Villiers beach cruiser

[harry76]

Its quite possible my gearing is too tall, but i wont go changing that just yet until i do a few more testruns with a pedaL chain and ill get a high quality primary belt. I didnt buy a good primary belt because i just wanted a trial, but honestly expected a little longer before it stretched, i cant comment how dear the expensive belts are but these belts were surprisingly cheap, and apparantly it shows.

And don worry i have a disc brake i just need to hook up, but i couldnt find my cable at the time so i went without. Not smart i know but i live in an extrememly quiet straight road....... Lets just say i have built a BTR and wanted it to be authentic (no brakes) if only for a little while LOL.......To be honest its probably just as unwise to do a test run in the dark as with no brakes.

 

[rustycase]

OK, Harry... if you say so.
No worries mate!

A leather soled shoe is better for dragging your feet than all these new-fangled clod hoppers with synthetic lug soles. They dig in too much to be any good for braking action.
Flip-flops are no good at all. That's personal experience..

Good luck Harry! Quiet road at night.. ride it like you stole it! LoL

Best
rc

 

[harry76]

RC you mentioned how I might be trying to get too much out of this tiny motor, you may be right, but they did use these engines to power early motorcycles, admittedly I think they did have a gearbox fitted.

And at the moment I'm riding it more like a learner driver rather then someone who stole it.... Lol

 

[harry76]

I forgot to mention another problem I discovered, last night when I went to flip the choke lever on the carby I received a nasty shock. And since I'm clueless when it comes to electrical I need advice.... My uneducated guess would be something is earthing out, does that sound right? How do I locate what is earthing out or do I just need to have a close look at the electricals for the culprit. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[Cam Nz]

Have a geez at the connector spring between the coil and the lead, and also try a new plug with a shroud thing on the end of the cable - i had a similar problem.

Cheers, Cam.

- oh and your lead is possibly arcing out against the mag plate, or the barrell.

 

[harry76]

Thanks for the advice Cam, I'll be sure to take a look and see if I can sort it out. I'd really prefer not to run a boot over the plug for that vintage look but not real keen on shock treatment either, so I guess I'll run one if I have to. I will however see if I can eliminate the problem by doing the other things first. Greatly appreciated, thanks

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Post 434 first picture there, I think what I see is the throttle cable which comes out of the top of the carb (I have Briggs carbs I know there different), and what it touches or comes so very close to is the high tension lead and or the spark plug tip (uncovered).

Leaving it uncovered is OK I think if you really want, but maybe putting the routing with greater distance between the carb throttle cable. I would not think that the covering on the cable conducts very well, but if at high voltage and any moisture, maybe it translates to making the carb electrically hot. Maybe even the gasket at the intake allows it not to ground? I would have thought the throttle cable would maybe ground to the handle bar. The neck though maybe not too good to allow ground through it, so then maybe the carb stay electrically hot to some extent. For my kill switch button, I have two wires to the kill switch. One of the two wires I use is actually to help out the grounding such that the grease in the fork neck doesn’t actually provide the best ground; I did it for that reason. The other of course is the low tension to the magneto to shut off engine.

I do remember using the high tension cut off on a lawn mower engine with wet sneakers. You know the tab that goes to one of the engine head bolts and is actually forming a spring right above the spark plug tip without any cover. Wow, 50KV pulsing DC really gets you to notice.

Leaving on the note about lawn mower engines, I came across a nice big 6.5 hp vertical shaft Briggs being thrown out on a self propelled mower. I have some day plans for a small hover craft!

That machine of yours is really taking shape. I'm not sure if you said that the belt is past where you can adjust it to take up slack. The heavy duty belts I have bought are like $8.00 and maybe $1.50 for the cheap ones, are they way more expensive where you are?

Anyway, get some brakes on it, maybe both front and back (saw the one on the rear needing the cable); be neat to see you riding the bike in a video!

Measure Twice

 

[harry76]

Yes that is infact a throttle cable you see. But it wasnt routed the same for the test run but quite possibly have moved when i turned. I will certainly be paying more attention to the distance between the leads.

