Ridin' DIY

Being more or less retired, I ride in the winter about 3pm. It's about the warmest time of day that isn't full of feeders or commuters.
 
I'm determined to ride in all but the worst of the weather. I think that I'll be able to ride right up until the middle of December. A lot of the snow doesn't stick here until January or february and I've yet to see a white Christmas in my almost 10 years in Mass. Maine is a different beast. I suspect that I'll be off the MadWagon for part of december, January February and part of March. The big problem here is that if it's warm enough to ride in January or February that the roads are wet. I'd be able to ride the OCC chopper (once we get the engine here...) or a bike with a jackshaft and a weedwhacker (I"ve got plans for that one.) But for the most part, January and february are out in terms ofr riding. I see a few diehards riding. I suspect we're going to see a few mopeds on the road in all but the worst weather. Anyone seen any snow chains for a moped??? lol I may make myself some DIY snow tires for the schwinn and put the jackshaft and homelite on that...
 
I rode the 42CS bike over to the home depot today. It was a joy to ride. The big ole huffy frame I keep wanting to stop using is soooo smooth to ride compared to the lightweight ones I have it isn't even funny.

The 42CC engine behaved well did everything i asked it to do. It even pulled bike killer hill. True it bled off speed till an old man passed me walking but I didn't have to pedal darn it.

I have yet to open the throttle completely on a flat or downhill stretch, it's just more speed than I feel comfortable with. I ran it up hard just long enough to gain some speed for bike killer hill and it did work just fine. This and the 33 CS bikes are I think the best of the home builds I have.

But for ease of build and economy the WW wins hands down. I am getting used to the suicide clutch since I have them on all my home built bikes now. Make life a lot easier when I remember to use it correctly.

I had to stop and do a right turn start uphill. The engine was running and the bike is so much lighter than the china bike that it was a breeze. I do like these alternate engine bikes.


By the By .. I bought a box of ten NGK I think they are spark plugs. I have no idea what the size is everything is in come foreign language. oriental for sure it all looks like tic tack toe symbols to me. Anyway I put them in all the engines including the ww. The threads were the same though the housing is different and the length of the plug is the same best I can tell. Everything runs better and the plugs were about a buck apiece when I bought the ten. Last plug I bought at the auto store was about five bucks.
 
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I hate a rainy day

As an old man, and a friction drive biker, I have to tell you I hate the rain. I know we need it to survive, I accept that. I also accept the fact that there is nothing I could or would do to change it(except allow it only after dark), but I still hate it.

Since I never save anything for a rainy day, I have no work to do on the bikes. Since I don't have a job, I have no where to go. If I had anywhere to go my favorite bikes wouldn't take me there. I could pull out the china bike and ride it, but then I would still get wet.

Rain is just not a biker's friend. To top it all off all the joints in my hands hurt like the devil. Old age, motor bikes, and rain is not a good combination.

Now when I was younger and could lay around in bed all day (preferably not alone) I didn't mind those days so much. However those days are distant memories. My body aches now if I stay in bed more than six hours. Not to mention the old guy bladder.

God I had a rainy day
 
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Usually I would not even consider riding a bike on a damp road. Especially not a friction drive but today was different. I was totally bored.

First I had to remount the gas tank on the 31ww bike. It holds so little gas it is ridiculous but is what I have on it. I am making an effort to keep it self contained inside the mount. I am making an effort not to have the tank in a different location.

Anyway I decided to ride it. This bike by total accident has a jb weld sand wheel which is knobby and it has knobby tires. The roads were damp. Usually a damp road means no traction at all but the combination of the knobby tires and the knobby drive wheel gave me at least 80% of normal traction. I noticed the difference only on hills. I had to pedal a little on hills I normally would not have to pedal on at all.

So now I have a cruiser bike, the 42 bike. A dry day hill climber extrodinare, the 33 bike, and a damp road bike. heck what more could a guy ask for.

The damp road bike is important because now and then I might actually need to run to the shopping center five blocks away. It has a nasty hill on the return trip so I will need to do some pedaling but not so much as to force me to postpone the trip, I think.
 
You can tell I'm bored now I have to tell a three day old story. I was riding the 33 chainsaw bike which had a hole in the muffler. My drill accidentally slipped. I came across a hill and the road was blocked by a regular car and two police cruisers.

I was moving so I decided it would look pretty suspicious if I turned around. I drove by doing a typical "what's happening" look around. Behind the second cruiser stood the district supervisor.

He took a look at me and said out loud, "What the ****?"

I smiled and rode on by. I had on a bike helmet which is not kosher. The bike doesn't have a rear view mirror which i'm sure is the minimum safety equip around these parts.

He watched me ride away but that's all he did. I felt so emboldened that I rode back past them again. It was a dumb thing to do but what the heck I never said I was too bright. He stared but that's all.

I decided that I'm gonna keep on doin' what Ima doin' till they pull me over. I have had a lot of police cars pass me head on and even from a side street. So far I have never had one pull up behind me with a bored officer at the wheel yet. That will be the real test.
 
that makes me smile... and it now sounds likeyou have a bike for every ocasion buut volcano erruptions.... it happened in concord it oculd happen in high point.
 
