under existing cover.

I did in the past put threads in the end of the Briggs 3hp crankshaft while it was on the engine. I guess it was dumb luck. Actually I chickened out for a moment when the HF tap which only was probably good for clay, but not mid grade carbon steel failed.

Lucky I found high quality drill, tap, die, and Helicoil (for other projects) parts at a specialty shop in San Jose that will sell individual parts to the public.

Most important I found out what the occasional loud noise that emanated from near the jack-shafts on my bike were. The noise got a good resonance with the cover, but did not make it easy to find until seeing the jack-shaft worn spot under the areas of the 4 pillow bearings.

They are just the width of the bearings. So you know the bearing inner surface was not tight on the jack-shaft.
In removing bearings necessary to reconfigure for new used engine, I also saw on the outside of the outer bearing surface scrapes. Seems I am going to put new bearings in and new jackshafts, but use also Loctite 39150 High Temperature Bearing Mount Stick.

There are bearing by Timken that if I were to buy them, which well I am not going to afford $40 or more each, some of these have a way of tightening on to shaft. Two set screws do not exactly touch the shaft, but (ha for protection) put pressure on a sleeve that then connects all together.
Trademark Shaft Guard Technology is the expensive stuff.

Instead on the cheap I spend $14 on some kind of glue high temp that supposed to keep stuff together. I've hear of hammer peening as well to loose fitting pillows or something to make sure it is the ball bearing that roll.

The idea I heard is if the bearing are too loose fit, they will spin on the shaft and or the pillow bearing mount and create metal dust. The dust then gets into the bearing. The bearings heat due to the foreign matter, and you know the rest.

In the future I will just replace the bearings even before I notice a problem after enough miles put on them, just so for preventative maintenance. I also know weather gets to the bearings and the places I ride are not friendly to them either. Going through streams and mud is fun though!

Just checked, I got 2 and a 1/2 years riding on the bearings now problem before this intermittent scraping started a year ago, but did not pin it down and find out exactly til now.
 
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fasteddy

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2009
7,440
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British Columbia Canada
Went to the Metal Supermarket this morning. As my Dad would have said I was running around like a blind dog in a butcher shop trying to remind myself that I was there to purchase certain items. They have bin upon bin of what they call, crops. These are pieces that are left over after customers custom size orders have been filled.

I bought 2 good sized pieces of 24 gauge sheet metal to make gas tanks with. The main purpose was to get some DOM tubing to make the sprocket carriers from. I bought a foot of 2-1/4" OD x 1-1/4" ID. It was most definitely not a crop at $50 a foot. I had them cut an inch off it for the sprocket mount and I'll stash the rest for future builds.

I'm going to email the machinist Monday to see when I can drop off the parts. Fortunately he specializes in making prototypes for industries to see if the idea will work before they go into production so he doesn't say no to my jobs. He's also a motorcycle mechanic and the tri car has his interest.

The end is in sight at long last.

Steve.
 

curtisfox

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2008
6,041
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minesota
Went to the Metal Supermarket this morning. As my Dad would have said I was running around like a blind dog in a butcher shop trying to remind myself that I was there to purchase certain items. They have bin upon bin of what they call, crops. These are pieces that are left over after customers custom size orders have been filled.

I bought 2 good sized pieces of 24 gauge sheet metal to make gas tanks with. The main purpose was to get some DOM tubing to make the sprocket carriers from. I bought a foot of 2-1/4" OD x 1-1/4" ID. It was most definitely not a crop at $50 a foot. I had them cut an inch off it for the sprocket mount and I'll stash the rest for future builds.

I'm going to email the machinist Monday to see when I can drop off the parts. Fortunately he specializes in making prototypes for industries to see if the idea will work before they go into production so he doesn't say no to my jobs. He's also a motorcycle mechanic and the tri car has his interest.

The end is in sight at long last.

Steve.
LOL> I do the same thing, not only that but it might be $ 60 a foot next year. Glad to see you are getting there, that will be the KOOLEST build on the forum.............Curt
 

fasteddy

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2009
7,440
4,877
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British Columbia Canada
M.T.

Hope the repair goes well and most of all inexpensively. Thank you for the tip about loctite. I'll get some and ask the machinist to put it on the bearings before he assembles them.

Steve.
 

fasteddy

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2009
7,440
4,877
113
British Columbia Canada
Hello Rick.

Thank you. I'm beginning to see the impact that it is having on everyone. As I said before I'm just too close to it to see it as anything special. I wrote down the number of views the thread had on April 1st of this year just out of curiosity and I thought about it again a few days ago and checked it. There were 119,746 April 1st and on August 9th there were 139,235. A complete shock and surprise to me for sure.

That was when I understood just how many people were following along so I have put the spurs to the horse so to speak and will push it through to completion as soon as possible.

Thank you for your enthusiasm and gentle nudges. It's helped.


Steve.
 

fasteddy

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2009
7,440
4,877
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British Columbia Canada
Hello Curt,

I was more than a little embarrassed to go in and ask for an inch of tubing so I asked for a foot of it with the thought that it will cost more later and if I need it it's there. When and if my son stops traveling around on his motorcycle and settles back in the U.S. I'll gift him most of what I have put aside when I'm done.

No more custom bike builds that don't use Sportsman Flyer parts. Too time consuming and more expensive in the long run in my opinion.

Steve.
 

MEASURE TWICE

Well-Known Member
Jul 13, 2010
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M.T.

Hope the repair goes well and most of all inexpensively. Thank you for the tip about loctite. I'll get some and ask the machinist to put it on the bearings before he assembles them.

Steve.

Thanks.

I should note that different stuff I also prior had bought, anti-seize compound is not compatible with the bearing mount compound. If I used both, I have to be sure I could assemble without having to slide anything going on the jack-shaft where contamination would occur.

I'd say it best to use the bearing mount compound first and then if the anti-seize can be added last that would suffice. Otherwise I would go without anti-seize.

And here is the caveat, how to disassemble bearings from jack-shaft. They say on the package may take 500F degree heat and or gear puller. If this is not an option then don't use this stuff. The kind of sealed bearings with that rubber seals I use would be a mess with heat I imagine.

Found this thread even though it is about the other brand Permatex:

http://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/wheel-bearing-races-secured-with-permatex-bearing-mount.677315/

Info on Loctite although the newer stick is not shown liquid is similar. The directions on the package for Loctite Bearing Mount Stick say to use Loctite Klean an Prime.

I already have the primer for other Loctite products I have. Interestingly the pdf file below mentions that for greater strength to not use the primer and to let cure longer 4-24 hrs. I think in my situation I can use the primer and have it cure quicker and have a bit less strength so disassembling will be less a problem.

Checked and I can remove the bolts holding the bearing mounts and take the whole jackshaft over to a workbench where gear puller could be used. If necessary heat far away from gas tank and engine. There is no room otherwise on how I designed my bike.

Those hardcore's in the thread above had a concern for off-roading and having the available tools to use on the breakdown spot. As long as I get back to camp I have my folding work bench. I have extra bearings I bought and would have them with me.

I wondered about one spec it says for this stuff:
Military Specification
Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)

I checked yea, maybe you can use the tri-car to setup with a bailer. Figure on a way to automate for hops clean and kilning and leave the bines in the field not done yet.

Old time movie hops harvest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V44cH1s9kzE

MT
 
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