My latest build.

[caduceus]

....The bootlegger suggested the Canucks after Johnny Canuck a well know comic book fighter pilot from WW2. He apparently defeated the Nazi's by himself with apologies to Captain America.

So he called them the Canucks.
......

Steve

Outstanding story Steve!

I'll have you know, I worked with Captain America in a pharmaceutical company's engineering department. He never let an opportunity pass to tell anyone who was unfortunate enough to be within hearing distance how he was only one of three people on this Submarine who possessed the access keys to the Nuclear Weapons Codes.

Since he - like most of us - was former enlisted, the rest of us veterans figured him for a cook's mate second or some thing close to that. And we further joked how Navy Cook's Mates rated access to the Nuclear Weapons on an SSBN. You know, 200 years of Naval Tradition totally unimpeded by progress.

Capt. America passed on two weeks after having been laid off. He probably couldn't live with the fact that the company, in its infinite wisdom, had laid him off while keeping some guano like me on board.

Anyway, to temporarily return to the reason I started this crazy thread.....
More work done to Peerless Leader.....Setup the Fuel System, Exhaust, Throttle, Keyed Kill Switch. When the exhaust gasket goop dries I'll gas it up and give the rope a pull. Hopefully things will work close to what I expect.

 

[caduceus]

Package Rack for Peerless Leader

Spent the last two days putting together a package rack for the Peerless Leader. Pattern obtained from Pottsylvanian Postal Service.

 

[silverbear]

Looks good!
SB

 

[fasteddy]

Sweet. The trike is looking better all the time.

Steve.

 

[caduceus]

Some finishing touches and some r&d work

Peerless Leader is almost ready. I setup the package rack, some rear wheel fenders, a carburetor float actuated fuel gauge made up a small box for tools/small purchases and lengthened the cord for the recoil start. The first two pictures are of these finishing touches.

Next is the R&D work. The Columbia Trike came with a three-speed/coaster-brake intermediate shaft which then connected by chain to the differential. This is shown in the third picture.

My thoughts are outlined in the fourth picture: take a simple 18 tooth weld sprocket over to my neighbor and have him machine the center hole larger. Then grind off the left-side spoke flange of a junk three-speed hub, unscrew the oil port and slip the newly machined sprocket flat up against the right side spoke flange. Then weld same. This should give me a twin sprocket three-speed hub that I can then setup a second set of mounts which will place it between the engine/transmission output sprocket and the #40 sprocket on the left side of the differential. I should be able to replace the oil port, or grind out a recess so it can be refitted. There's room to slide the engine assembly over to accommodate the offset created by the second sprocket........More on this tomorrow after I find out how much my neighbor will charge to bore out the sprocket. It might be worth buying a metal lathe and figuring out how to do this myself.

 

[Dan]

Wow Cad, like steve said. Lookin' better all the time.

A trike with the old world motorized bicycle look. Really cool. The rack is a great touch.

 

[silverbear]

I'll be real interested to see how your transmission idea works out.
SB

 

[caduceus]

Thanks for the comments! Peerless Leader is on the road! Put ten miles on it this afternoon and then took it uptown to get a can of mower/bike gas. I'll get the sprocket back from my neighbor tomorrow morning and then start looking into setting up a 3-speed transmission for the engine drive line.

This could be fun.

 

[Dan]

"This could be fun."

True sign of motorized bicycle and tinkersum addiction. Just sayin'

 

[caduceus]

" But as this one was sitting in the barn next to a pile woodchuck turds"

LOL! Carol and I regularly have conversations just like that. "Have you seen my differential, baby?"
Yes Honey, it is just past the mower next to the woodchuck turds."

Our woodchuck, who lives under a tool shed in the back yard is named "Chuck" I wanted to name him/her Fred or Bill 'cause when we go out back to work on the yard, he gives us the stink eye like a tuff street kid. "I'm working over here!?

