"Monroe" Home Build

LouieMCman · Jun 3, 2010

I posted pictures of my two home builds in another thread but I thought that I would break it down to two threads and show pics of the builds separately. So Here goes first with the "Monroe". As you can see from the pics, I changed a few things along the way, like chain to belt drive, I'll give the reasons as we go....enjoy...

LouieMCman · Jun 3, 2010

The front end was the first thing I modified using a piece of golf cart leaf spring and rockers from an early spring fork bicycle. The front end actually works great with plenty of clearance for the fender.

Next I started with a Worksman frame, the best you can use in my opinion, and cut the front down tube and bent it forward to have room for the motor plate. After the motor plate was mounted I decided to lenthen the frame in order to put in a tool box behind the seat down tube. I first cut the frame on the bottom and stretched back and tacked into place to keep the frame straight. Next I cut the top and added tubing to complete the frame. I also added some gussets into the motor compartment of the frame for strength. With the frame almost complete, I bought some cold rolled sheet metal and began making the tank and tool box. I first made card board mock ups as not to waste the high dollar sheet metal.

At this point I also made the handle bars by bending 3/4" rigid conduit into shape and welding a Cushman throttle assembly on which runs the cable inside the bars.

LouieMCman · Jun 3, 2010

Next I mounted the jack shaft pillar bearings and aligned and made sure I had plenty of clearance for the pulleys and gears. This done the frame was pretty complete. At this time and found a larger motor to use and fabbed up the exhaust pipe and made a manifold to kick out the carb away from the rear frame down tube.

silverbear · Jun 3, 2010

Ahhh, I was hoping you would do this, Louie. Very cool to see it coming alive. m I really like that springer front. Curtis Fox was admiring it, too, and thought a snowmobile leaf spring would work, too.
SB

LouieMCman · Jun 11, 2010

Next was the gas tank. It took me about 20 minutes to make the cardboard one and another week or so to make the metal one. I cut the sheet metal out so the side, front, and rear flaps would fold down and weld into place. This just left the bottom piece to make and weld into place. I fabbed up some support pieces from key stock to tack inside the tanks on the top to screw the top tank mounts into. I also had to plan out the gas inlet and outlet and cut holes for them before bending and welding. Everything went well, I did have to touch up the welds a couple times and I also used tank sealer inside when it was finished. This was the first tank I ever welded together and let me tell you, it's a lot of work! Next I fabbed up the tool box but only spot welded it together not having to worry about anything combustible leaking out of it. Next the fenders and brakes....

Tom Bartlett · Jun 14, 2010

Louie,
I really like your ideas (especially about the Worksman frame and Briggs engine). And like you, I altered/spliced the frame in two stages, first the bottom (using the top bars to keep the steering tube aligned) and then the top. We need more progress pictures (so I won't keep making so many mistakes)!
Tom Bartlett

Tom Bartlett · Jun 14, 2010

Louie,
I just found your finished bikes in the other thread. Simply awesome!
Tom Bartlett

LouieMCman · Jun 15, 2010

Thanks Tom, the Worksman frames are great and their wheels can not be beat! I use their wheels on most of my home builds. More pictures to come, although I didn't document this bike as well as my later ones. I actually finished this bike in 2008, then built the Peace (I'll write that up next), and now working on what I'm calling my Indian "Midi" which is a larger version of the Indian "Mini" you can see the write up for that at the Vintage Mini bike link below...

Indian Mini to Adult Size Mini - OldMiniBikes.com Forum

LouieMCman · Jun 25, 2010

With the tank and tool box mostly finished and mounted, I worked on the jack shaft using pillar bearing blocks. I welded on supports for the bearings and bolted them on. At this point I still didn't have the motor I wanted to use, I was mocking up with the old B&S you see in the pictures. Also notice the chain sprocket on the rear wheel. I completed the bike with the intentions of using a chain drive, but changed over to belt after everything was complete. I'll tell the story why when I get to it.

LouieMCman · Jun 25, 2010

As you can see I also installed some diamond plate running boards and manufactured a brake pedal with a rod back to the rear coaster brake. What I did was remove the pedal chain sprocket and cut off all the teeth and welded on a lever extending down for the brake lever to attach to. When you push the brake pedal down it pulls the rod forward which rotates the old chain sprocket counter clockwise which puts on the coaster brake just like it does when you back pedal a bicycle. Once adjusted it works great. Look close on the right side picture, you can see the lever and pedal before the rod was installed.

LouieMCman · Jun 25, 2010

Next I finished mocking up the fenders, which to me seems to always be one of the hardest jobs. Especially with a sprung front end. And then I bolted on the chain guard and made the primary cover. The primary cover was made with 1/4" Lexan and left over metal from the gas tank wrapped around and screwed into the Lexan. I also made some bends in the Lexan to form X's over the clutch and jack shaft, just for looks. Next I made a kill switch and mounted on the left handle bar and ran the wire inside the bars and out where the throttle cable comes out and down along the throttle cable to the magneto. It works pretty slick and looks like one from the turn of the century. At this point I finally found a 3 HP Briggs motor and mounted it also.