I wonder what kind of bike one would need for a volcano eruption?

For that matter would a chainsaw engine run after a nuclear strike.

Now there is a novel if I ever saw one.
 
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Son of a dog, I must have gone through 25 ft of gas line since I started foolin' with Alternate engines.

I couldn't ride today so I changed the throttle on one bike and changed the gas tank on another. I can't use the tank yet since I don't have the in line filter but I got the propane tank on the 33cc bike. I do like the way it looks. It is a long one, I thought I saw a short fat one somewhere. I want one of those for the ryobi. The tall propane tank holds 32 oz of gasoline by the way.

The new throttle is really nice if it isn't too hard to operate. I have it on the top tube rather than the handlebars. After I try it out a few days, I might just reinstall all my engines to use the rear harp mount and the tube throttle. I can install both of those without making any changes to the bike itself. That would be great for building bikes from alternate engines for the market place.

It would also be a big selling point should I decide to make a kit. Anyway I probably won't do either.
 
YOU SHOULD, Deacons weird wheels, they'd sell.
heck i bet you could sell a hombuilt bike or to to some snobs as modern art hehehe
 
Had some silly woman I used to date say that when she say some of the stuff I have made lol. Said if it breaks to turn it into lawn sculpture
 
I have been giving this some thought and have decided finally that Ridin DIY is really my personal diary and shouldn't be taking up space here so I'm going to move it to my blog Friction Drive.

Give the rest of you a chance to take up the slack. You can make all the comments you want over there and i'll up grade them to posts so feel free to come over and chat bout your ridin diy....

If I do discover anything of interest I will continue to post that here just this thread is not really in the spirit of the forum it is more a journal. So this thread is history here and moved to my blog. Ya'll come heah
 
I love riding too, as long as the sky is not tossing ice down on the roads, I will be riding in the wind. It does get cold out here in the mornings, this week has been the high 30's and low 40ish at 5am. But the trip home from work is just grand. The worst I have ridden out here was 2*F and the chill factor was nearly -20* below. A very cold and dry day. The bike took 15 minutes to warm up before it was suitable to hit the road. Being FI, anything below 15*F is not good for the engine. Especially since it is air cooled.:eek::D

Maximo
 
Maximo - I used to put a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator on my 18 wheeler in winter. You can do the same with the happy engine, just take some cotton material and fill the fins as an insulator, but make sure it is not getting too warm. Enjoy the winter. Have fun, Dave
 
You know I am thinking more and more that the simple small engines over the rear wheel is becoming more to my liking. The 22cc engine I have on the MB is pushing the bike along very well. It is compact and is very quiet, and I could add a longer pipe down away from me and get it more quiet. The only thing I would like is a better drive system, I am not fond of the friction drive. I just slips too much. It needs a larger drive wheel that would give more surface to drive with, but it also gives me too high a gear, so I need to use a drive system to slow the large wheel down. I was watching all the bikes go down the bike path today and with my complete release system I can use the bike path with the engine off, and with the extra weight being so small and no friction, no bother. I think a 2" drive wheel would be the best traction on the tire, so I need to find a way to drive it in a simple manner. Have fun, Dave
 
Egor said:
You know I am thinking more and more that the simple small engines over the rear wheel is becoming more to my liking. The 22cc engine I have on the MB is pushing the bike along very well. It is compact and is very quiet, and I could add a longer pipe down away from me and get it more quiet. The only thing I would like is a better drive system, I am not fond of the friction drive. I just slips too much. It needs a larger drive wheel that would give more surface to drive with, but it also gives me too high a gear, so I need to use a drive system to slow the large wheel down. I was watching all the bikes go down the bike path today and with my complete release system I can use the bike path with the engine off, and with the extra weight being so small and no friction, no bother. I think a 2" drive wheel would be the best traction on the tire, so I need to find a way to drive it in a simple manner. Have fun, Dave
Click to expand...

I have a two inch (almost) wheel on a 33cc chainsaw engine. It requires some serious pedaling to get up to speed but after that it runs remarkably well. It will pull any small hill under its own power by bleeding off speed. Even those it gets slowed down on requires not more than a simple pedaling. I was really surprised that I like it, but there are so many hills here I am going for a smaller wheel when my welding skiills get good enough to weld a nut on the end of a drive wheel and have it hold.
 
I want to build another friction bike. I was thinking of how I would find a new bike to mess with. I have been waiting for a new victim to show up from the park, people abandon them just for me. I was out in the garage today and I looked up and to my surprise there is a bike I bought for my wife a few years ago, 25 years ago to be exact, only ridden 3 times. I have to think up the story I will use when she see's the bike in its new incarnation. (Oh I made this for you Dear, what do you think?) LOL. She tolerates me and my bikes, but I think she is getting weary of the quantity, they just seem to be multiplying. I need to go to bikes anonymous, I just can't stop. LOL. Ill get a pic of the thing, the handlebars need to go they are the ones that have you leaning way forward. Have fun, Dave
A pic of the bike and the engine.
 

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what I have begun doing is remanufacturing my bikes so that there are only three but they are always changing. She can't say not another one, now she says are you ever going to finish that darn bike.
 
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