54 Roadmaster Luxury Liner BT Mod

[LabRat]

54 Roadmaster Luxury Liner BT Mod. Powered by 79cc Predator. Seatpost is solid steel cut to order by fourm member Inked1974. Rear Sproket by Pat of sportsmanflyer.com. Original spring forks, chain guard and frame were seperate ebay wins. Three piece crank conversion bikeberry.com Note the boring chain guard in later pictures has now been replaced by a matched Luxurey Liner chain guard. The how to and idea for the cloth plug wire I credit Vintagizing a motor with hot rod wires by Velodrome

http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=43336&highlight=cloth+wire

The knock off Atom hub I used for the front of this bike is no longer available, this hub hit eBay selling at $27 then went to $85 now $125 are only two left that I am aware of. Any ideas for a replacement not archer?

 

[LabRat]

The exhaust mod makes the gives this ride a v-twin exhaust note. Test start of this mod can be seen on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5B0ETuu7bc

Note in the third picture. The factory flange was cut off the muffler. Note how missaligned the hole is from the factory. Allignment was correcte. Also I made three pipes for this bike, first one was a single out the side. Just did not appeal to me. The second one and first y pipe was a pants fire trap. I have had a few flam outs while testing custom pipes in the past. Be carefull.

 

[LabRat]

Red Grab On's installed! Single first pipe built from front and rear. A picture of the twin pipe seen from the front above. This bike is about ready to ride. Still sorting out lights and making adjustemtns (loctite). The tires will be replaced with something not a white wall.

 

[LabRat]

Engine mods, dual pipes, carb rejet, governer removed internally, valves re-lashed. There is how I managed my throttle linkage.

 

[LabRat]

SNARK ratrod tank I got off ebay. Won bid $38. This tank sides over the original Roadmaster Luxury Liner horn tank, the front bolts on the moped tank line up with the bolts on the horn tank for secure attachment. I was able to source the correct gas cap from www.1977mopeds.com The cost for the cap was about $6.

 

[buba]

thanks lab for the show and tell

inspiring and informative

ride safe

 

[bairdco]

lookin' great! any way to save the original tank and build something inside of it? i mean, if you wanted too...

Worksman Drum Brakes look comparable to an Atom drum brake, and are pretty reasonably priced, but they don't have very good stopping power. i mean, they work, but i've had many of them, and they always feel kinda spongy, no matter how old they get.

i currently have an old Atom on my everyday bike that i can do front brake endos with, a Sturmey Archer 70mm FXDD (dynohub) on a cruiser that will lock up the wheel, and a Worksman hub on my race bike and my pedal cruiser.

nothing beats the old Atoms, but when you find them, they ain't cheap...

(edit) read through your post too quick and didn't notice the tank was over the original. painting/patina-ing, ageing it to match would be a cool touch...

 

[LabRat]

On the luxury liner horn tank, it is intact under there with a functional horn. I would not want to tear into the 60 year old original horn tank or weld to it. That moped tank fits nicely. I may make a custom in frame tank but for now I am done with the gas tank issue. You mentioned painting/patina-ing the moped tank, lol its got so much patina its not red anymore, under the sides the original moped tank was nearly an exact match for the original red on the Roadmaster horn tank, slightly matalic. My iphone does no service to true color red. It just does not show red correctly.

If I could find a place to buy a worksman hub brake only so I could lace it myself I would do that on my next build. I have two worksman rims I need to locate a supplyer for the hub. Ill be keeping a eye out for an atom bomb.

 

[itchybird]

Atom, worksman and Leleu all have similar front hubs. The Atoms are best known from the old Schwinns and you don't see many fronts. The Worksman are popular and you can find em pretty easy. Often overlooked are the Leleu hubs from the older Puch mopeds, very similar to Atom/worksman, but they have bigger 11 mm axles which I like. Also, the brake plates are cast alum and locate via a pin like the Atom hubs so they look cleaner when installed.

If you can't find what you need, let me know and I can help you out.

 

[itchybird]

Here is a link to an old build thread of mine, check post #12 for a pic of the front leleu hub.

http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=28533

Post #6 shows the pin to locate the brake plate in the hub.