I think i payed around $10 for both belts and have no idea how dear the good one will be, and yes the current primary belt has stretched beyond adjustment.

And as far as brakes go, ill only add a front disc brake ( i do have the matching front disc setup) if i think its necessary after i get the bike sorted.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

I hope that the heavy duty belt I got does not stretch out of my adjustment limits that fast.

I do remember them stretching at first and then less and less fairly soon after the initial stretch.

Though this may have been just my particular situation, it may not repeat elsewhere.

In fact maybe it being so long ago, maybe I was thinking this but actually it was when I got a movable engine platform and had a large adjustment and after I accumulated a lot of belts.

This was a long time ago in the 70's and maybe the heavy duty belt is better?

===============

One thing you think about, but the cost more, a link belt. You can add or remove links.

Vibration Free Link Belt

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/search.shtml?

searchQuery=link+belt&op=search&Ntt=link+belt&N=0&sst=subset
Amazon.com: link belt


I don’t know if they are available in your area, but maybe check on the search terms LINK BELT, Accu-Link and PowerTwist Plus are the name brands I saw at these sites. With a search on Amazon there are sellers that sell by the foot. The best price at 5 ft was I saw HF and there even was a 20percent off one item coupon to use.

Maybe also check who might have used them on a motor bike on this site MB.

Measure Twice

 

[harry76]

Thanks for the link man, those link belts (if thats what they are called) are awesome, very very vintage looking, much like what you see on early motorcycles, and seems cheap enough also.

The only problem i see is my current belt and more importantly my pulleys are for an "A" section v-belt, would these fit? This link belt looks a little wide.... i noticed there are 3/8or 1/2 types...... i wonder if 3/8 would work?

It seems a great idea to me, they look better and more vintage then a v-belt and being able to easily change belt lengths would be very handy.

Thanks again Measuretwice, ill have to look into this more

 

[Allen_Wrench]

Thanks for the advice Cam, I'll be sure to take a look and see if I can sort it out. I'd really prefer not to run a boot over the plug for that vintage look but not real keen on shock treatment either, so I guess I'll run one if I have to. I will however see if I can eliminate the problem by doing the other things first. Greatly appreciated, thanks

It's too bad you can't leave it like it is. Great anti-theft measure. You could get an old-style leather saddle with those big rivets on it, run a wire to the bottom of that seat (and un-hook it if YOU start it). If a thief goes to fire it up, he'd get a nasty shock to his bum. Heheh, I can't stand thieves, I'd pay to see something like that.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

http://motorbicycling.com/f38/1950-panther-project-27693-10.html#post286252

This is from a post on the MB website here of what people thought, along with other links.

I have a some pics of the new yet un-tested belt and a link belt I just got today just in case.

Measure Twice

PS for my application a chain and a v-belt, the belt that comes 5ft was just a little extra than I needed. But at the price you could just get two 5 ft packages. I did however see that also on Ebay there are selling there and in foot increments. You could mix and match, maybe have an extra belt? As far as the big rolls in the $100 - $500 range, I don't think I'll need that much.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

3 more pics of the belt and how it fits. Your application and the kind of pulley or sheave and how they differ and what kind of link belt would work, I am not sure of that now yo9u bring it up. The washing machine pulley fits just right for my application with the 1/2 width at the top of the belt/pulley. It does match.

Maybe check with those on the thread of Panther about Link Belts and if some one has used them with the sheave and how it may work?

from the package the company that makes or sells Accu-Link

Some information:

They do say in the beginning you may have to re-tighten the belt after 1 to 3 hours. I just hope that even with being adjustable belt (link belt) that this is just a one time thing, then only slowly stretches before it fails years down the road.

Accu-Link Belting on Jason Industrial, Inc.

http://www.jasonindustrial.com/pdfs/catalogs/catalog_1.pdf

The prices on the web site are like 3 times I paid at HF, but is the Accu-Link brand. Just so you know.

Measure Twice 3 more pics attached

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

The pics I posted with the threads of the screws going from the tabs on the washing machine pulley with the wood sandwich/shims. They are also not yet showing a bunch of washers and or spacers to prevent the pulley from uneven pressure and distorting, those need to be added.

