Villiers beach cruiser

[harry76]

Looking good Harry. That should work awesome.

Thanks msrfan, your input is valued...... do you think the bracket is overkill? Im not sure i like it, but i could learn to live with it, if it needs to be this heavy duty.

 

[harry76]

I just finished my rear wheel/sheave. I learnt a lot doing it and if i ever do it again it will be a lot easier. The sheave seems to spin fairly straight, but it is a little out of round because my brackets were a fraction short and when i tightened the brackets it must have pulled it a little out of round. I hope its ok, i may need to add a tensioner on the rear belt to keep traction.....

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Look greats. If you really want to, but maybe after first trying it out, the out of round could be shimed with washers or some sheet metal drilled and placed where it effectively adds legnth to what you need.

Just a thought.

Measure Twice

PS please don't think I'm ribbing you because of the online name, OK

 

[harry76]

Putting shims between the rim and bracket wont help. The brackets are actually a little too small, your idea would work fine if the brackets were too long. To fix it properly i would need to make new, slightly longer brackets. And yes i should have measured twice, lol....

I dont think its too badly out of round though....hopefully it works just fine

 

[harry76]

Will you be putting a latch that can hold the hand clutch disengaged when stopped?

I was not sure of what this was and looked at Wikipedia and noted where they talked of when a foot clutch was called a suicide clutch if there was no detent. Detent would lock it so you could put both feet on the ground when stopped.

They had this picture of some old motorcycle, looks as if the throttle is a lever on the opposite of the hand clutch. Also like some old British made motor cycles like the Triumph had the throttle and the clutch was on the opposite side.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/ABC_french_918.JPG

My dad got thrown from just going a few feet down a drive way when he got by the edge of cement and the lawn a long time ago. Had a few stitches in his chin.

I was not around when it happened and he was the one who helped me start to build the motor bike. One of my brothers wanted to ride it too soon. I had not gotten anything better than a lawn mower type stiff wired throttle without any return spring attached. It had not even been yet mounted anywhere.

The brother of mine took the throttle, put it at max, stuffed it in his pocket to get it out of the way, and then controlled speed by choking pulses!

Prior to that, my brother was riding it before I got all the mounting bolts on the engine. They’re supposed to be three points of attachment. Two on the bottom bar and 1 strap from one of the engine head bolts to the top bar. With only the forward bottom bolt, an impromptu clutch was had.

He nudged forward with one foot on the engine to swing it forward and take slack out of the v-belt drive he was off.

Eventually I got it with a twist grip throttle and a centrifugal v-belt clutch as well as a low tension kill switch. The choke throttle / engine cut off and no clutch (but with all engine bolts on) was kind of crazy!

Measure Twice

Were you asking how my clutch was going to work? If so this diagram shows how. I will have a "gate" mounted on the tank with notches in it to hold the lever to keep pressure on the primary drive. When disengaged the belts on the primary will just slip.....The drawing i did before i knew for sure i needed a jackshaft.

 

[msrfan]

I would say go with your arm and when you add the lever and idler if it still looks too big, you can trim it down or make a new one. Belts are very forgiving and can stand a little runout.

 

[harry76]

I would say go with your arm and when you add the lever and idler if it still looks too big, you can trim it down or make a new one. Belts are very forgiving and can stand a little runout.

Yeah it probably wont be so bulky looking once the idler pulley goes on.

I rang up the place i got my front pulley from, asking them about a 5/8 shaft for my jackshaft. He said id need to go to an engineering mob and have one made...... Is that right? Surely they sell them in different lengths. Where or how did you source your jackshaft shafts?

We have a lot of old electric motors at work. I wonder if i could find one with a long enough shaft and remove abd use it.

 

[harry76]

I picked up the other Villiers reel mower i bought off EBay today. He thinks it only needs a plug and fuel line to go. We will see.

 

[Elmo]

Yeah it probably wont be so bulky looking once the idler pulley goes on.

I rang up the place i got my front pulley from, asking them about a 5/8 shaft for my jackshaft. He said id need to go to an engineering mob and have one made...... Is that right? Surely they sell them in different lengths. Where or how did you source your jackshaft shafts?

We have a lot of old electric motors at work. I wonder if i could find one with a long enough shaft and remove abd use it.

