New Project- Vintage Motorized Bicycle!

a_dam said:
I like it!

Looks a lot like the 1970's Schwinn Continentals I've been using. Straight frame tubes and skinny tires.

What size wheels/tires are those?

I converted mine from 27" to 700c. So now I can use fatter tires (about 40mm) than before, since the only thing I ever see for 27-inchers is 27 x 1 1/4. My bike only uses little weed wacker motors and tops out around 30mph. Still, I gotta watch out for every bump in the road.
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I actually have no idea what size wheels and tires are on it... Somewhere around 24 ". I put on a new set of wheels off a 1970's Raleigh yesterday (couldn't find a set of wheels, so I bought an entire bike for parts!) that have some skinny tires on that I think I'll keep. As for the speed, it does have a 3 speed hub, but it's geared more for torque than speed, so I don't think I'll go quite fast enough to kill myself on those tires. :)
 
That's a very cool bike! Its just what we would have built if we were back in those times. In fact it basically the same as my last build though much cooler being vintage of course. http://motorbicycling.com/showpost.php?p=627136&postcount=14

I am building a diesel powered fishing boat that I want to use a cent clutch on. I want it to engage around 1200/1300rpm. I found at the Maxtorque site they have springs to do just that. Used with their pulley clutch it might be what you need.
 
You can look at the tire to find tire/rim size. Old, crunchy tires might be impossible to read, but the newer (70's) ones you got should be in good enough shape to read - or I wouldn't ride em!

27 inchers should have a 630 in the size, like 32-630. Older "26 inch" tires could be a lot of different sizes. Most mountain-bike tires are 559mm by some inch width - like 26 x 2 1/4. But old road bikes had sizes like 591, and if you get the wrong "26 inch" tire, it won't fit. I don't know about 24-inch sizes.

You'll want to find out the size for buying tires and to figure out gear ratios/ rpms.

No matter what the 3-speed rear hub does, that motor looks like it could get you moving to a good speed. I rarely break 15mph when pedalling, but when the motor's on, I'm always going +20.

Keep us up on your build progress and good luck.
 
I have no idea what wheels are on it, now that I think about it, they're probably 26", based on what I've seen online. I just dropped it off at the bike shop and told them to make it safe to ride, I just didn't want to deal with the tires or brakes or that finicky old shifter. When I brought it in, it took me about an hour to get out of there because there was a crowd of people all standing around admiring it!
 
cannonball2 said:
I am building a diesel powered fishing boat that I want to use a cent clutch on. I want it to engage around 1200/1300rpm. I found at the Maxtorque site they have springs to do just that. Used with their pulley clutch it might be what you need.
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That sounds really interesting! Inboard? What engine?
 
WECSOG said:
That sounds really interesting! Inboard? What engine?
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Actually you can use whatever centrifugal clutch you can find that fits your engine out put shaft diameter and change the springs yourself to lighter springs. No real need for an exotic clutch. Check a well stocked hardware store for lighter springs, or check for springs on-line. Another option is to add weight to the clutch shoes to make them engage at a lower rpm. Easy enough to do by drilling holes in the clutch shoe metal arms then fill the holes you drilled with lead wire punched into rivets. That can be done with a hand drill, some lead wire, and a hammer. Just make sure the raw (un-upset) lead rivets you make are the same weight for each one you add to a clutch shoe so as not to induce an out of balance condition in the clutch.
 
One of these tanks would look awesome on your bike
 

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Add me to the crowd that likes the old engine and bike refurb. There are I hear paints that imitates rust color and texture if you go that route. I was thinking maybe the patina I got I could just use a clear coat as it really is only surface rust.

There is the opposite of the spectrum that I understand ceramic coat paint on engines so they continue to shine.

MT
 
Just got to working on the bike again. I had to buy an entire engine just for the starter cup I needed... The brakes are close to done, tires are changed, and one of the two chains is on. I tried the motor and it fired on starting fluid (didn't have any gas on hand)! I was about to put the second chain on, but I realized that one of the sprockets takes a bigger size chain than the rest of them... Besides that, I should be able to make a lot of progress pretty quick!
 
Almost done with it now! All I need to do is build a clutch linkage and put on a new belt for the clutch and one more chain! I tried to post a video of it running, but I'm not sure if it worked... It runs good though and smokes like a Mack truck!
 
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