As opposed to our dog, Shelly. The cat, stewie does not like her and keeps opening the screen doors to let her out. So I wanted to name her "roof" so when she wanders around the neighborhood and someone pets her and asks what her name is, have trained her to bark.

"What is your name?" ROOF

But just like "Chuck" I was out voted.


I don't know why folks complain about getting older. It kinda rocks. Ya just need a Carol, a woodchuck, a not brilliant dog and an ittybitty idiot kitty named Stewie. Then life is pretty dang cool. That and Carol just went shopping and brought home Capt. Crunch. WITH CRUNCH BERRIES!


wut?

Best name for a dog I ever heard was from this old hippie out Morro Bay, CA - where I ended a long, checkered and illustrious public school career in 1969. He called his dog "Man." So it was "Come on Man." "Sit Man." "Speak Man." "Go'way Man." "Hey Man." and so on. I likewise haven't been able to convince my wife of the wisdom in picking such a name for a dog. After thirty years of marriage I ought to just admit that her sense of humor is different from mine.

Anyway, this hippie lived in an open sort of house with a Garage/Grunge band that I sat in with a lot, and Man was kept on the back porch to guard the permanently unlocked patio door. If no one was home and the front door was locked, friends who knew Man could go around to the back porch and by saying something like, "Hey Man," would get the privilege of being allowed to scratch Man's ears and were permitted right past the wagging tail into the house. If you didn't know Man, or tried to call him by some other name you got the stink eye, barked at, growled at and finally shredded because Man was a pretty big dog.

 

[silverbear]

Thanks for the comments! Peerless Leader is on the road! Put ten miles on it this afternoon and then took it uptown to get a can of mower/bike gas. I'll get the sprocket back from my neighbor tomorrow morning and then start looking into setting up a 3-speed transmission for the engine drive line.

This could be fun.

Wishing you great success with the transmission and will be sitting on the edge of my seat watching closely how you do it. This strikes me as especially promising for a trike setup which have fewer constraints with lining up drive lines... sprockets, chains and such. What type of 3 speed is it... from an old English type bicycle... a Sturmey Archer?
SB

 

[Dan]

Best name for a dog I ever heard was from this old hippie out Morro Bay, CA - where I ended a long, checkered and illustrious public school career in 1969. He called his dog "Man." So it was "Come on Man." "Sit Man." "Speak Man." "Go'way Man." "Hey Man." and so on. I likewise haven't been able to convince my wife of the wisdom in picking such a name for a dog. After thirty years of marriage I ought to just admit that her sense of humor is different from mine.

Anyway, this hippie lived in an open sort of house with a Garage/Grunge band that I sat in with a lot, and Man was kept on the back porch to guard the permanently unlocked patio door. If no one was home and the front door was locked, friends who knew Man could go around to the back porch and by saying something like, "Hey Man," would get the privilege of being allowed to scratch Man's ears and were permitted right past the wagging tail into the house. If you didn't know Man, or tried to call him by some other name you got the stink eye, barked at, growled at and finally shredded because Man was a pretty big dog.

LOL! That is great, Cad. Too funny, man.

 

[caduceus]

Setting up the secondary three speed hub.

I dug an old three-speed hub out of the junk pile in the barn, ground the left side spoke flange off and ground the right side (shifter end) spoke flange down to .032". The hub is an old English one made by the Hercules Motor Company in Birmingham England. It's been around awhile and looked sturdy enough to weld a second sprocket to the housing using the right-side flange as a guide. Following are pictures of the process.

I took an 18-tooth X-series weld sprocket and for $12.00 had my neighbor who's a local machinist/Polaris Dealer, turn the inner bore out from 1.625 to 2.254" to fit the hub. I deliberately had him turn it about a thousandth shy so I could fit it up by further grinding on the hub, and grinding out the center bore with a sand paper arbor setup. It worked very well and I had to do some careful checking and spot welding, but I think the thing will work.

