New product announcement

[Creative Engineering]

Hello,

My name is Jim, and I own a small machine shop in Cleawater, FL.

A month ago one of my customers brought in a Schwinn (Point Beach) bike, and an 80cc motor kit.

He asked that I look over the kit and redesign any parts that I deemed inferior.

The motor mounts were the first to go!

After installation, I noticed that the clutch was extremely tight...almost to the point that it felt like something was going to break.

I redesigned the clutch actuator assembly so that the clutch lever pull force is what you would expect from a small motorcycle. Two fingers to operate, and smooth.

In addition the redesigned clutch actuator allows the rider to ease the clutch into engagement. You can now ride your motorized bike like any other motorcycle.

I have a temporary website that offers more info:

Bike Motor Parts.htm

[Dan]

Hello Jim, welcome. I am very interested in what you have done with the mounts. The problem with those is that they were designed for 1940's English bicycles and never reworked to fit modern, larger down tubes. (The portion of a bicycle that leads up from the crank housing to the handle bars/forks)

This spring I am launching a line of 50cc bicycle motors and the mounts are to be a double "V" with a flat bolting piece in between the V's so as to fit any size tubes and angles. Or suspend the engine from the top tube and have the twist arrested with a bar below.

I mention this as I will likely need a good fabricator and your clutch housing looks great !
For the green, tree hugger bunny lover consumer, I am also experimenting with propane conversion kits. Thats just fun. Would make a good sized hole and dark spot if some thing goes wrong. snork.

There is soon and already a growing market for these bikes and it really will help folks. So it is the good fight with profit. Win / win.

[Creative Engineering]

Dan,

Thanks!

The motor mounts were custom fitted to this bike, (Point Beach Schwinn). The rear set was straight forward. As you mentioned the frame tube diameter is larger than the factory mount will accomodate. I tossed the cast rear mount all together and machined a new set that has the correct radius for the diameter of the frame tubing.

The forward mount was a different story, I had to plot the curvature of the frame and the relationship of the engine to the frame, (gap), in order to machine a piece that would follow the contour of the tubing and slide into the half moon cast into the engine. This mount would only work on bikes with identical frame geometry. I don't know how many models utilize the same frame. This would be a good question for the forum.

Jim

[jasonh]

I'm curious if you have any more/better pictures of the actuator assembly.

What is actually different about the actuator? I would assume that maybe instead of the "flat" actuator it has some type of curve or something to gradually engage/disengage the clutch?

[Pablo]

Very cool. That would work nice with the Shifter Kit!

So it comes with the new cover as well?

[Creative Engineering]

jasonh,

The factory actuator assembly is riddled with geometric problems. For clarity I refer to the actuator as an assembly consisting of the housing, cam, and link arm. The entire assembly is offered from Creative Engineering, with hardware and an allen wrench.

The housing:

First, the housing is a die casting. Die castings are fine for items like the magneto cover, the clutch cover etc. These items are simply covers and therefore are not required to offer any sort of mechanical support.

The clutch actuator housing on the other hand holds the cam which pushes to through rod to open the clutch.

The factory die cast housing is not stout enough, so it deflects about .015" when the clutch lever is pulled.

Second design flaw: There is .030" clearance between the hole in the housing and the cam rod. In other words the shaft is sloppy in the hole. This drastically increases the friction for any given clock position.

Lastly: The relationship of the cam centerline to the pin centerline was way off from the factory.

The fix:

A housing machined from 6061-T6 aircraft grade aluminum toleranced according to standard engineering practice. Dead-on cam centerline, .001 clearance between the cam and housing, enough material thickness the eliminate deflection.

The cam:

The original cam geometry is nothing more than half the diameter milled away. This works fine when used in conjuction with a light duty application such as triggering a microswitch.

The fix:

Our cam has an eccentric milled into it that allows the through rod to push open the clutch gradually with little effort just like any small motorcycle. The milled flat in the factory unit makes clutch operation an all or nothing function. Due to the gear ratio, engine operating RPM, and wheel diameter: an all or nothing clutch reduces the ease of manueverability. I can do tight figure 8's in the shop parking lot with zero effort.

The Link Arm:

From the factory the cam has been hardened and straight knurled at the top; then the link, (soft steel), is pressed onto the cam. For many application this works fine...I've used it myself...but not here!

The fix:

Our link arm secures to the shaft via a taper, the taper is infinitely variable for ease of adjustment, and once tightened "CAN NOT" slip, strip, or otherwise fail. In addition we made the link arm 1/4" longer for leverage.

In summary, it wasn't just any one thing that needed to be corrected. The entire clutch actuator assembly is poorly designed, using the wrong materials, and the wrong clearances.

Pablo

Thank you,

Yes it comes with a new housing...it was necessary in order to make the clutch work the way it now does.

Jim

BikeParts

[Lightfoot]

Nice! It's cool to see after-market hop up parts start to come on the market! I'll be buying one from you soon.

[Creative Engineering]

Lightfoot,

Thanks, you won't be dissapointed...I've talked to a few major distributors of these engines, and they tell me that once in awhile they will get a batch of engines that have a good clutch action...but most of the time it's the usual stiff, all or nothing clutch.

Ours works right every time.

Jim

[Walter F.]

Originally Posted by Creative Engineering

Lightfoot,

Thanks, you won't be dissapointed...I've talked to a few major distributors of these engines, and they tell me that once in awhile they will get a batch of engines that have a good clutch action...but most of the time it's the usual stiff, all or nothing clutch.

Ours works right every time.

Jim

Well I hope it does, I just ordered one (I'll buy snake oil if it's sold right) Everything you say about the design is true. If you look some more you will see many areas that can stand improvement, high on my list is Intake manifold, a third mounting point for the engine and different sprocket for output shaft, a 9tooth and a 11tooth sprocket to augment the 10tooth that is there now would give a wide variety of ratios yet be easy to change {as opposed to changing the rear sprocket) and could probably use the same chain since you are only going one tooth. Keep up the good work there is a market for better stuff out there, you could be the Vic Edelbrock of Motorbikers. Happy Trails Walter F

[Creative Engineering]

Thanks Walter,

I've got another engine ordered. It should arrive at the end of the week.

I plan on building up a custom bike to have around the shop. It will have lots of machined parts. We had so much fun riding the last one that we did for a customer, that I miss having it around.

The drawings with dimensions for some of the parts will be available for download on my website in PDF format.

I don't plan on selling everything I design...It's just too time consuming to set-up fixtures etc. So for the low volume items I will post the design details for free, and anyone who wants to build thier own can.

I will look at the sprocket when this next engine comes in. I don't think it would be a problem to make a replacement sprocket.

I've also had a request for a belt drive set-up. I'm sure this could be done as well, but it won't be cheap. The off-the-shelf rear pulley + the belt would be around $60.00. Add a custom machined front pulley and the total cost may be prohibitive.

I try to only offer items for sale that have a good value to cost ratio. That's why I started with clutch mechanism. It offers a huge value to the bike enthusiast at a resonable price.

Best Regards,
Jim