what did you do to your motorized bicycle today?

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Davezilla

Davezilla

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Got any pictures of the trike?
I know most of them are of the step over frame type so there's no top bar to mount the tank in the normal way.... Mounting the engine on the other hand will be the easiest thing to do.
At the rear axle you could run a separate sprocket for the engine or you could use the center shaft where the pedal chain goes before a second chain goes to the wheels, you could put the 44 tooth sprocket on that shaft and a freewheel on the other side so it could still be pedaled but won't move the pedals once the engine takes over.

For starting the engine, pull starting is very effective and these engines can easily start on the second or third pull even in the dead of winter once the engine has been run a few times to loosen it's self up some.
 
Davezilla

Davezilla

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Another issue with the rear axles on these are that they're live axles which makes turning an issue but that problem can be fixed by making up a differential so each axle half can get power from the engine but they can spin independantly from eachother... I saw one build where the builder made up a differential by splitting the axle then using a freewheel on each axle half so both wheels can still get power to them but during a turn the outside wheel will be able to spin faster than the inside wheel. His setup wasn't a true differential per se but it did the job just fine, in the middle of a turn, power only goes to the inside wheel since the outside wheel is allowed to spin faster.
This can be done using a set of freewheels on each axle half and running 2 sprockets from the intermediate shaft and a chain to each freewheel, or a more conventional differential could be used like those found in some older 80's go karts and atv's
 
fatdaddy

fatdaddy

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Ya might want to think 4 stroke, pull start, recumbent. A regular adult trike is a very unstable animal especially for a disabled person. I've put engines on trikes and they become VERY unstable. A recumbent sits lower and stays A LOT more stable. A tadpole motorized recumbent is not a real hard build. I built this one last year.
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mapbike

mapbike

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I know some of the older trike are set up so the pedals only drive one wheel, my grandmother had one that way when I was a kid.

Dont know how they are now though.
 
DRBS

DRBS

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this is a older bike has a solid axel but only drives one wheel im trying to talk them into a electric powered front wheel will make it easier to control and cheaper to do
 
Davezilla

Davezilla

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I'm still looking for an older post where a guy made a differential out of a set of freewheels, but in the process I see most people who use one harvested the differential out of old lawn tractors etc...

I do agree on the stability issues with one wheel up front vs 2 wheels up front, but stability can be added by lowering the center of gravity ( rider bight) and/ or widening the track of the rear wheels. Another way to help keep one from tipping is to use longer forks like a chopper with a steep rake angle,if raked correctly the front tire will begin to lose traction if the turn is too fast well before a rear wheel could lift off. This also helps the rider get used to the way the trike handles without the fear of tipping over.
I went on a ride a few years ago when I told my friend I couldn't ride since I just had back surgery about 3 weeks earlier... the guy tells me to take his trike... and I'm thinking " ya ... right" but he insisted I ride his 2009 Harley tri glide ultra classic so I agreed and we went for a ride with my wife and I on the trike and he rode his softail. He noticed I was hanging back at the turns and catching back up on the straights so he told me not to worry it wont tip over. Then he told me he was trying to lift off one wheel once after he got it just to see how quickly he could safely go around a corner. He told me the front tire will start to skid out but the back tires never left the pavement. After that I kept up with him the rest of the way to bandera Texas and all the back roads back to San Antonio... the trike was as stable as he told me it was and it did give plenty enough warning if I got too aggressive in the turns so there was plenty enough time to back off...
I'm sure one could set up a utility trike the same way by either moving the front wheel further forward or moving the rider further back and lower on the trike... just food for thought while setting this thing up for the guy...
 
Davezilla

Davezilla

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DRBS said:
this is a older bike has a solid axel but only drives one wheel im trying to talk them into a electric powered front wheel will make it easier to control and cheaper to do
Click to expand...
Front wheel drive would solve a lot of drivetrain issues for sure... and the battery packs could go under the cargo basket behind the seat for more stability...
 
DRBS

DRBS

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i just want him to be able to go grocery shopping and to go anywhere he wants to go and not worry about the thing dying on him. thanks for the info if you guys hear anything more let me know i could use help setting it up i saw a add on e-bay for plans to do a 80cc motor on one but there not there anymore guess it was too dangerous
 
Davezilla

Davezilla

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Another alternative to consider would be a rack mount but on the front end to drive the front wheel, that would make for an easy install but will need to do some welding on the front fork to make the engine mount. You could use a rack mount kit or just do a custom job with a cg engine to keep costs down and there will be plenty of replacement parts available.
just need to sit the engine far enough forward so the drive sprocket is directly over the wheel, then you could either use a rag joint or a manic type adapter up front. A tank could be made to mount on the handlebars or a tube could be welded to go over the engine from either the front or rear mount tube to keep the fuel above the engine. A pulse pump could also be used if the fuel tank needs to be mounted somewhere else on the trike...
 