LouieMCman · Jun 25, 2010

With the mock up done I tore it apart and painted it. What color to paint it? Easy, remember how cheap I am. My buddy gave me 6 cans of red he had left over from something, so red it was. After paint and reassembly I went to the local flea market to have some decals made up. Another hard thing to come up with is a name for your creation. It seems all the GOOD names are taken! So I settled on the name of my home town in SW Ohio "Monroe". So I had the decals made up silver outlined in black and the name of my fictitious shop "Modern Antique Cycles" below it. I also had the guy make up some other decals with some famous sayings, let's see if anyone can tell me where they came from? Look at the pictures. Also some of them are from my shop logo, see that picture also.

LouieMCman · Jun 25, 2010

My fictitious shop logo....Modern Antique Cycle

LouieMCman · Jul 7, 2010

OK, ready for the first ride after re-assembly. Everything was going well, I was cruising about 25 MPH or so into a sweeping curve just getting real confident about my engineering skills when the rear sprocket cocked enough for the chain to come off and wedge itself in the wheel just enough to lock everything down. I'm sure all of you know the shear panic there is when you know something is not right and you are going to pay for it real soon. Well being in the curve really screwed me on this one, the bike started skidding from side to side in an ever increasingly arcs until it couldn't go any further and just slammed me on the road. Of course I had on shorts and a cut off shirt and sandals. What else would you wear on a maiden voyage? I escaped with road rash and the bike and I both lost a small amount of blood (oil). The funniest thing was one of my neighbors walked over to me about the time I stood up and said "boy I thought you was going to pull out of it for a minute there". I said "ya so did I right before I hit the pavement". I had to get my van to haul the bike home so I took these pictures of the skid marks, I measured 45 feet before I was slammed.
Anyway that was the end of the chain drive, I modified it to a V-belt drive the following week and have had no trouble since. It does go a little slower with the belt drive but cruises good at 25-30 MPH.

LouieMCman · Aug 5, 2010

Ok, here is the final pictures with the rear belt drive. It's been a couple years since completion but it still runs good although the clutch need some work. Can some one tell me what the deal is with the two speed clutches? I've never saw one, do they exist and would they work on a bike like mine? Thanks for any info. Next I'm going to start a new post on my newest bike that I just finished a couple months ago, the "Peace".

curtisfox · Aug 5, 2010

LouieMCman said:
Ok, here is the final pictures with the rear belt drive. It's been a couple years since completion but it still runs good although the clutch need some work. Can some one tell me what the deal is with the two speed clutches? I've never saw one, do they exist and would they work on a bike like mine? Thanks for any info. Next I'm going to start a new post on my newest bike that I just finished a couple months ago, the "Peace".

I don't know about 2 speed clutches. But some snow blowers have a friction drive wheel that slides back and forth on a hex shaft. On your belt drive you could do somthing like that useing diferant size drive pullys. Useing a spring loaded thensioner. Maybe with some thought you could make it shift on the fly.....Curt

LouieMCman · Aug 5, 2010

Snow blower..what's that? Just kidding I wouldn't make fun of the ones stuck in the wrong part of the country.
Interesting ideas Curt, if I wasn't so cheap I would have put a torque converter on it and been done with it. I put a bicycle speedo on it and it tops out at 30 MPH, you know how we americans are....bigger...faster! The bike I built after this one has a torque converter on it and it is so much better.

Smokey1981 · Aug 21, 2010

You got the other half of that golf cart spring laying around???????

I love quarter eliptic front ends, much neater than the usuall springer

curtisfox · Aug 21, 2010

LouieMCman said:
Snow blower..what's that? Just kidding I wouldn't make fun of the ones stuck in the wrong part of the country.
Interesting ideas Curt, if I wasn't so cheap I would have put a torque converter on it and been done with it. I put a bicycle speedo on it and it tops out at 30 MPH, you know how we americans are....bigger...faster! The bike I built after this one has a torque converter on it and it is so much better.

Wrong part of the country? 10,000 lakes, just about every kind of tree you could think of. sure it gets a little cold for a couple months. with snowmobiles and all, the winers go fast. And when you get my age you can snow bird it.
How it works is the engine belt drives a aluminum disk with a rubber tire disk that slides on a hex shaft at right angle to the disk. so when you shift it moves the rubber disk out and over to the next gear or spot on the aluminum disk. for reverse it goes past center. I am not sure how it would stand up in higher speed. And the engine would have to be turned so the crank would be paralel with the frame. I have never heard of anyone trying it???
I was thinking in your case you could use just the sliding part and with a pully insted of a disk that would slid maybe even a three step pully.

LouieMCman · Aug 27, 2010

Smokey, let me look around, I might have something that will work. I can't remember if I cut mine in half or used more than half to build mine. I'll dig out the remains and have a look at it.

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