Another cool thing about this particular hub is that you can use stock Puch brake cables, they're beefier than bicycle, have the cable adjusters build in and you pull them out of the bag and they fit perfect. Shop wisely on ebay and you can get a great deal.

Good luck!

 

[LabRat]

After the heads up itchybird mentioned I found this to be an affordable solution listed on www.1977mopeds.com Item: 50127 ...s. 12 or 11g spokes. Can't tell from the add.

 

[itchybird]

The link didn't take me straight there, but I went to 1970 Mopeds and found the front Leleu hub for forty bucks. That's a smokin deal, can barely find em used for that. This hub will lace right into a Worksman wheel, using the Worksman drum hub spokes. I have built dozens of Worksman wheels and quite a few with these hubs. They're hard to beat for the majority of motor bikes -I just wish the rims were a half inch wider but its a small gripe. Remember, Moped front axles are 11mm, and make sure the hub comes with axle nuts. 11mm x 1 nuts are impossible to find at the local hardware store, so don't get caught short.

Worksman is slooowww to ship wheels and wheel components out. If you can't find what you need, check with sportscarpat, I just happen to know he has a fat supply of spokes and could probably set you right up. I still have a few rims kickin' around as well.

good luck!

Rich

 

[LabRat]

And a big thanks again itchybird the comment on nuts. 11mm x 1 nuts are impossible to find at the local hardware store and even online at times like right now when I started looking.

Note: Peugeot used the ocassional M11 x 1.0 fastener and nut.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

My JC Penny Foremost bike frame had much the same stripe red on white paint job. The only thing left that has paint is the chain guard, but I no longer have pedals and it is all belt drive with the motor for parade with fish art cover or dirt biking.

I really like that you have the upper bars with the sheet metal original. Would a small gas tank fit inside? Anyway if you get a good muffler, or while the engine is off a radio inside there could be a kick!

MT

Strike that about the gas tank, noted you have the gas cap on the front, Cool! Ahhh, you say you sneeked putting a moped gas tank over the whole fake tank that was part of the bike. Got it.

 

[chainmaker]

Very cool Roadmaster Labrat, the exhaust sounds great.

 

[bairdco]

worksman sells the hubs seperately, if you want to go that route. they're similar to old gremic hubs, and i was told they were made in france.

and like stated above, any 36 hole hub will lace to any 36 hole rim. using bigger spokes, you might have to drill the rim if it's a regular bike rim.

worksman rims are drilled for 11g. spokes, by the way.

 

[LabRat]

Weak welding skills resulted in failed Y pipe. ReDux. Looks again not the same. Art form becomes what curves and bar stock I have laying about. Sure is fun!

 

[LabRat]

Update on Performance – test ride/s

Last bike built by PPS (aka LabRat) used a 99cc Predator with an ezm tranz; love it! RMLL uses a 79cc Predator only because the 99cc was discontinued.

The decision to use the AGK JS on the RMLL was experience a different commercial solution to putting the power to the rear.

My two known unknown's were AGK JS and the smaller 79cc Predator. The unknown became the open twin pipe.

What I did wrong.
Following the same path as I had before I pulled the gov out, drilled and taped holes. Previously I had ordered a few large jets from AGK following there lead with the 99cc build they post in detail about on their page. Unknown to me at the time was HF would soon discontinue the 99cc Predator. I installed the larger jet and continued my build.

When the time came to start the engine as we have all seen and heard on YouTube; she fired up and sounded great! The first test run would prove to be quite huge disappointment.

Bike took off like a rocket, no need to pedal what so ever! Then at about 20mph she started to spit and sput - just like a rental go kart will when it hits its retarded max rpm.

So I came back and ran my list of what do I do now. Checking fuel flow, filters, spark plug, plug gap. Nothing seemed to help. I was now becoming concerned I may have damaged something when I followed the lead on the cloth wire swap.

After working 54 of the last 72hrs and arriving home at 7:30am I immediately dashed out to the RMLL removed the large jet and replaced it with the small factory jet.

Off to the Five Mile I went. Oh BOY! I think I have a new motorized bicycle! AGK JS is wonderful! RMLL is a great joy to ride!

The heaver FSSC with the 99cc Predator and EZM will run circles around the RMLL. I will not say because of this or that, I will say that they are geared different and have different sized engines and as such I cannot say EZM or AGK are anything more than two great solutions to put the power to the rear.

