friction drive wheels..

deacon · Jul 20, 2008

I think we are all looking for easy to make long lasting less invasive drive wheels.

If you have any ideas that seem promising please post them so we can all tinker with them.

The sand and jb sounds promising.. I tried it with less than stellar results but I might have done it wrong. I used salt as sand and quik set jb because I bought it by mistake. So if it works for someone else let me know.

I'm working on old tires jb'ed to the drive wheel.

One thing I can suggest is the galvanized nipple with the end cap drilled and mounted to the motor. It allows for quick change of drive wheels. If there is a cheap easy way to make wheels,. the nipple cap idea will allow easy change from one to another.

deacon · Jul 21, 2008

Now comes the part about why easily changeable drive wheels is a good thing. At the moment my ww31cc test bike has a 3/4 gavanized nipple that has a rough surface on it.

I am going to turn it out and test it with these two experimental drive wheels.

the one on the left is a 3/4" ID galvanized nipple with a tire attached with JB weld. I have no idea if it will hold or not.

The one on the right is a 3/4 ID gavanized nipple with a 3/4" pvc pipe joint connector wedged onto it. There are cheap and not hard to put onto the pipe. I can run it smooth or roughed up a bit. After todays test, I may give it a try with a piece of tire put on with JB weld as well. I have a half dozen of the joints which I think was under a buck fifty.

deacon · Jul 22, 2008

Both of these drives left something to be desired. I next went with a combo of both. Tire jbed to the pvc roller. So far it has gone abut eightmiles and looks like it might last a little while but I'm not thrilled with it.

I have another one ready to go when it wears down. that one is made with pvc joint nad the sidewalls of a tire not the tread. I'm thinking next I might try pvc join with jb and a piece of fiberglass screen wire embedded in it.

jasonh · Jul 22, 2008

how about a nice bicycle handlebar grip? JB that onto the bar. Might work if it's one with a "tread" on it.

The smallest air-filled treaded tire you can find would probably be a good choice. I think an air filled rubber tire would produce less wear on the bike tire

deacon · Jul 22, 2008

good thought. If I see one laying around I'll give that a try.

Bikeguy Joe · Jul 22, 2008

Another thought- Take two BIG files, and clamp your roller tube in a vise with one file on either side of the roller. (Firm, but don't over do it, you may want to experiment with how tight the vise is)

Now tap the ends of the files and the roller should slowly roll through between the two files until you have a nice file pattern all the way around the roller.

Another way to knurl up your roller is to clamp it in the bench vise and crank on it with a big pipe wrench and make it have some teeth that way.

deacon · Jul 22, 2008

Alas I'm vise challenged. I usually cut them in with a wheel rasp on my drill, but then they wear smooth again very quickly. The last one with the tire epoxied to the pvc has done the best so far.

I still think I will try jb weld and a fiberglass screen wire.

capturedbyrobots · Jul 24, 2008

I've tried rubber and skateboard wheels (too much wear on the tire, which I wasn't expecting)
and ended up sticking with steel with an inverted tread cut into the roller.
It wears my tires so little, and grips very well.

TCBCustoms · Jul 24, 2008

Ive done bunches of weld spatter and small welded dots, grooves grinded into the bike peg and all of them ruined the tire way too fast. I now just run a smooth peg and deal with it. With the welded peg it chewed up the tire incredibly fast and caused it to blow up going up a hill. Now I run 2 tires inside of each other and a heavy duty tube.

deacon · Jul 24, 2008

TCBCustoms said:
Ive done bunches of weld spatter and small welded dots, grooves grinded into the bike peg and all of them ruined the tire way too fast. I now just run a smooth peg and deal with it. With the welded peg it chewed up the tire incredibly fast and caused it to blow up going up a hill. Now I run 2 tires inside of each other and a heavy duty tube.

The smooth wheel has been mostly what I use, but the rubber from the tire makes it a lot better. However I don't think it is as tire ware friendly as the plain metal drive.

Bikeguy Joe · Jul 25, 2008

TCBCustoms said:
Now I run 2 tires inside of each other and a heavy duty tube.

What? Explain.

Dave31 · Jul 25, 2008

I do that...I cut the side walls off a old tire and use like a tube liner. Sure keeps the AZ thorns from me getting flats.

handy_Biker · Jul 25, 2008

I LIKE that idea!! I'm going to try that soon.. I've already gone thru two rear tires but most of it was from trying steep hills with the friction drive. I dont mind peddling back when something breaks, but flats dont peddle so well

deacon · Jul 25, 2008

My wife says I ride them out and push them back.... well it's good exercise.

spad4me · Jul 25, 2008

I am still trying to find a cheap reliable drive wheel.

So far sand and jb weld smeared neatly over a used drive spindle or a bmx peg, let sit for 24 hours.
I am looking for a concave convex drive system.

I use funky coarse sand like more like small broken rock chips

handy_Biker · Jul 25, 2008

Ride out / push it back.. LMAO!!... I hear ya on that one Deacon!!

Dave31 · Jul 26, 2008

I have not started on my friction drive build yet but I have been gathering parts and been thinking about the drive wheel. I was looking at my boat the other day and started looking at the rollers on the trailer.

I'm not sure how well they would stand up? The ones on my trailer are rock hard but that could be from age. What do you guy's think?

deacon · Jul 27, 2008

fairracing31 said:
I have not started on my friction drive build yet but I have been gathering parts and been thinking about the drive wheel. I was looking at my boat the other day and started looking at the rollers on the trailer.

I'm not sure how well they would stand up? The ones on my trailer are rock hard but that could be from age. What do you guy's think?

How would you attach them? Of course I have no idea how they would work. Pvc pipe wears very quickly indeed. But please let us know what and how you do it.

I once used some caster wheels and they worked really well for me. I would do that again if I could

Dave31 · Jul 27, 2008

I'm not sure how I would mount them yet, but thier is alway's a way.

I have three diffirent sizes...they all would mount the same way so it should be easy to try each one to see which would work the best. If they work good I might be able to get my hands on some more.

deacon · Jul 27, 2008

On that long shaft motor you have you can probably just slide them down the shaft and put some washers on and tighten it down.

friction drive wheels..

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