"kindalikeawhizzer"

If you wonder what this build is doing here, I did ask members in other threads if it would be OK to post my build here and those who responded said it was fine. If there are objections then I'll ask the moderators to move it to the vintage bikes section.

Roughly six decades have passed since I first saw pictures in advertisements for the Whizzer motorbike. I believe it was in the back of a Popular Mechanics magazine or possibly my older brother's Boys Life magazine. It was love at first sight. Like just about every other boy in America I wanted one.

Over the past five or six years I have built a number of motorbikes and as I think about it I believe the source inspiration for all of them was the Whizzer... a bicycle magically transformed into a light motorcycle without the aide of playing cards on the spokes, but by a shiny gasoline motor! When it comes to these toys I am the boy who never grew up.

I never got a Whizzer (sniff) and have never even seen one other than in pictures. This build is likely my last one (famous last words) and I wanted it to have a belt drive like the Whizzers had. The frame will be a 1951 Schwinn Phantom (cantilever), so in those two ways it is reminiscent of the Whizzers I saw in advertisements.

While this build may be in the spirit of the Whizzer, I'm making no attempt to make it look like one or put Whizzer decals on it. No Whizzer engine. I can't tell you how many times someone has stopped me with one of my other builds and asked "is that a Whizzer? I always wanted one a them!" The person with this question was invariably an old fellow like me who remembered Whizzers as an icon of childhood fantasy. And I would explain that it was "kindalikeawhizzer", but was something I made.

So that's what this build is about. A nod of appreciation to Whizzer for being in the dreams of so many boys back when. What's Whizzer on it? The spokes is all so far. Well, that's something.

Builds usually begin with the frame and go from there. This one is starting with the parts and the frame will come later. Kind of ass backwards. A couple of years ago my friend Dan (Tinsmith) here on the forum helped me build a gas tank out of copper for my Indian Hiawatha and prior to that we made a few in frame gas tanks for the 1950's Phantom... a couple of tin ones and another out of copper. I still have one of each sitting on a shelf all dressed up with no place to go. As a gift to Dan for his kind help and friendship I gave him a Suzuki fork and my 51 Phantom frame.

As it turns out he has other projects and no plans for the frame. So it is coming home with me when I make a trip to the east coast this autumn.

Just yesterday I finished truing the wheels I built using rims from a 50's Schwinn, Atom drum brake hubs and Whizzer heavy duty spokes. I'm very pleased whith how they turned out. The tires are 26"X2.4" Cyclops which are supposed to give a very nice ride. I like the way they look. The fork is from a German Sachs/Hercules light motorcycle from the 1960's and the headlight I made from a Harbor Freight dune buggy light, somewhat modified to fit between the fork ears. The bulb has been changed to a 32 cluster LED unit

Gas tank is copper and fits in the frame. Seat is from a 1960's Schwinn. The engine is a 2 stroke 147CC Jacobsen made in Wisconsin in the 1970's. Carburetor is at the bottom of the engine, a reed valved Walbro. I'll make an air cleaner for it, probably from a tuna fish can. A carb rebuild kit came in the mail last week. The muffler is something I salvaged from a wrecked Amerchi/Harley Davidson light motorcycle (2 stroke). I think it will look okay cleaned up. If not, I'll use something else. The "sheave" I have sitting on the rear wheel is what I was going to use somehow or other affixed to the wheel. It is from a 20" bike. Chainmaker has kindly offered the real deal, a Whizzer sheave, so I will certainly use that. Thank you, sir! I'm guessing I may need to make up spacers to clear the fatty tire. Will cross that bridge when I come to it. The color I'm picturing is a kind of mahogany brown in Van Sickles Industrial Tractor paint. Good stuff. Maybe some pinstipes and accents on the fenders with cream. The color should go nicely with the copper gas tank and intended copper belt guard.

So that's where things stand. I'll be asking you guys questions regarding the drive line especially and appreciate you letting me post the build thread here. Hopefully the engine mounts and modification to the chain stay (belt clearance) will be done this fall and the bike can go together over the winter. with paint in the spring of 2014. A couple of other projects stand in line ahead of this one. Thanks for having me here as a kind of guest. Distant cousin maybe.
SB

Thanks for the kind words and for making me feel welcome as a guest here in your part of the forum. I'm already learning some things. For one I think I will return to just calling my frame a 51 cantilever and refrain from calling it a Phantom. It almost certainly was never a Phantom and since I will not be trying to make it look like one it seems pretentious and inaccurate to use that term. I'm trying to remember back to what color the frame was originally before it was stripped down and painted. It seems to me that the chain guard (since given away) said Hornet on it, but my memory being what it is, who knows. Maybe there was no Hornet model in 1951. Whatever, as the Irish say, "...it is what it is."... kindalikeawhizzer. Ha!