I have good chain clearance all the way around, and I've got half a dozen spot welds that ought to hold everything in place. Now I have to get a 48 Tooth sprocket for the left side of the differential so my top end will be just a little greater than it is now with the 40-tooth, but my lower gears will be great for snow/slush/hills/pulling a trailer or whatever.

My gearing is: High Gear - .75:1 Second Gear: 1:1 Low 1.25:1 This gearing, combined with a 48-Tooth Sprocket, should give me a high gear that's a minor fraction higher than my current gearing. I'm pretty sure that a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed shifter will work perfectly to change speeds as long as I remember to roll off the throttle a little.

It looks good on paper. Now for the execution.....

 

[caduceus]

A long day of r&d work

Lots of good R&D Work today. Grabbed a couple of hot welds, dropped a lot of nuts and bolts and tools, got bit by mosquitoes because they realize that the first frost ain't long off, cussed a bit, tried and discarded three or four versions before I went inside, washed up, had a bite to eat and took a nap. Then I came out and finished up this. I set up the three speed hub over the differential, rather than in front of it. It'll make my primary chain drive longer than I wanted, but everything's a compromise on something like this. Every other position I tried required cutting away frame parts because of secondary chain interference. I'm not completely satisfied with the tensioner setup yet and will probably change that first thing in the morning when I'm still cool, calm and groggy.

I haven't yet set up the primary chain, but it shouldn't be any more of a pain than this was. All I'll need to do with the primary drive is align the engine transmission and set up some kind of a tensioner. Then it's a reassembly job and road test. Hopefully tomorrow.

 

[silverbear]

I can see that the first thing I need to do is to dig out a wheel, remove the hub and sit with it in my hands staring at it to where I have a feel for how it will work. I'm no engineer and admire what you're doing, very much wanting you to do the pioneer work so that my wagon can follow in your ruts, so to speak. Had to laugh about the hot welds and mosquitoes. Been there, done that. Along with lunch and a nap I find that a dip in the lake also helps (at least it does in the summer).

Off to Basswood Lake for a few days of fishing. When I get back I'm hoping to hear that it is working well for you. There will no doubt be tweaking, but in the end it will be the poor cat's meow. Or the dog's bark. Or the bear's huff. It will be good!
SB

 

[caduceus]

I can see that the first thing I need to do is to dig out a wheel, remove the hub and sit with it in my hands staring at it to where I have a feel for how it will work. I'm no engineer and admire what you're doing, very much wanting you to do the pioneer work so that my wagon can follow in your ruts, so to speak. Had to laugh about the hot welds and mosquitoes. Been there, done that. Along with lunch and a nap I find that a dip in the lake also helps (at least it does in the summer).

Off to Basswood Lake for a few days of fishing. When I get back I'm hoping to hear that it is working well for you. There will no doubt be tweaking, but in the end it will be the poor cat's meow. Or the dog's bark. Or the bear's huff. It will be good!
SB

Good Luck Fishing!

 

[caduceus]

Drive Line's done. It shifts on the stand anyway. Tomorrow I'll reassemble it and see how it goes.

 

[fasteddy]

Looking forward to seeing the trike on the road with the transmission. As you said if you don't shift it at high rev's it will be perfect. A neat way of getting gears with the trike.

Steve.

 

[caduceus]

Looking forward to seeing the trike on the road with the transmission. As you said if you don't shift it at high rev's it will be perfect. A neat way of getting gears with the trike.

Steve.

Thanks, I'm getting it on the road today - probably between rain showers - to see how things work. I've tried to use very commonly available parts - maybe not available at every corner 7-11, but for sure stocked in every hardware store. I have several more three-speed hubs currently attached to junk bicycles, but I'm going to check around to see what a three-speed hub for a tandem would cost me.

 

[fasteddy]

Are the tandem 3 speeds stronger than the single 3 speeds or do they have better gearing?

Steve.