I am going to use Resorcinol Glue on the untreated wood shims that came as a last thought to prevent distortion of the pulley. Then I'll paint it and clear coat it. Not practically like steel, but way stronger than untreated wood.

As far as theft deterrent goes, just keep moving, I say!

 

[harry76]

I was doing a double take for a while when looking at your photos. Before i got a perspective on how small your rear washing machine pulley was, i thought you had cut up a set of BMX Tuffs... very very similar looking.

 

[harry76]

Today i tried to get my kickstart working.... a few of the teeth had severe wear so i welded them and cleaned it up a little, the kickstart freewheel was slipping, i think because the spring i found to replace the lost one isnt strong enough, a also made axle adjusters........ im going to line my tanks at work tommorrow...... and i ended up just buying a tap the same size as my petcock and putting a thread in 6mm flat stock and welded it to the tank.

Unfortunately i couldnt get a testrun in today as i didnt get a chance to buy my new primary belt, maybe Thursday or Friday.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

I just checked and the long side of an 8.5" by 11" sheet of paper extends just exactly across from the top edge of the pulley/belt.

With the jack shaft and the other size pulley and the other two gears for the chain to centrifugal clutch, I would get a gear reduction of around 12. The other gears and 1 other pulley are all about 1.25 inch, but if I get the gear in the jackshaft a little larger in the area of 1.5 approximately I will have that 12 reduction.

With that and 1750 idle on the 3hp Briggs, the clutch would engage around 2000 and top rpm at 3000. The 26 tire and this all combined I think the top speed at 20mph.

What bothers me is that I know I had this done before on a motor bike with 24 inch tire and gear reduction of only 8, but no centrifugal clutch. I push started and it chugged to get going. This way I could go fairly slow.

Now it seems that the engine will be at 2000 rpm just engaging and trying to get to at about 12 mph at that instant the clutch engages according to calculations. Going slow would burn the clutch if staying at a speed near or below 12 mph for extended periods of time.

I just may take off the clutch if this happens and get a gear the same size as the clutch gear and go with push start again. It seemed to work OK then when I was not any much but maybe 20 lbs lighter back then in the 70's.

Your hand clutch does sound interesting. I wonder how it could be used effectively when riding off road in the dirt. I know your intention is not that, just thinking about my OHV thing I am getting together. I mean it would allow me to rest without the engine off. I'd like to know can the front wheel come off the ground on what you have with a little throttle.

Then about these torque converters I saw. Whole systems just above $200, and don't know if they are actually useful in my situation. I though do remember when I saw one on a 5 hp mini bike and it accelerated very well using it and also got good top speed. My range of speed with the centrifugal clutch as now seems to be only 8 mph from the 12 right up to 20mph. Anyone know if I had some change one day to throw at it would it make sense to have a torque converter like the link I list here that mentions of the Comet Brand.

Comet Torque Converters: Comet Clutches, Drive Belts & Info.

Measure Twice

 

[harry76]

I havent had time to get too much done.

I had to fix my kickstarter, heres the before pic, but i just realised i forgot to show an after pic....

But heres an axle adjuster that i made up...I made the bracket to slide in the dropout slot....

I didnt have a tap, so for the other part of the bracket i drilled a hole big enough for a nut and welded it in....

 

[harry76]

The end product works very well....

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

That's a device to help adjust chain tension?

That is like on real motor cycles! I have not seen that done one these small designs we make, but that is class!

I did work on my shims for my rear hub where I sandwich the spokes to a washing machine pulley for my motor OHV bike.

I also looked at the 6.5 vert shaft lawn mower engine I have thought in the future to build a hover craft with. I notice the holder for the air filter did not contain a filter. It was being thrown out at the curb. I emptied the fuel and it was real good. I took off the bowl and it was super clean. The lever for the blade engagement tightened a pulley and at the same time self propelled gearing made the wheels move. It has good compression. It was just all covered with stuck on grass clipping. I sure wouldn't have thrown this out. I hope it all works. I'm really thinking now what a find!

Measure Twice