I see that some of you are pretty serious about Schwinn restoration, trying to be accurate in returning a model to the way it was. I respect that even though I tend to use what I have and make what I don't have. My workshop is a picnic table outside in fair weather and in the winter it is inside my old trailer where I live with my dog Aaniimoosh. Until she gets a job we're on a pretty tight budget. In my own way I'm serious. too, trying to make the best build I can with the resources I have.

Part of the motivation for this build was seeing some parts sitting unused and wanting to pull them together into something nice. With some help from you guys, I think it will be. I'm shooting for low budget, high quality which are two things which don't always go together easily.

I have two of the 147CC jacobsen engines and paid $50.00 for one and $75.00 for the other. I've started them both and each have great compression and fired right up. Both need to have the carbs rebuilt. I found kits for $7.00 each. They are pull start and have a 1950's look about them. I'm hoping there will be room in my 1950 Schwinn straight bar for one of them, wanting to replace a 99cc Predator for an increase in power. That bike has a canoe sidecar and is a lot of bike to push along. The other Jacobsen will be for this build. I don't foresee problems fitting the engine into the cantilever frame, but am less confident about the straight bar. The carburetor being at the bottom of the engine is odd and a little worrisome. On the other hand I can tilt the engine however it fits best since the carb is a reed valved walbro and the engine being two stroke it will run in any position.

I mentioned being very pleased with the wheels. For one thing it is satisfying to build your own wheels, especially if the end result is something you could not have afforded to buy or have built. The 1950's Schwinn rims were free and in good shape and the French made Atom hubs cleaned up nicely. They were from a strange little AMF Roadmaster sold by Harley Davidson back in the 1970's when mopeds were a big deal. I didn't pay much for the little moped and have since used the frame in conjunction with a Tomos engine, so I can value the hubs at maybe $20.00 for the pair. Spokes were for a Whizzer and were purchased through ebay for $45.00 including shipping. So, the wheels come to $65.00 for the pair. Tires (26X2.4") and appropriate fatty tubes came to around $55.00 including shipping. The bike was given to me. The seat is from a dump find. Copper for the gas tank was given to me by forum member Tim Bollner and Tinsmith built the gas tank with a little help from me as an act of friendship over several enjoyable Saturday mornings in his Tinsmith Shop a couple of years ago. Good times. Hardware for the gas tank came to not much, less than $20.00. The headlight cost $12.00 and add in another $5.00 for the led light cluster inside. Both from Harbor Freight. I bought the Hercules fork for cheap on ebay a few years ago for $35.00 including the shipping. It was missing the hardware for clamping down the handlebar which I have since modified from a bike found at the dump. The engine for this build was $50.00 courtesy of my forum friend Curtis Fox. Thanks Bud. That included the shipping, no less! All it needed was a replacement end for the pullstart which I robbed from a dead Tecumseh. My friend Steve (Fasteddy) has already made up the engine mounts which will be cut to size when fitting the engine this autumn.
Thus far I have invested $249.00 in this build. Pretty good, I'd say!

As you can see, fingerprints from many forum friends are already on this build. Chainmaker, yours are there, too. So I thank you Whizzermen in advance for your sage advice and commentary. Often when we plod along on a project it is easy to lose sight of the progress made. Some things take such a long time and are so tedious. Then we upload a few pictures and forum members offer their insight and encouragement which is like a blood transfusion spurring one on to persevere to the end. And then one fine day we climb aboard our home made ponies and ride off into the sunset, smiling, smiling... high ho Silver, away! Ah, to be 12 again!
SB

rickebiker,
Thanks for the kind words. Having seen pictures of your bikes it means a lot. You may be new to the forum, but are certainly not new to two wheelers!
SB

msrfan,
Hello old friend! I hope that somewhere along the path of this build you will share some pictures of your own "kindalikeawhizzer" briggs builds. It was you who led me into using moped parts on bicycle frames. With bicycles designed for pedaling and mopeds designed for motors and somewhat higher speeds it is a happy marriage of two different kinds of machines. The added bonus is in being able to resurrect funky old moped parts still of good quality for low prices. I have you to thank for my wheels and fork on this build. Without your example it would not have occurred to me. Who knew? Your Whizzer like builds were not cheap imitations meant to look like something they weren't. Rather, you used the Whizzer as inspiration, incorporated principles from them in new and different ways. You have inspired many of us. So I thank you again for sharing your knowledge, your skills and your love of motorbikes.