I don't know about Australia but here you can get a 5/8 shaft from a lot of places. Do a google search and you can probably mail order one.

 

[harry76]

The kickstart on this mower is a lot smaller and a lot lighter so i will have a look and see if i can use it on this build.

It has a pretty cool tank i will use in a future project mounted under the toptube...

 

[harry76]

Ill use one of these handles on top of my hand shift i think....

This motor is a little different to the one currently on my bike. On this motor the ignition lead exits via the top of the motor whereas the one currently in my bike exits from the bottom of the motor

 

[Elmo]

Too bad those aren't available here at a reasonable cost. That engine surely looks good.

 

[msrfan]

Man, that's a beauty, Harry. Hope you can use that smaller kicker. I've never used a typical jackshaft on any of my bikes. They were custom made to my specs by me or my buddy who's a machinist. My early bikes used a water pump type bearing with a bored out double pulley pressed onto it. What you need to find is a good local industrial supply. We use McMaster Carr, Northern Tool, Mcfaddendale Hardware and many bearing houses. The bearing suppliers are great sources because they usually carry a large selection of belts, chains, pulleys, gears, shafts, studs, and of course bearings. I'm sure you have places like that because anywhere there are factories or any kind of manufacturing, these items are essential for their production. Other good sources are lawnmower repair shops and go kart supply shops.

 

[harry76]

The place i called today was an industrial supplier. I just need to keep looking.

Im a little unsure how im going to do the gate on my fuel tank to hold the handshift. Its hard to find a clear photo of how many of the old motorcycles did it. Id imagine id need a gate with multiple notches to allow for stretch in the belt. I suppose i can drill holes in a metal plate and cut notches between them. Im just unsure of the easiest or best layout or design.

 

[msrfan]

Harry, I have a couple of ideas on your lever and gate. Two inverted acorn nuts welded into the tank flush with the side. Fashion a slot with your notches into a piece of light weight angle with a hole in each end to bolt to the welded nuts in the tank. If you could contour the slotted piece to the curve that matches the lever movement radius, that would look prettty cool. As far as several notches, make the idler pulley adjustable and you can get away with just one slot to lock it in gear. The amount of throw your lever will have is determined by the pivot location. A pivot closer to the shifter handle means less movement up top. Also if you make the idler spring loaded, it may take up any deflection of the rear pulley. The beauty of your build is that there's a thousand ways to connect the motor to the rear wheel. Pick one that looks cool to you and works well. You can always re-engineer it differently.

 

[msrfan]

One of my bikes has a tank shifter. It uses an autoclutch now but I kept the lever and gate to maybe engage a small generator against the primary belt.

 

[harry76]

I was thinking of a stainless steel (I can get free scraps of s/s and 3mm steel from work) gate mounted on the top of the tank, still following the curve of the tank. But i like your idea better of a curved angle piece on the side of the tank.

I have no way of curving an angle piece but i could make it in two pieces and weld it. Much like on the clutch arm. I wouldnt be able to do it out of stainless unless i get it tigd.

I have 2mm and 3mm steel scraps, i wonder which i should use?

Also im having trouble finding a 5/8 shaft. What do you google search for? Is it a "5/8 keyway shaft" or "5/8 shaft"? Ive searched both and nothing even on EBay comes up

 

[harry76]

I love that bike msrfan. Thats awesome. I wonder if id get away with flat steel like yours for the shifter. Mine may need a couple of bends to clear the exhaust and motor so i was thinking small tubing

 

[msrfan]

Actually you would not have to use angle at all. Just cut your gate from a wide piece of flat strap and allow enough to bend two ears down for the bolt holes. Make some cardboard templates like with your tank parts to experiment with. I Googled 5/8'' keyed shaft and some suppliers came up.

 

[harry76]

I get suppliers too but when i ring them they say that dont deal in them, many have referred me saying so and so will have it, but when i call them they are no more help. I can get the pulleys no problem, but no shafts. I never thought this would be a drama.

If i cant find anything in the meantime i may just buy the pulleys and take the to a machinist and get a price to do a shaft.... or like i was saying i wonder how long some of the shafts are at work in old unused electric motors, and how easy they would be to remove.