Out of the ordinary builds.....

[hemmadroid]

I am constantly looking on Craigslist's FREE section for bicycles, lawn mowers and the likes. Surprisingly, I've actually done well at picking items up around the Ventura County area where I live. 3 wheeler trikes and a tandem will be projects I'm wanting to build soon. Both will be using steel frames , not aluminum.
Briggs and Stratton, Honda and other vertical shaft motors can easily be converted to operate as a horizontal shaft drive. The only real modification is to weld onto the connecting rod's bottom side a 1 1/2" splash rod. That is all it takes to use these motors for custom builds.

 

[Sidewinder Jerry]

Post pictures of your work

 

[hemmadroid]

Post pictures of your work

I just picked up an old lawn mower from sombodys trash. it is not siezed and the carb was removed. I know it will run but i.m going to tear it down and inspect it, and do the connecting rod "splash stick" conversion to it so it will become an official horizontal shaft engine.
It's a 173cc 4 stroke with a claimed 4.5 hp. Ive read articles in the past on how to hop up and get 10 hp out of these style engines. I'll buy a gasket set, piston and rings and bearings for it and have a good ready to install motor for a 3 wheeler project.
I've got a chumk of Lexanplastic thats 3/4" thick. I want to fab a see thru cylinder head just to run temporarily and watch how combustion happens internally to get ideas on porting or custom exhaust.
I have a heavy duty wire wheel attachment for my angle grinder and plan on hitting all aluminum surfaces to bring them back to new shining look. Its thelittle details that make a build really stand out. New nuts and bolts and little things look great on new projects.

 

[curtisfox]

Sounds good, should be fun,. ..........Curt

 

[hemmadroid]

Here's a 54cc Kawasaki blower motor in very good shape. This bananna pipe works pretty good on it. I changed its header pipe length to fit better on this motor. The stationary exercise bike is sitting next to my work bench and im tossing around in my brain ideas of incorporating parts into my next project. I am not super experienced with gearing and i see gearing calculators online that are a good way to go instead of just guessing. Sombody told me a while back that 10;1 ratio is a safe number to shoot for when using small under powered motors.
I see people asking around $100 for very similarvintage exercise bikes on ebay, however just because they have them listed asking that amount does not mean thats what people are paying for them! I will more than likely take the cut off wheel to that frame very soon. Im wondering what a 3 wheeler would come out starting with an exercise bike?