About to Start a Board Track Project

[meezer]

Hi All,

First let me introduce myself, since this is my first post here. My (real) name is Brian and I live in good ol’ Motor City, USA. I recently signed up to join a machine shop “collective” in my neighborhood of Ferndale, so I now have access to all the machine tools I need to really tackle my own board track build to the degree of quality I’ve been hoping for. I’m not by any means mechanically illiterate; I doubt I’d have such a burning desire to build one of these bicycles if I was. At the same time, I’m not an expert, so I had a few questions I was hoping the community could answer relating to my board track build as I finish my plans for construction.

My ultimate pipe-dream, and perhaps it is unreasonable, is to make my own 2-stroke for this board track racer. I don’t like a lot of the China engines, and the idea here is to build as much of this bike from “scratch” as possible. As a kid I took apart mower engines and did basic repairs, but some of the mechanics of the motor bicycle are baffling me.

I would like to make my build a belt driven bicycle, so keeping that in mind, what are the common ways for starting a 2-stroke engine driving a rear-wheel hub belt drive? Do I lift the back end and pedal? Can I make it an electric start with idler? What is historically the most accurate way of starting a belt-driven board track bike?

I have scoured the internet, but perhaps I’m looking in the wrong places…does anyone know where to buy the hoop that bolts on to the rear wheel? Or should I just buy a smaller bicycle wheel with no spokes and fabricate the mounting hardware?

Michigan law requires a tail light and brake light as well as a headlight for mopeds. If most of the two stroke engines being sold only have one wire for aux. power, how do you connect the other two lights?

I have been in contact with Worksman and they are willing to sell me wheels separately, (so I won’t have to buy a whole bike!) Which size should I get for historical accuracy? Whether it is 24” or 26”, will white FELT (Thick or Quick, respectively) fit these rims, or are the Worksman wheels too wide at the rim?

Finally, what's a good set of dimensions for a board track frame?

OK, enough questions from me. I also want to share a little nugget of information to any others looking to build one of these motor bicycles: McMaster Carr is an awesome source of parts! I found ‘em on the Web when I was looking for steel tubing, and man, they have quite a bit more in terms of relevant parts. Particularly, I wanted to let you guys know that they have leather drive belts that can be alligator clipped closed, as well as a belt tensioner! The only thing I’m missing for the belt drive system is the hoop for the rear wheel, as I mentioned above.

Thanks in advance for anyone’s wisdom! Please offer any other additional advice you might have, even if it isn’t part of the question above!

 

[cobrafreak]

Hi, welcome! If you want to build your own motor I'm guessing you can sand cast aluminum? If you can then that is frakin great. You can probably get shop plans on line for a home made engine. I would do the engine first and build the bike around it. If you decide to not make an engine you just can't beat a clone engine. For just around $115 you can get a super 4 stroke with tons of power.

 

[cobrafreak]

Oh, go with 26" wheels. You can buy Worksman wheels at other places besides Worksman. 77" to 80" long from tire to tire seems to be good here. About 31" to 34" tall at the tank tube.

 

[silverbear]

Whizzer has the sheave (hoop) you were asking about and the hardware. Or make your own using a bike rim for the sheave and Z shaped clips for the hardware joining it to the rear wheel. Worksman wheels are good quality. Any 2.125 or even a wider tire will fit on it. Fat franks for example. The old Schwinn straight bar frame (Panther) is nice for a board track build. A lot of people use the Worksman Newsboy frame, but you'll need to change the front down tube for just about any motor as there is little room. Lots of stuff on this in the board track and vintage bike section of this forum. Welcome to the forum, by the way! Photos are always appreciated.
SB

 

[Allen_Wrench]

SilverBear is right. Whizzer parts are great for the belt-driven bikes. I dug in my photo collection for some period belt-driven bikes. I found a 1919 Evans Powercycle (very cool) and a 1911 Marvel (quite typical looking for the era) and a 1911 Flying Merkel (a very innovative company). I'll check to see if I have some other photos of belt-drivers. With some Whizzer parts and some ingenuity, there's a lot that you could do.

 

[Mr.B.]

Welcome to the Forum!

For your first step I’d recommend spending some time reading the past threads in this section.

It would be a quick education on what does and doesn’t work and likely the answers to all of your questions are already here.

Plus there is a tremendous amount of inspiring builds to set fire to your imagination!

-Kirk

 

[curtisfox]

Mr.B. is right read and read. Thats all I did for the first winter,besides colect parts.
By the time you get done you have changed your mind a bunch of times with differant ideas..............Curt

 

[fasteddy]

Motor bicycle building : with numerous engravings and diagrams : Hasluck, Paul N. (Paul Nooncree), 1854-1931 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Here is a link to how to build a motorcycle printed in 1906. Crazy Horse from the forum put the link on about a year and a half ago.
It tells you every thing you need to know.

I went to "read on line" at the top left then the right arrow at the bottom to turn the pages. Has 170 pages.

Steve.

 

[meezer]

Holy Cow! Thank you to all who replied. FastTed, this online publication will be a HUGE boon, I'm sure. Thank you again. I have done quite a bit of "lurking" on the threads to gather info, but eventually felt like I needed to ask my own questions. I apologize if they have been asked before. I really can't thank you all enough. I will update this thread with pictures as my build progresses. I have no idea how long the build will take, but I'm sure it will be at least a few months. I will be ordering the tube steel this week to get started on the frame.

 

[fasteddy]

If you are making your own engine you might want to consider doing a few unless the time/cost is crazy. May be a demand here and else where.

Steve.