Davezilla

Davezilla

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Just throwing ideas out there... but another good front wheel drive engine would be a cateye pocketbike engine with electric start.. I almost forgot about those, and they're a lot more reliable than a cag engine, use a centrifugal clutch and/or a reduction gearbox and all you need is a flat plate to mount it on and a sprocket on the front wheel...
 
fatdaddy

fatdaddy

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I called it THE WIDOWMAKER, It was a lot more stable than I thought it would be and a blast to ride. wish I still had it. mostly OCC parts on a cruiser frame.
fatdaddy.usflg
 

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C

curtisfox

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Yep the best setup would be the differential,you can get them from Northerntool.com or any one of the go kart suppliers. With them both wheels pull and ratchet's around corners.I had some out of lawn tractors but the are offset and have a short axle on one side. You almost need 2 get the long axle out the second one. But that depends on the tractor some are wide enough. Sad is they are hard to find now as they were mostly on older tractors.

Love the WIDOWMAKER. Kool........................Curt
 
fatdaddy

fatdaddy

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bluegoatwoods

bluegoatwoods

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I've been having a bit of trouble with my rear wheel.

Last Thursday I was on my way to work when the rear wheel suddenly locked up. It definitely looked as though the brake was applying without back-pedaling. (single speed, coaster brake.) I tried to free it up for a bit. Then I gave up, locked the bike to a guardrail and walked the rest of the way. Picked it up with my car that evening and took it home.

I got my chance to work on it yesterday. Took that hub apart and found that the left wheel bearing was toasted. Replaced it, put it back together carefully, rode it a couple hundred feet and all seemed okay. (Used my last spare bearing, too. But I'll soon get more on hand.)

Took it out for a longer test run. Got about a half mile from home and she really seized up this time. My brake arm is now twisted into a horseshoe shape. I don't doubt for a moment that I'll find that bearing shredded again. Probably other damage as well.

So today I took the rear wheel from my old Huffy Cranbrook and put that on. A couple mile test run showed no trouble. I want to adjust the wheel just a bit more and take it for another test run here shortly. But it feels like it's roadworthy.

So next I'll get new guts for a Shimano CB-E110 and rebuild my primary hub. I'm gonna have to figure out just what mistake I'm making in installation/adjustment. I've gone through more bearings than I ought to. It's the bearing under the brake arm that gives me trouble.
 
mapbike

mapbike

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Mar 14, 2010
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bluegoatwoods said:
I've been having a bit of trouble with my rear wheel.

Last Thursday I was on my way to work when the rear wheel suddenly locked up. It definitely looked as though the brake was applying without back-pedaling. (single speed, coaster brake.) I tried to free it up for a bit. Then I gave up, locked the bike to a guardrail and walked the rest of the way. Picked it up with my car that evening and took it home.

I got my chance to work on it yesterday. Took that hub apart and found that the left wheel bearing was toasted. Replaced it, put it back together carefully, rode it a couple hundred feet and all seemed okay. (Used my last spare bearing, too. But I'll soon get more on hand.)

Took it out for a longer test run. Got about a half mile from home and she really seized up this time. My brake arm is now twisted into a horseshoe shape. I don't doubt for a moment that I'll find that bearing shredded again. Probably other damage as well.

So today I took the rear wheel from my old Huffy Cranbrook and put that on. A couple mile test run showed no trouble. I want to adjust the wheel just a bit more and take it for another test run here shortly. But it feels like it's roadworthy.

So next I'll get new guts for a Shimano CB-E110 and rebuild my primary hub. I'm gonna have to figure out just what mistake I'm making in installation/adjustment. I've gone through more bearings than I ought to. It's the bearing under the brake arm that gives me trouble.
Click to expand...

e sure you're not over tightening the bearings, they need to be snug with little to no play in them but over tightened bearings of those type will fail quickly.

What kind of grease are you using?

I personall6 think a High Tack grease with Molybdenum/Moly in it is best, Ive never had a single bearing failure in any of my wheels, front, coaster, multi speed type.

I like the braking of the E110 Shimano hubs the best, but even my Huffy Falcon hub has done a great job, pulled it down for general maintenance a while back for the first time since 2010 qnd the guts still almost look brand new it only has a little over 1000 miles on it, but they have been rough miles on these ver6 rough dusty dirt roads I ride and not a single issue, the engine on that bike has a sweet spot at 34mph according to my speedo and that is where it has been run for the majority of those miles so the wheels haven't been babied on it, jus5 properly tensioned bearings and a High Quality Tacky Moly grease made by Schaeffer is what I have that hub full of and I use another type grease also in my wheels made b6 a compan6 called arrow Magnolia, its so dang expensive though I've stopped packing my bike bearings with it and sticking with the Schaeffer Premium Moly Grease, its also a very good grease, just kinda hard to find.

Im gonna suggest you look closely at the bearing race in the hub itself, if it has heat stress cracks or is scolloped from all those other bearing failures you will never get a bearing to last running on that kind of surface and you need to either replace tha5 hub or just get an entire new wheel with new hub.

Hope you get this sorted out quickly, and hope the Huffy wheel gives you good service in the meantime, just make sure you dont get those bearing to tight, if you do you get serious heat buildup and the tolerances are to tigh5 for the grease to get in between the moving parts and that bearing is gonna cook quickly, just a slight amoun5 of play in the bearing is better than a bearing of that type that is to tight.

Map
 
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