RMLL is built. Only fine tuning and lighting at this point. There are several jet sizes between the small factory jet and what I first tried. I feel confident I can squeeze a bit more performance jetting up a bit. As I said the one in the 99cc is just too much for the 79cc.

RMLL, LabRat and RPM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reh_xnu2dC4

 

[16v4nrbrgr]

Glad you got it running right, the exhaust looks neat too.

 

[LabRat]

Well I would not say I got it "right" just yet.

She tried to kill me today, again! Had 2nd NDE! <On this bike anyway>
May move some of this I am about to spew into another blog on safety; so many accidents are avoidable. But then ever since I can remember I’ve always felt like I am being chased by the reaper so I am never sure if any of this matters? <Safety>

NDE 2/27/13 RMLL 1420PST

Here we go. So I was taking the bike out for some WOT runs. Truth is I have no self control. Yeah, it’s like right? Brake in? Around my shop tend s that means soon as it rolls true and nothings falling off HIT IT!
RMLL she had I would guess 5 miles on her at this point. So I checked her out patted her down and started to take a few high speed passes down along the Tacoma water front. Came back to the shop each time checked alignment and tightened bolts. All is well.

The twin round-about we -newly opened new black top- area of the water front is one my favorite places to fly through. They are so much fun! Just really enjoying the day, the sights the sounds; of myself, my ride, my bike. I built it ya’ll know; she’s all me, mine I did that.

The Tacoma water front is as scenic as one reading should imagine. Complete with public fishing pier, hiking trails, the area is parked in but there are restaurants and bars. I enjoy every moment of every expression I note on all passer bys. Oh yes we all notice ourselves being stared at. Hard to deny when you start seeing cameras.

Did I say blast? And sound? Yes, I did. Let me tell take a second to tell you when the rpm gets on by 5K range, those twin pipes I made begin to sing a new song. She sounds like open pipe modified race kart, no longer having a mild mellow put- putting sound of a v-twin. She really roars when @ WOT!

On this last run I heading for the high ground taking a winding road that overlooks said Tacoma water front. Wonderful views of Commencement Bay and Mt Rainer. I was charging @ WOT toward a right handed curve with a guard rail designed to keep cars from potentially dropping a few hundred feet to the water front park below. I always chose the inside track as I’ll have greater margin for error should I over shoot the curve.

Just as I started to throttle back,”BANG!” the bike lurched as she tried to buck me. Must be moving about 40mph at this point the bike entered a high speed wobble! At the same time the engine continued to roar, the throttle was wide open! I had little control it was all I could do to hang on at this point. In full panic mode I began to see my end, the guard rail was closing the yellow line on the blind curve. Would I even make it across the road to meet my end with the guard rail and cliff? And then panic as I thought about my impending evacuation. I could see the fire department and a news crew, not the kind of press any one wants.

Then this voice or pure reason, I heard myself say to me, “TURN THE ENGINE OFF” My thumb reached for the kill switch where there was none! Then I remerged a brief panic and realized, new bike, just test riding, kill switch on engine still – idiot! <Safety Note: Kill swich on bars before test ride>

Somehow I reached down between my legs while in this insane high speed wobble my had found the switch. I got RMLL shut down. Swinging through the curve into the oncoming lane the car had been coming toward on the other side broke hard left and absorbed my now empty lane. Narrowly missing in inches not feet the guard rail and cliff I came finally to a stop.

This NDE was so close a call so real to me. I got off my bike and fell over to my knees, thank full to breath, to smell the air. Yes I am just really enjoying the day, the sights the sounds; of myself, my ride, my bike. I built it ya’ll know; she’s all me, mine! And yes I did that.

NOTE: The cause of this mishap was the pedal side chain was extremely loose, when I throttled back and took up the chain slack it jumped off and jammed between the rear wheel and the frame causing a near catastrophic accident.

Things learned: Move the kill switch to the bars before test riding. Never take a bike out for rides knowing the chain is not like it should be. It’s not ok. A safe experience is all in the details. Do not be in a rush to ride.

IMHO unscathed only because of decades of superbike experience, this stunt would have sent most to the pavement or beyond. And the driver of the car who reacted under control, he had skills too. <his car helped too>