BGF Hongdu/Solex
- Thread starter cannonball2
- Start date
Yeah, the balloon tire profile works ok, but borders on being too wide, I believe mountain bike tires might work better. Vey nice bike by the way!
I have always heard large drive roller equal more speed.
Small drive roller equal more torque for hills.
"Today I happen to be working with experimental drive rollers of various sizes
There are other factors as well. Tension of the roller on the wheel is a big deal.
I still have more tests to run but I have a setup now with variable tension. With full tension today with a larger roller, I was able to get good speed with my friction drive but my hill climbing was decreased. I am wondering and will experiment tomorrow with what will happen if I decrease the tension and allow the drive wheel to skip over the tire as a smaller wheel would do when climbing a hill.
Small drive roller equal more torque for hills.
"Today I happen to be working with experimental drive rollers of various sizes
There are other factors as well. Tension of the roller on the wheel is a big deal.
I still have more tests to run but I have a setup now with variable tension. With full tension today with a larger roller, I was able to get good speed with my friction drive but my hill climbing was decreased. I am wondering and will experiment tomorrow with what will happen if I decrease the tension and allow the drive wheel to skip over the tire as a smaller wheel would do when climbing a hill.
Was just looking on ebay and BGF is hosing the Hongdus out the door. There were 9 when I bought mine, now there are 3. Mine is just about broken in and running great. I have switched to 50:1, thats the recommended ratio from Velosolex as far back as the 1974 shop manual on line. It was not very happy with the richer ratios. Still think there may be a clutch. The drum is visible. I went to the Hongdu site and their spare parts breakdown shows a clutch, does not show an engine with out one. Maybe they have a way to lock the drum. Plan on tearing it down to find out.
do you have a link to the hongdu site, haven't been able to find much on them other than there big in electric kits.
No, sorry I dont. I found it in one of my goggle searches. I beleive it was under Hongdusolex, you just have to sift through the sites. They had info on a current Velosolex model and another similar version with a listed higher top speed and HP output. Interesting!
i noticed that as well. unfortunately i wasn't one of the sales. i submitted an offer but i didn't get it for the price i wanted. i was considering offering more, but i got my car fixed so now that i have a little more time without an urgent need for alternative transportation i may go with a frame mount. but i haven't decided yet.
are ebay links allowed? there is another dealer out of canada selling a solex clone kit but it is marked as a "huajia" rather than a hongdu. don't know what's up with that, but it's more pricey-$349.99 so call it $350 plus shipping and his feedback score is even lower than BGF. he's got 7 of them in stock. it might be worth it if it is better in some way but i couldn't find any info about it.
Huajia may be Hongdu in Chinese, just a guess. There was another seller(3 total) also on ebay that had them in the $350 range. You can google Hongdu and find numerous offers to sell lots that range from 10-50 in quanity. BGF obviously got a better deal. Didnt think I would like a friction drive, have had them in the past, but none have worked as well as this one, I guess because it has been perfected in design over the years. Am thinking of buying another one to have for a future project before they are all gone at BGFs price.
cannonball2, do you have just a rear coaster brake on that bike? And i keep wondering, what happens if you apply the brake without disengaging the engine?
i been looking at that for a wile i always loved the solex i think one of those kits would go great on my 1951 columbia
maybe next month il grab out if theres any left
maybe next month il grab out if theres any left
Yeah, the bike is coaster only. the brake has plenty of stopping power at the speeds this bike travels. The brake will kill the engine. The way I operate it, I have a strap the holds the engine up. Thats the mode for pedaling, absolutely drag free. When you come to a stop with the engine running, just raise the engine with your right hand. To Go pedal away and drop the engine. To kill the engine just pull the compression release. It is very easy to operate and the ultimate in simplicty.
It didnt have one, right now Im using a large cable tie as the strap until I come up with something more vintage and classy.
i circled it thats the hook just take your handlebar/stem off take the nut off and remove the washer and replace with the hook then reassembly it
it does kind of look like a wrench but its the hook to keep the engine lifted off the tire
i had a bunch of old solexes so im pretty familiar with the odd french engineering
im definitely gonna buy one of these to throw on my bike though cause its hard to pedal after having rods put in my legs from getting run over by a truck
heres my bike
just for something different from regular mopeds and im happy with putting along at 20
it does kind of look like a wrench but its the hook to keep the engine lifted off the tire
i had a bunch of old solexes so im pretty familiar with the odd french engineering
im definitely gonna buy one of these to throw on my bike though cause its hard to pedal after having rods put in my legs from getting run over by a truck
heres my bike
just for something different from regular mopeds and im happy with putting along at 20
here is where i get confused...if the brake kills the engine, how can you stop and have the engine running without raising it? if it had a clutch i could understand that but it doesn't? i am anxious to know exactly how these work...and probably similar to most friction drives. whether or not i get one of these solex type motors, i have definitely decided to go with a friction drive.
oh, and that's funny, from looking at the pictures i thought that silver piece was a wrench too! i bet if these kits came with even rudimentary instructions, BGF would move them faster yet.
think goped when you stop the engine stalls you pedal and it starts back up its not really all that difficult you lift the engine when you come to a stop when you wanna go just pedal a bit then drop the engine nice and simple
you are the clutch
on a real solex it has a clutch so it will idle at a stop
you are the clutch
on a real solex it has a clutch so it will idle at a stop