Regarding the Whizzer Roadmaster with sidecar. What kind of attachment does the sidecar have to the bike frame? Is it rigid or can the bike lean into curves with a flexible mount? My American Flyer (50 Schwinn straight bar) uses a rigid mount which caused me a lot of problems at first getting used to a whole different kind of dynamic in riding. You don't realize how much steering you do by leaning a two wheeled bike into curves. There's no leaning with a rigid mount sidecar any more than you can lean a three wheeler. My first ride down the driveway I nearly ran into a tree. Gotta steer with the handlebars, bud! I also kept feeling like it was going to tip over at curves. But after many miles under the wheels I'm more comfortable now and feel quite safe.

You asked about weight. My sidecar, being aluminum is light. My friend Fasteddy designed the sidecar frame and mounting system and tends to overbuild as a nod to safety, which I appreciate. He didn't want to see me get hurt. I didn't either. So the sidecar overall is heavy. Which is good in some ways but asks more of a motor to push it along.

I wondered what a flexible mount setup would be like so have made a much lighter sidecar, strictly dog or toddler sized from a 1950's baby buggy to attach to my 1934 Elgin build, still in progress after two years. Since I haven't ridden it yet I still don't know how it will handle, waiting forever to find a carb kit for an old British Villiars midget cast iron two stroke. That's the down side of using antique motors from foreign lands... finding parts.

You asked about what I have in mind for a clutch. I'm leaning toward an automatic clutch. I have one which will fit the 3/4" engine shaft, but it is for chain drive. I was thinking about going from there to a sprocket on a jack shaft with a belt pulley on the other end of the jack shaft and from there to the rear sheave. That would be the super low budget way to go. If this is a bad idea I'd like to know now rather than later, so advice is welcome.

Thanks again for your encouragement.
SB

msrfan,
That 8 hsp Briggs engine must have required a large shoehorn to squeeze it in there. Jeez! Is that your race bike? If I remember right the other Briggs builds are 5 hsp and have a belt final drive or am I remembering wrong? Anyway, that's a serious looking machine. Is that a Puch fork?


A couple of thoughts about the sidecar. I have to say that it is less fun to ride than feeling agile on two wheels. With a sidecar the bike feels more cumbersome and sluggish. The upside is the reason I have the sidecar... so that my four legged friend can come with. It is such a pleasure to see her next to me looking so intensely out of her doggles at the road ahead, scouting for deer, dratted commie red squirrels, cwazy wabbits or whatever else comes our way. At speed her ears become airborne like little wings helping to speed us along through the forest. What a hoot that is. And the reaction of people seeing us is such fun as it seems to make everyone smile and makes me feel like the ambassador of never growing up. A lot of pictures have been taken of us, but I never see them. Maybe Aaniimoosh The Wonder Dog is a little bit famous now. She doesn't care about the onlookers, just wants to go for rides in her sidecar.

No sidecar for this upcoming kindalikeawhizzer. I want for it to look and handle like a light motorcycle, having power at the throttle and leaning on those fat tires through the turns. Oh boy... vroom!

The bike in the photo is my "American Flyer" ( 1950 Schwinn Straightbar) with a 99 predator engine and Qmatic transmission. This bike is going to also get a 147cc Jacobsen if it will fit and I'll try to use the same transmission again with a chain final drive as it has now.
SB

mason_man said:

You guys are something! WOW.

Ray

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It is well worth doing a search for msrfan's builds. Clean, well thought out and skillfully executed... fun bikes that make you think "Whizzer"
SB

"the prussian" Shop Dogs said:

Silverbear, I gain more respect for you every time i read a post of yours...(esp the reply to kenx? ) as always count me in for any way i can help w fab or parts or ??.
A friends father was a wizzer fanatic during the 60-90s ,so i got to see (never ride! ) so many great bikes over the years. I feel like it was a big part of my love affair with the light bikes and source of inspration .
Just think of the bikes that could be built from the parts we all have laying around ? Maybe sometime we should try and build a bike all from donations (as far as possible) a true "forum build" ?
It would be neat to have a few guys meet at someones shop and see what happens?
Best of luck with this build (I'll be watching) and sure hope to meet you in person this fall.
Jim B.

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Thank you, Jim.
There isn't much more I can do for this build until I have the frame in hand sometime next month after the trip to the east coast. Faasteddy & I are looking forward to taking a road break out your way and want to meet you and the shop dogs. it will be a highlight of the summer. I do hope we can work in a ride. Good as the bikes are that we all make here, better yet are the friendships made on the forum. What a lot of good people. If I could I'd ride all over the country meeting people in person that I have met here on the forum. I'm sure a lot of us feel that way. Hope to see you this autumn. Moosh says hi and I'm wagging my tail.
SB